Kia Tellurides at SEMA

"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
11/02/2018 at 15:05 • Filed to: Kia Telluride

There is a lot of evidence building up that Kia may field an off-road brand. The Telluride goes on sell Spring 2019, is based on the Sorento platform, will be built in Georgia, and sports a 3.3L V6 rated around 270 hp. Production-spec will be shown this month in LA alongside the new Soul and Soul EV (so says the rumor mill).

Kia is positioning the upper half of their products in the same “entry-premium” segment as GMC and Buick. That means you won’t see a Kia performance brand or luxury brand. However, it does mean that Kia is going to launch some kind of Denali and Avenir style branding within the next few years. The “GT” stuff is one notch below this level.

Tell your mom about Telluride. I think that the price range will be identical to the Stinger.

Oh! Some of you may have missed the Halloween Jeep commercial. It involves Kia!

DISCUSSION (14)

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Wobbles the Mind
11/02/2018 at 15:11

I wonder if they’ll try to offer an PPV version. with almost every law enforcement agency switching to SUVs I could totally see these as police cruisers.

Wobbles the Mind > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
11/02/2018 at 15:14

I could definitely see that outside of the US.

Chuckles > Wobbles the Mind
11/02/2018 at 15:21

But why the need for a separate brand? I like what I'm seeing here, but I don't see the need for spinning off things into sub-brands. You'll never get people to change their opinion of Kia if you keep taking the good stuff and re-badging it as Not Kia.

and 100 more > Chuckles
11/02/2018 at 15:22

Don’t you mean “Not Hyundai”?

So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky > Wobbles the Mind
11/02/2018 at 15:23

“No modifications required”

Because if it’s one thing the rock crawling crowd HATES, it’s modifying their rigs.........

Wobbles the Mind > So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky
11/02/2018 at 15:35

To be honest, I think that the Trailhawk is one of the only Grand Cherokees to come with underbody skid plates and all terrain tires. I’m not even sure if all terrain tires are optional on most GC trims...

Wobbles the Mind > Chuckles
11/02/2018 at 15:42

They would still wear the Kia badges just like Denali and Avenir models still say GM C and Buick on them. I think their reasoning is the same as yours.