Jump LinksLuxury Tech In A Mainstream Cabin Safety Tech: For Your Health X-Pro: Almost A Jeep Thing, Minus The Jeep One sign that an automaker has a transcendent model on its hands crops up when the outgoing generation still feels incredibly viable within its segment.Just a few months ago, I had a week with a 2025 Kia Telluride in full-featured SX-Prestige X-Pro AWD form. A dad of two small kids, living in a cold-weather state in the middle of winter, the extant Telluride was almost a perfect family vehicle. It proved capable and understated with a whiff of “fun to drive,” and a sticker price around $56,000. The bar for this second-gen Kia SUV, it seems, has been set quite high.With wild new styling and upgrades inside and out, can the 2027 Telluride fill the contact patch of its overachieving predecessor?First Drive events provide our initial impressions of a vehicle in a restricted environment under certain time constraints. Keep an eye on CarBuzz for our comprehensive Test Drive review which will follow soon. What’s Changed For This Model Year? 24386-2027-kia-telluride-hev-sxpThis is a true second generation for the Telluride nameplate, and Kia has done the work with a ground-up revision. For 2027, the Telluride gains a turbocharged four-cylinder base model, an optional hybrid, and completely fresh takes on the interior and exterior design.The new Telluride is also bigger and more capacious than ever before, which is always a no-brainer win for family SUVs. Passenger space in both the second and third rows has been increased, and access to the wayback is easier than ever (I even clambered back there, and I’m 6-foot-5). Exterior Design: Your Mileage May Vary Well, here comes my least favorite part of any review, let alone of a car with an interesting vibe: talking about the design. To be clear, I am a pretty good car reviewer, a decent writer, and an elite toastmaker, but I tend to let the designers talk about design. Plus, presumably you have eyes and can see the pictures just fine, right?24387-2027-kia-telluride-hev-sxpWith that said, I have a lot of trouble with the design language here. Especially in lighter colors (like the Turbo Hybrid models in silver you see here), the thick black graphic between the lighting elements on the front grille gives a kind of “recessed bull bars” look that I just don’t understand. Hovering over the squared-off fat lip of a front bumper, the whole front end seems purposefully antagonistic.Similarly, the thick black lines and hash marks over the wheel arches screw up what I find to be an otherwise handsome profile view. It was explained to me that the vertical lines meet the bend in the car’s belt line, front and rear, and help resolve the shape overall. I guess? To me, it just doesn’t work.Kia Oh, and the squared-circle wheel design doesn’t do it for me, either, though I understand that it fits with the theme. Here’s the kicker: You probably don’t agree with me. In our cohort of journalists on this drive program, most I spoke with really liked the look of the Telluride. I can’t reasonably claim that the car looks bad, just that it isn’t my cup of tea. Interior Design: Flagship Space, Flagship Calm This is more like it. Kia has been exceeding expectations with its interiors for a while now, and the Telluride cabin reads as a proper flagship for the brand, while also making a major improvement vs. the already great last-gen interior.24374-2027-kia-telluride-hev-sxpThis was already a roomy vehicle, and it’s downright cavernous today. There’s a ton of room in every direction for the driver and front seat passenger: even at my 98th percentile height, I’m sure I could drive comfortably without removing my cowboy hat should I ever choose to wear one. Legroom and hiproom are equally generous, but there’s enough adjustment available in the seats and steering wheel that drivers a foot shorter than me will be well looked after, too.Material choices are wise and attractive, as well. There are trims made from “engineered” versions of wood, carbon, and textile that don’t feel textured like plastic. Almost every metallic surface has a brushed or matte effect, rather than high polish, adding to the sense of modernity and calm. Luxury Tech In A Mainstream Cabin Kia I love that, despite having a fully digital instrument cluster and infotainment display, the Telluride’s screen bank stays below my eyeline when I’m driving. There’s plenty of real estate here to mirror my iPhone or use the abundant selection of embedded apps, but I’m not blinded by it second by second.What’s that? You love screens? Well, don’t be put off just yet. The Telluride can be optionally equipped with a digital review mirror (that has a shockingly high resolution) and a massive 12-inch HUD. Hell, if you want, you can even decorate the infotainment system with themes from your favorite NBA team or Disney franchise (nerd).24416-2027-kia-telluride-x-proElsewhere, you’ll find luxury and technology features that, while not groundbreaking, are plentiful enough that even picky shoppers should find a lot to love. The third row seats have optional heating; the second row has heating and ventilation; and the front row can get both with a very good massaging function as well.The space can be quiet at speed thanks to thicker window glass and triple door seals, or you can fill it with music (or podcasts) by way of an excellent, 14-speaker Meridian sound system. In fact, my driving partner left the sat radio tuned to the Pearl Jam station, and it’s been 20 years since I’ve heard “Out of My Mind” with such fidelity. Safety Tech: For Your Health 24413-2027-kia-telluride-x-proThere is such a laundry list of safety gear, much of it equipped as standard, that I’m going to make use of bullet points to cover it all. I promise that I made this choice with my human brain – it wasn’t dictated by AI.Here’s what you get standard in the ‘27 Telluride: Highway driving assist Lane keep assist Forward collision avoidance Safe exit warning (which keeps you from opening your door into oncoming traffic) Driver attention warning (which is my nemesis) Blind spot monitoring / blind spot collision warning Rear occupant alert 10 airbags, including one between the driver and front passenger, which I’ve never heard of but seems smart. Airbag all of the things, say I. Powertrain And Driving: Hybrid Muscle With Familiar Road Manners 24420-2027-kia-telluride-x-proI spent the day driving the Telluride Turbo Hybrid, powered by a turbocharged 2.5-liter four and two electric motors, with an output of 329 horsepower and 339 pound-feet of torque. The e-motors consist of a generator motor on the engine and a propulsion unit on the rear axle, and do wonderful things to fill in torque at low rpm.The available power makes speed easy and breezy on the freeway or on the back roads around Santa Barbara, where we found our test route. This isn’t a vehicle or a class of vehicle that rewards outright acceleration – outside of high-performance luxury variants – but I certainly could’ve earned a speeding ticket while passing slow traffic or just kicking around in the country.24367-2027-kia-telluride-hev-sxpThe outgoing Telluride was always a nice-handling thing relative to its size and segment, so I wasn’t shocked to find that replicated here. While not exactly a corner carver, the Kia felt confident under a bit of lateral load and showed off more road feel through the wheel than I expected.Thanks to good sightlines and a suite of cameras around the vehicle, overall visibility is excellent, as well. Seeing clearly where you’re going is an underrated factor in good handling. X-Pro: Almost A Jeep Thing, Minus The Jeep I will leave it to the next reviewer to flesh out the Telluride’s updated X-Pro model for you – I drove it on a prepped off-road course, but not on the street – but here’s a little flavor.Kia engineers have added all of the sensible stuff you’d need for getting a little dirty in your family SUV, without the benefit of a dedicated off-road platform. That means X-Pro gets an electronic limited slip differential to direct power to wheels with traction, 9.1 inches of ground clearance, multiple drive modes, and all-terrain tires. There are also a host of telematics that can be used in more delicate off-road scenarios to give the driver a bit of confidence.I drove hither and yon on a big ranch to get a sense of the capability, and came away with the impression that the X-Pro’d Telluride will almost certainly be overkill for normal owners out on a mini adventure day. You won’t do any extreme rock crawling or anything, but you could certainly drive across a muddy field or over a rough fire road to camp, with nothing to worry about.Now, whether or not the X-Pro feels more compromised on the highway, or is worth the added money (there’s a $17,600 jump from the base Telluride Turbo LX to the X-Pro trim with the same engine), is something we can figure out with a longer test. For now, suffice it to say it got me off the ranch and back to lunch with zero drama. Verdict: Prepare Your Shortlist Kia The 2027 Telluride starts at $40,735 when you add the $1,545 destination fee to the base price of the Turbo LX. A top-line Turbo Hybrid X-Line SX Prestige goes over $60k (and the non-hybrid X-Pro gets close to that figure, as well). That’s a ton of money, but the reality is that this is a $40k to $60k segment these days… tell your financial advisor to buckle up.Within that pricing structure, Kia hasn’t so much reinvented the family SUV formula here as it has proved that it can hit a moving target. The Brand is keeping a core segment shopper interested with evocative design, while layering in enough tech, comfort, and relative value to keep owners happy.Kia Sure, the brand has traded away some of the universal likeability of the original Telluride for a sharper aesthetic, but it’s overhauled the powertrain offering and given its cabins a luxury-like makeover. Oh, and stuff that really matters to families like mine - space, heated seats, and Star Wars-themed infotainment - is there in spades, too.You might not fall in love with this Telluride at first sight - I didn’t. But live with it for a month, point it at a snowy road with your kids in the back, or pack it for a road trip, and the logic becomes hard to argue with.