Owners have filed 1,930 complaints on the Kia Telluride, covering 2020–2025. The system named most often is Visibility/wiper (303 reports). Worst years by volume: 2020, 2021, 2022; cleanest: 2025, 2023, 2024. 38 reports describe a crash, 22 a fire, 1 a death. On average the car was 2.2 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Kia Telluride
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 1,930 Telluride complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Visibility/wiper 303 Read
I bought my Kia Telluride on 10/25/2024. The windshield already has a long crack in the bottom going upwards. A chip will not normally extend the crack this quick after a purchase of a vehicle. Several others have reported the same from earlier Telluride models. This poses a driving risk especially at night with glare
My 2025 Kia Teulluride that I bought on 10/21/2024 was sitting in my garage over night on 11/20/2024. The next morning 11/21/2024 I went to leave for work and notice a huge crack in the windshield. Goes from the driver side to about half way to the middle of the windshield
I just recently bought a 2025 Kia Telluride. Within two weeks the windshield has cracked. It appears to be a chip but it seemed to happen while sitting in the driveway. Kia says it is not covered u see the warranty. With all of the issues I have read about Kia’s windshields cracking, I am afraid they have not fixed…
Electrical System 240 Read
The vehicle had been throwing different Electrical Codes for several months around August through December 2025. The last code it through was an engine management system error. On December 22nd 2025 the car caught fire in the engine and exploded while parked in the driveway. Fire investigators are leaning towards in…
Driving and brakes malfunctioned and would not stop causing an accident into a tree
The front passenger seat of my 2024 Kia Telluride began emitting smoke while I was driving it. It quickly incapsulated the entire interior of my vehicle in thick smoke. The fire department had to be called to extinguish the fire. Prior to a fire starting while I was driving my vehicle, my vehicle had been in for a…
Engine 191 Read
The contact owned a 2024 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that, while the vehicle was turned off in her driveway, she observed flames emanating from the interior of the vehicle on the driver's side. No warning lights were illuminated. Local emergency services arrived and were able to extinguish the flames. The…
Was driving heard a noise and then lost power to gas peddle and bunch of smoke and then flames coming from front of car got out and there were flames coming from hood eventually flames died down and was just smoking police &fire department were called. Piston blew through engine block these engine have a known oil…
The contact owns a 2021 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked and turned off, there was smoke coming from the vehicle. The contact stated that the engine located on the rear driver's side had caught on fire. The vehicle was extinguished by the Fire Department. A fire report was filed, and…
Exterior Lighting 188 Read
Hooded projector lights provide very limited vision on dark roads. We hit a deer and have significant damage to our vehicle due to this issue. Our brights do not come on either. Nothing happens when we select the bright option
Headlights does not display full visibility. It seems as if the headlights are cut off with blind spots. Headlights doesn't have full visibility. Headlight projection is not 100 percent. Dealership technician have said Kia doesn't have a fix for it. When its very dark outside their are blind spots. Vehicle smokes from…
Front lights gets foggy when it gets hand wash, contacted the dealership and they are willing to replace the “Gasket” because the headlights must have “ventilation”. While driving with nobody in front the collision warning went off non stop, the road was completely clear
Power Train 150 Read
The vehicle was parked(placed in park on gear shift) in a friends driveway, facing upward on approx. 15Deg incline with the engine idling. My wife exited the vehicle and walked around the front of the vehicle to the houses front entrance where she spoke briefly with the owner inside the front door. On leaving the…
Placed the car in park then it started rolling backwards and crashed
The contact owns a 2022 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that while the vehicle was idle and in park(P) in the driveway, the vehicle jerked forward while his wife was in the front driver seat. As the contact's wife checked the gear shifter, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and crashed into the contact's garage door…
Structure 134 Read
My vehicle has 300 miles on it and I owned it for 5 days. I was driving when the front sunroof glass exploded and blew glass up and out of the vehicle. It scratched my roof, panoramic glass and multiple other panels. Kia of Chattanooga was very unprofessional when I brought this to their attention. The sales manager,…
The lower opening in the front grille allows road debris to damage the A/C condenser. This repair has an average cost of 2500.00 to 2800.00
There is excessive noise coming from both passenger and driver side windows. It sounds like the windows are opened. The dealer said all seals are good but the windows aren't fully sealed
Suspension 66 Read
This vehicle only has 31,000 miles on it and I've already had one door trim molding replaced. (now the rest of the trim doesn't match so that's great for aesthetics) The interior door panel replaced because it was loose. This car developed a "thumping" noise around 25K miles when turning at low speeds. Took it to the…
My rear shocks are making bumping and rattling noise at slow speeds. It also has a stiff ride in some situations
Vehicle at 700 miles is having suspension issues causing bumping and shaking during the ride making it unsafe
Visibility 61 Read
The contact owns a 2025 Kia Telluride. The contact stated while driving approximately 61-62 MPH, the sunroof exploded without impact. There was no injury sustained. There was an abnormally loud sound coming from the vehicle. The local dealer was contacted, who confirmed there was no coverage for the sunroof glass. The…
The contact owns a 2025 Kia Telluride. While driving 70 MPH, the contact heard an abnormal sound like a gunshot coming from the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact became aware that the sunroof glass had exploded. The vehicle was immediately driven to the residence. Upon inspection of the…
The contact owns a 2025 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that the windshield had significantly cracked without impact. The contact stated that the crack appeared to have started from underneath the seal at the bottom of the driver's side of the windshield. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, where the contact…
Telluride years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Air Bags, Seat Belts | 2 | 2 | |
| 2024 | Air Bags | 6 | 2 | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 5 | 1 | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 10 | 4 | |
| 2021 | Air Bags | 7 | 4 | |
| 2020 | Air Bags | 8 | 9 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 399 |
| Average complaints per series | 4.8 |
| Worst single series | 21 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 2.2 years |
A model average of 4.8 hides a worst series at 21. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,109,349 of them, covering 2,013 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Telluride?
By complaint volume, 2020, 2021, 2022 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Telluride years are the cleanest?
2025, 2023, 2024 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Kia Telluride have?
1,930 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2020–2025. Of those, 38 describe a crash and 22 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.
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