Motor Trend - USA (2020-01)

WORDS ANGUS MACKENZIE

PHOTOGRAPHSJADE NELSON

T

he Kia Telluride’s achievement

as winner of MotorTrend ’s 2020

SUV of the Year award is more

inevitability than incongruity.

It’s been a long time coming for

a company that was founded in 1944

and for decades has lived with the

backhanded compliment of building

“cheap and cheerful” transportation

for buyers on a budget.

But this award is the deserved

recognition that today’s Korean auto

industry has evolved to possess the

skill and talent to design, engineer, and

manufacture world-class vehicles—

ones able to best their mainstream

Japanese, European, and American

rivals in terms of style, dynamics,

refinement, and build quality.

Manufactured in West Point,

Georgia, the Telluride is a Kia built in

America for Americans: a comfortable

and roomy three-row SUV that’s

perfectly pitched at the heart of a

highly competitive segment that

includes products from Chevy, Dodge,

and Ford, as well as Honda, Toyota,

Nissan, Mazda, and Volkswagen.

As expected of a Kia, the Telluride

is a terrific value, offering lavish levels

of standard equipment even in the

$32,785 base model. And when you

load it up to its as-tested $46,910 price,

it absolutely deflates its mass-market

competition.

But value is only one element of

36 MOTORTREND.COM JANUARY 2020

SUV OF THE YEAR I Winner