2023 KIA Telluride SUV: Do you want to buy a Kia Telluride? Good luck with your hunt, which will most likely include a mix of dealer markups, limited inventory on Kia lots, and possibly even hand-to-hand fighting with other three-row crossover buyers anxious to get their hands on the most popular family vehicle in years.

The Telluride is set to get easier to locate and cheaper to obtain as it enters its third model year—no, we’re just kidding. If anything, the fervour surrounding Kia’s wildly popular SUV (which won our 2020 MotorTrend SUV of the Year award when it first debuted) is only going to grow as it is updated with even better looks and cooler in-cabin tech, potentially leading families to smack each other down WWE-style with strollers and folding chairs to nab one.

2023 KIA Telluride SUV even more better

That’s right, Kia has discovered a way to make the Telluride, which was already very appealing, even more tempting for 2023, by sharpening the exterior appearance and introducing new X-Line and X-Pro trim levels for a little more robust energy.

So, what’s the catch? The interiors of the headlights and taillights, as well as the front and rear bumpers and lower bodyside cladding, are all new, with more elaborate detailing for a more premium appearance. This in an SUV that already looked way more expensive than it was.

2023 KIA Telluride SUV | Have a look

Midnight Lake Blue, Dawning Red, and Jungle Wood Green are three new paint colours that have been added to the palette. Every trim level has a different wheel design.

With a revised dashboard with new air vents, a new steering wheel, new colours, and a newly available display that runs from forward of the driver to the middle of the Telluride, the three-row, eight-seat interior takes a medium step forward.

The large new screen unit, which is made up of two 12.3-inch monitors, looks similar to those found in Mercedes-Benzes and, closer to home, the futuristic arrangement found in the new Kia EV6 electric crossover.

It’s unclear what the displays on lower Tellurides will look like, but we expect a classic gauge cluster and a separate central touchscreen, similar to what the Telluride offers today.

The ’23 Telluride comes with a regular WiFi hotspot, regardless of display. Buyers can upgrade to a head-up display, but this one is bigger, and a digital key that lets you enter the vehicle using your smartphone or Apple Watch has been added as an option.

The new dashboard, with its thinner central vents and edgier design, achieves the same impact as the modified exterior: it just enhances the Telluride’s already attractive configuration.

Let us remind you that this is a mainstream, sub-$50,000 three-row SUV (at least, according to MSRP—who knows what it’ll take to persuade a dealer to sell you one these days); the way it looks and is made is a huge reason why people are fighting over these things.

Oh, and there are now off-road models as well.

For 2023, two new trim levels, the X-Line and X-Pro, join the Telluride family, both with beefier dress-up pieces to give them an aura of adventure.

Only the X-Pro goes all out to improve the Kia’s off-road capabilities, with Continental all-terrain rubber mounted on black-painted 18-inch wheels.

The X-Pro also boosts the Telluride’s towing capacity to 5,500 pounds, adds a 110-volt home power outlet to the cargo hold, and adds snazzy X-Pro badging and labelling to the front seats.

Kia also upgrades the front and rear bumpers to increase the Telluride’s approach and departure angles for better off-road clearance, recalibrates the traction control system, adds a beefier roof rack, and raises the suspension by 0.4 inch.

Except for the tyres and towing modification, the X-Line has the same equipment. It also replaces the Pro’s 18-inch wheels with 20-inch wheels on regular tyres, as well as the X-Pro badging with—you guessed it—X-Line badging.

All-wheel drive is standard on both X-trim Tellurides, despite the fact that all Tellurides are powered by the same 291-hp 3.8-liter V-6 engine and have the same eight-speed automatic transmission.

If you’re wedded to the Telluride Nightfall Edition (a blacked-out special-edition trim) from 2022 and before, we’ve got bad news: the X models effectively replace it, and it won’t return.

Kia has upped the Telluride’s safety ante for even more good vibes with customers, in addition to the clever move to cash in on America’s burgeoning love with outdoorsy vehicles with the X-Line and X-Pro.

Kia has added traffic sign recognition and a left-turn warning function that can intervene if you try to turn left into the path of an oncoming vehicle to the already standard suite of features (forward collision warning with pedestrian detection, lane-keep assist, Highway Driving Assist 1.5 adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert).

Highway Driving Assist 2, a more sophisticated version of the conventional HDA 1.5 system that can even handle automated lane changes, is now available, as is a version of that left-turn capability that responds to cross traffic, incoming traffic during a passing manoeuvre, and side-swipe incidents.

The Kia Telluride didn’t need any modifications to keep selling out, so these enhancements are likely to keep consumer interest piqued—as it has been for the past three years.

Pricing and on-sale dates will be released soon, but in today’s car market, either tidbit is likely to be meaningless, as the price could be several thousand dollars higher than Kia’s asking price, and availability could come down to your family throwing elbows at the dealership and outstretching another family in feats of strength.

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