Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride: What’s The Difference?
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If you’ve recently found yourself pining for a nice, comfortable three-row SUV, you’re definitely not alone. They’re more popular than ever, and Kia is one of the most trusted manufacturers in the industry. Searching for the difference between all the great three-row SUVs out there can be exhausting, and it’s tough to do, even if you’re just looking at Kias. We’ve got you covered, though! Read on to discover all you need to know about the advantages of a Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride.
A Brief Overview
Kia really knocked it out of the park with both of these top-of-the-line three-row SUVs. There are several areas where there’s simply little difference between the Kia Sorento and Kia Telluride, like safety and reliability, so your choice will come down to those departments where there’s a bigger disparity. The Telluride is a lot more powerful and has more cargo space, but the Sorento gets much better gas mileage and has a slight edge over the Telluride in terms of technology. The Sorento is also the cheaper vehicle, so it’s probably the right choice for families looking to save money who don’t care about power.
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Specs
If performance is the name of your game, then the 2021 Telluride wins handily in the Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride debate. The 2021 Telluride comes standard with a 3.8 Liter V6 engine with 291 horsepower. This is stronger than both engine choices in the 2021 Kia Sorento. With the Sorento, you can choose between a 2.5 Liter, 191 horsepower engine or a turbocharged 2.5 Liter engine that gets up to 281 horsepower. It’s always nice to have the option, but neither is as powerful as the Telluride’s engine.
Not only does the Kia Telluride win in terms of performance, but it also has much more cargo space than the Sorento. With all seats down, you get roughly 87 cubic feet of cargo space. If you’d rather just use the space behind your third-row seat so that you can fit the maximum amount of passengers, though, you’ll still get 21 cubic feet of space, which is quite a lot. The Sorento has far less space in both areas, with approximately 76 cubic feet of total cargo space and less than 13 cubic feet of space behind the third-row seat. Truly, if you care most about performance or cargo space, the Telluride should likely be your choice of car.
Safety and Reliability
Safety and reliability are generally one of the most prized pieces of a three-row SUV to any car driver. This means that even if the difference between two cars in this regard, such as a Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride, is small, it’s still something worth talking about. Even so, the difference is truly incredibly small in this comparison. Both cars received the same high rating of Top Safety Pick award (falling just short of Top Safety Pick+) from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, putting them in a very similar position.
Both the Sorento and Telluride have incredible safety features in their 2021 models, and the differences are middling. Each has a suite in every single one of its trims that features collision avoidance assist, pedestrian detection, driver attention warning, and automatic emergency braking. On top of this, you’ll get blind-spot monitoring and dynamic parking guidance, which helps ensure that you don’t park in a dangerous way or hit anything. Their rearview cameras are both state of the art and work exceptionally well at giving you a clear view of what’s behind you. It makes sense that Kia would work to make two of its major vehicles similar in such an important aspect, their safety capabilities, but it’s astounding just how similar they are. Therefore, we have to deem this debate a tie here.
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Gas Mileage
Given that the Telluride is the much stronger performer on the road, it’s only natural that the Sorento would win out in the fuel economy section of the Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride argument. Both engines you get to choose from in the Sorento have better gas mileage than the Telluride’s engine. With the 191 horsepower engine, you can expect to get about 24 miles per gallon in the city and 28 miles per gallon on the highway. The turbocharged engine should get you about 22 miles per gallon in the city and 28 miles per gallon on the highway.
If you go for the Kia Telluride, you’ll still get decent fuel economy; it just won’t be as strong as the Sorento’s. Here, you’ll be receiving about bout 20 miles per gallon in the city and 26 miles per gallon on the highway.
Technology
While technology is often another area of major importance to would-be SUV buyers, it’s not a huge differentiating factor in the Kia Sorento vs. Kia Telluride comparison. Given that Kia wants its cars to all be state of the art with each passing year, the 2021 models of each vehicle have extremely similar technological suites. Both include an infotainment system with a touchscreen (the Telluride’s is eight inches while the Sorento’s is over ten) that has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in addition to an audio system from Bose, rear occupant alert, and keyless entry. The Sorento does have a fancy mood lighting system too, which might be appealing to certain drivers. Due to a couple of extra cool features and the slightly bigger touchscreen, the Sorento squeaks by as the winner here, but only slightly.
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Price
The Kia Sorento easily comes out on top if we’re talking price. A 2021 Kia Telluride’s original level trim costs roughly $32,000, which is a couple of thousand dollars more expensive than the Kia Sorento’s original cost of about $30,000. This disparity is reflected across all of the trim levels of each car, with the Sorento always floating around two thousand dollars cheaper. The Telluride does come with a more powerful engine, of course, but the Sorento has plenty going for it on its own, so if you want to save a little money, the Sorento is your best bet.
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