That's sharp!

YouBet said:

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Not the best picture. Wife's new ride.

'25 Kia Telluride Prestige X Line.

Really impressive vehicle and quite the upgrade from her Cadillac XT5.

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The Cadillac comparison is interesting to me. We're slowly starting to think about replacing my wife's SRX which is the XT5 from the prior generation. What makes the Telluride such an upgrade compared to the XT5?

LOYAL AG said:

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YouBet said:

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Not the best picture. Wife's new ride.

'25 Kia Telluride Prestige X Line.

Really impressive vehicle and quite the upgrade from her Cadillac XT5.

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The Cadillac comparison is interesting to me. We're slowly starting to think about replacing my wife's SRX which is the XT5 from the prior generation. What makes the Telluride such an upgrade compared to the XT5?

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We had the 2017 XT5 and it was a nice vehicle for urban Dallas. Tech comparisons are apples and oranges between 25 Telluride and 17 XT5 so that really isn't' fair because I presume the newest XT5s are similar to the Kia on that topic but never looked and not sure.

Bottom line: we now live on the coast, so I wanted something with more capability and reliability that still had some luxury feel to it. A good mix of luxury but able to get a little dirty if I need to. We were considering the Kia, Explorer, 4Runner, and Grand Cherokee because that's essentially what's available to us around here that are comparable.

GC got ruled out due to reliability right off the bat. 4Runner feels old and low powered (didn't look at 26(?) that just came out). That left the Explorer and the Kia. Once we looked and drove the Kia it pretty much sealed the deal so then the Explorer got canned. TBF, I was wanting to drive the loaded out 400hp ST Explorer and we never did - it's also more expensive than the Kia.

The Telluride X-Line, specifically, is basically a very capable luxury SUV because it has AWD and a bit higher entry and exit clearance. It's a little bigger than the XT5 so it has more space and headroom. Wanted something that could handle gulf coast weather and beaches that the XT5 can't. My wife actually got stranded at home for several days last year during Alberto because she wasn't comfortable driving the XT5 out of the hood through higher water. (The Kia could have handled it.)

Reliability...generally speaking, the Kia is going to be way more reliable than the Cadillac, GC, and Ford (and maybe even Toyota now) and we are not close to any dealerships where we are so that become near top of the list criteria as well. Her entire A/C on the XT5 cratered about 40k miles in when we had it. Luckily, I had it on extended warranty so it was covered, but the local GM dealership didn't fix it properly and I had to get it redone at Sewell Cadillac in Dallas. I don't want to do that again.

So she has the Kia for practical stuff and we have my impractical car for weekend farting around.

Thanks for that detailed explanation of your analysis. For us whatever we get is likely the second car. We live in college station where weather is rarely so severe you feel trapped. We've really loved her SRX but it's getting up there in age and the AC is becoming a problem. I have a 2025 Model Y which is our everyday car so whatever she gets is going to fit her more than us. Right now she's eyeing the smaller luxury SUX like the Cadillac XT4, Audi Q3 and Mercedes GLA. She doesn't want anything bigger than the XT5. I think we'll look at the Genesis GV70 before buying anything but I think she wants smaller.

LOYAL AG said:

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Thanks for that detailed explanation of your analysis. For us whatever we get is likely the second car. We live in college station where weather is rarely so severe you feel trapped. We've really loved her SRX but it's getting up there in age and the AC is becoming a problem. I have a 2025 Model Y which is our everyday car so whatever she gets is going to fit her more than us. Right now she's eyeing the smaller luxury SUX like the Cadillac XT4, Audi Q3 and Mercedes GLA. She doesn't want anything bigger than the XT5. I think we'll look at the Genesis GV70 before buying anything but I think she wants smaller.

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We had the GV70 on the list initially but nearest dealer is in San Antonio. If it was closer we would have looked at it. Damn nice car and I'm a bit of a Genesis homer. But probably would have ruled it out, again, because I wanted some level of off-road capability.

Not trashing the car, it was a tough choice between that and my tried and true f150 when I just was in the market. But curious how you came to the definitive conclusion the telluride is more reliable than the rest, including Toyota.

htxag09 said:

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Not trashing the car, it was a tough choice between that and my tried and true f150 when I just was in the market. But curious how you came to the definitive conclusion the telluride is more reliable than the rest, including Toyota.

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Japanese and S Korean vehicles generally at the top of the leaderboard for reliability. This is well known. I admittedly half assed Toyota in that group on conjecture from all the talk I've seen on here how Toyota has degraded themselves with their quality of late. I think they are still comparatively better than others.

I don't think anyone is going to put a Cherokee on a list of reliable vehicles. Obviously mileage varies here and I'm using generalizations that are directionally accurate.

htxag09 said:

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Not trashing the car, it was a tough choice between that and my tried and true f150 when I just was in the market. But curious how you came to the definitive conclusion the telluride is more reliable than the rest, including Toyota.

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this is the battle I am currently having. Get rid of my 2009 f150 and either get a new lariat or KR or get my wife a top of the line telluride and take her Sequoia. I hardly use the truck bed and for what I do a folded 3rd row in the sequoia would more than serve that purpose.

I've got the same Telluride with the same trim level and color I ordered in 2021. She's going to love this.