Skip the 2020. The 2023 is the one to hunt, and check the oil on all of them.

The award-sweep first year, and the loudest engine file the Telluride has. 736 federal complaints — more than 2021, 2022 and 2023 combined — and around six in ten of the recent sample carries an engine tag. Owners measure the loss in quarts per thousand miles, run the dealer's oil-consumption test, are told the result is normal, and a share of them come back with a seized engine: "At approximately 94,000 miles, my 2020 Kia Telluride EX experienced a significant internal engine failure. The vehicle was properly maintained." One filing ends with a connecting rod through the block and a fire underneath the car. Dealer replacement quotes start at $9,000. Seven recalls sit on top, including two fire risks with park-outside advisories and a rollaway campaign covering more than 427,000 vehicles. The one genuine consolation is narrow: Kia's warranty extension WTY045 covers an oil leak from the oil filter housing gasket, to all owners, for fifteen years and 180,000 miles. Catch that leak and you pay $425. Miss it and the engine is yours.

Less than half the volume, the same engine, and a sunroof bill nobody expects. 337 federal complaints, and the engine cluster is still the largest thing in the file — but the accounts are sharper. Owners name the part themselves now, reporting catastrophic failure at 82,000, 90,000, 102,000 and 120,000 miles with no warning light first, and quoting dealer replacement estimates of $10,500, $11,000 and $12,700. One was asked to authorise a $1,600 tear-down fee just to confirm the diagnosis. Alongside the engine, a second expensive failure arrives: the panoramic sunroof, where a snapped wind deflector wrecks the track and out-of-warranty quotes in the file run $3,400, $5,000, $6,000, $6,441.56 and $7,000. Kia has a bulletin covering a partial repair of the deflector and mechanism arms on cars built through 19 January 2022 — quote it before anyone prices you a whole assembly. Five recalls, including the 2021-only front-passenger child-seat sensor campaign, 21V164.

The quietest year by some distance, and two of its three big problems have free fixes. 197 federal complaints, barely a quarter of the 2020's, and the oil-consumption cluster that defines the early cars is down to a trace. The three biggest remaining clusters are the instrument cluster going black, the door belt molding trim delaminating, and the self-levelling rear shocks clunking — and two of those carry coverage. Recall 23V298 updates the cluster software free. Warranty extension WTY040 inspects and replaces the self-levelling rear shocks on cars built through 14 September 2023, taking the term from 5 years and 60,000 miles to fifteen years and 180,000 miles. The catches are real but small: the trim recall 25V494 has had parts shortages, with one owner reporting "remedy parts are not yet available, and there is currently no fix", and a share of owners report the cluster still blanking after the recall software was applied. Check the oil the same way you would on a 2020, because it is the same engine and this car simply has not reached the failure mileage yet.

The engine story fades and an electronics-and-glass story takes over. 305 federal complaints and seven recalls, the most of any Telluride year. The trade is genuine: the oil-consumption cluster that dominates 2020 and 2021 is a minority here, but what replaces it is expensive out of warranty. Panoramic sunroofs shattering at 66 and 75 mph with no impact. Windshields cracking from a chip, or from nothing — one owner paid over $2,000 for two of them inside two years. And the 12.3-inch screen pair, where Kia recalled the instrument cluster twice on this model year alone (21V577 for software, then 22V344 to replace the assembly outright because of "excess adhesive in a circuit board"), while the infotainment half has no campaign at all and is quoted at $7,500 to over $8,000. There is also a brake-control-unit campaign, SC252, that is voluntary rather than a recall and so will not appear on a standard VIN lookup — ask a dealer to check service-campaign history separately.