The fraternal twins

Both Hyundai and Kia have in the past year launched their largest-ever SUVs, primarily for the US market, and named them for towns in the US state of Colorado, Palisade and Telluride. While both the SUVs share the same underpinnings and the same drivetrain, they look remarkably different both on the inside and the outside. We drove them both back to back on the same LA Test Drives route and are excited that they may be launched in India sometime in the future

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Bold and beautiful

Kia has been making a design statement with its SUVs and the Telluride is no different. Infact, so strong was the statement that Kia’s biggest ever SUV won the World Car of the Year 2020 award

Ever since the move of Peter Schreyer to head design at Kia Motors way back in 2006 and the debut of the Tiger Nose grille that has been the signature Kia look, the very next year – Kia has been on a journey of delight leading up to the first-ever Korean car company winning a World Car Award.

The Telluride itself is a rather large SUV, bigger than anything else that we have in India, has three rows of seats and is powered by a big V6 engine. But it first catches attention for the vertical rectangular orange DRLs that surround each of the headlamp clusters and the biggest ever rendition of the Tiger Nose yet. The side profile is not eye-catching except for the blacked-out B and C pillars and the big chunky D pillar that adds solidity to the design. The rear is elegant and classy, with the name Telluride spread out across the width between tail lamps with vertical lines. Overall, it is a nice looking SUV in a segment where we have been used to plain and butch looking vehicles.