Pushed: The 2023 Kia Telluride X-Professional Strikes the Needle Barely

Is the X-Professional gon’ give it to ya off-road?

Most of our time was spent behind the wheel of the X-Professional in SX Status guise, which is principally probably the most totally loaded Telluride you may get with a price ticket that ideas north of $55,000. It is best to think about the X-Line as an look bundle (to not be confused with the virtually too equally named X-Professional mannequin), because it comes with a special entrance grille, roof rails and 20-inch alloy wheels.

Each trims include a 0.4-inch improve in floor clearance, however that solely will increase strategy and departure angles by 0.7 and 0.6 levels, respectively. That is not sufficient to get the Telluride over any obstacles you should not be making an attempt on this car anyway, and the X-Line’s 20-inch wheels come shod in the identical all-season tires as the usual fashions. Kia says the traction management has been modified for each variants, however it was already fairly good. Plus, in the event you go for all-wheel drive, the Telluride comes with a locking middle differential anyway.

Solely the X-Professional affords any tangible achieve in off-road efficiency, due to its all-terrain tires that give it some further grip. However on the sunshine off-road course we put the Telluride by means of, I did not encounter something the usual Telluride would not have been in a position to do simply as nicely. For any sort of fireplace street or filth path resulting in a campsite, an all-wheel-drive Telluride (X’d up or not) stays greater than certified.