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Trying to Decide Between Telluride S, Telluride SX, or Palisade SEL (w/ convenience & premium)

OCRibeye

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We are expecting a third child, so we think it's time to say goodbye to our dependable Toyota Prius for a larger family hauler. I like both the Palisade and Telluride because they are both attractive (though that's subjective), and they both have usable third rows while still have trunk space. My wife has a 2015 or 2016 Acura MDX, and that third row is basically unusable for anyone other than a young child. And once you use that third row, you basically have very little trunk space, which is a challenge if you need to transport a double stroller with you.

At first, I considered only the Telluride S, but I recently checked out its close cousin, the Hyundai Palisade. What I like about the Telluride over the Palisade is that even the S comes with the Sofino seats, i.e., leatherette, whereas the Palisade comes w/ cloth seats. Since we have young kids, we are fine with not having real leather, but, for whatever reason, both my wife and I are not fans of cloth seats. Since we don't want cloth seats, if we wanted the Palisade, we'd have to get the SEL w/ the premium package, which automatically adds the convenience and sunroof packages.

Obviously, the SEL w/ premium and convenience packages gives us a lot more features than a Telluride S, though the ones I'd miss most include the smart liftgate, wireless charging, and the passenger and rear-occupant temperature controls. To get those features, I'd have to upgrade to the Telluride SX.

I qualify for both the Hyundai Circle A Plan (through a friend who works for Hyundai), as well as Kia's friends and family A plan (through my employer). For the Hyundai, my understanding is that you get invoice, less approximately 3% of the MSRP price, plus $250 in Circle Cash. It's not entirely clear what Kia's friend and family pricing is, although some members of this board have said 3% under invoice.

Assuming these numbers are accurate, and assuming the dealers will even honor the friends and family pricing on these cars (a friend who works for Hyundai corporate said dealerships are required to honor these prices, but members of this forum have said Kia dealerships have refused to honor their friends and family discounts because of the high demand), the Telluride S would come in under $33K, whereas the SX would be about $39K, and the Palisade would be about $36,500.

I personally like the styling of the Telluride better than the Palisade, though I know this is subjective (to me, the Telluride has hints of the Volvo XC90). However, for about $3,500 more, I feel like you get a lot more with the the Palisade SEL (with the convenience and premium packages) compared to the Telluride S. In addition, not sure the SX is worth the $7K premium over the Telluride S, as the SX has a lot of features that, while nice, aren't "must-haves" for me. This is because whatever car we get, we'd be using it to haul our kids to school and activities, weekends around town, and for the occasional road trip. We're not car enthusiasts by any means, so we don't necessarily need the latest and greatest features and tech in our cars. We just want it to be comfortable, safe, but a little bit stylish as well

Given this lengthy background, are there any reasons I should seriously consider the SX over the S (and over the Palisade), any reasons I should consider the Palisade over either trim of the Telluride, or would you agree that the Telluride S makes the most sense for our needs, particularly at that price point?

EDIT: since we don't expect our third child until early 2020, we have time before we have to pull the trigger on a new car to replace the Prius, i.e., we can wait until the hype and demand dies down, and until dealers have more stock.
 
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Check out the EX, you get most everything you want except for the wireless charging.
 
Check out the EX, you get most everything you want except for the wireless charging.

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, one thing that is a "must-have" for me is captain's chairs, which is not available on the EX. I should have mentioned this in my original post.
 
@OCRibeye

There is another thread about the Palisade vs Telluride that you might find useful. Search for that. There's another thread on S owners any regrets that compares trims.

The Telluride is NOT on the Kia Friends and Family plan at this time - it has been removed. Not sure about the Palisade.

You pretty much answered your own questions - just decide on which features are most important to you at which price point. You won't be disappointed with any vehicle you choose.

I'll focus on S vs SX - you know what you are getting for that $7K premium [black wheels, real leather, larger (huge) infotainment screen, LED lights throughout, fog lights, power memory seats, power liftgate, power mirrors, ventilated front seats, wireless charging, etc] - if you don't want to pay those items and more just get the S and be happy.

We have an SX (P) and love it. As for Smart Power liftgate - it's not that smart and we keep it disabled as it could open in garage if car is locked. But, the powered liftgate is nice. We also wanted power folding mirrors - so I ruled out Palisade after test drive (and no discounts to sway me.)

You'll likely also want to replace the headlight bulbs in the S with LED - see additional threads. I personally don't like buying cars with poor headlights - our former 2013 Kia Soul's headlights were awful.

If you can get the SEL with all options ticked at friend and family price, then I might do that vs S for extra features.

I may buy a second Telluride S... still deciding.

One more point - I think the interior color options (other than black) on Telluride are better. The sofino gray is a darker than the Palisade tan leather. Also very modern. If you go with SX, the butterscotch leather is very nice.. as is the gray. We didn't like just having to choose between light tan or black on Palisade. If you want black, then it doesn't matter of course.

Hope that helps a bit.
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The 360 camera in the SX is really nice feature. Makes parking easier as well as getting in and out of the garage.
 




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