Key Factors
- Kia’s Product Planning chief reveals the precise engineering purpose the 2027 Telluride’s turbo is essentially totally different from the unreliable turbos of the previous.
- The shift to Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection provides trendy engines warmth and enhance management that older turbos by no means had.
- Particular possession habits lined right here separate drivers who attain 250,000 miles from those that face pricey repairs far sooner.
Final week Kia gathered journalists from throughout the automotive business to check the subsequent technology of one in all America’s hottest three-row SUVs: the 2027 Kia Telluride. And whereas the redesigned SUV brings a protracted record of actually nice updates (KIA revealed us the SUV its engineers benchmarked most closely when creating the 2027 Telluride), there was one matter that stored popping up in quiet conversations amongst reporters and engineers alike. It was the engine.
For the primary time, the Telluride strikes away from the acquainted naturally aspirated 3.8-liter V6 and transitions to a turbocharged four-cylinder hybrid powertrain. That change alone raises a direct query amongst many patrons: Will the turbo engine final so long as the previous V6?
At one level in the course of the occasion, I sat down with Sang Lee, Product Planning Nationwide Supervisor at Kia America, and requested him a query many automobile patrons have been asking. This query might be requested by not solely 2027 Kia Telluride potential patrons, but additionally house owners of different automobiles with turbocharged engines, in addition to those that want to buy the automobile, however are anxious in regards to the reliability of at the moment’s turbocharged engines.
Right here is the query and reply precisely because it occurred.
Armen Hareyan:
“Turbo engines in giant SUVs all the time set off reliability questions that come from the 80s and 90s of the previous century, and these questions nonetheless stay with many individuals who aren’t nicely knowledgeable that to ensure that the turbo engines transcend 200K+ miles they want good upkeep, particular driving habits like needing time to heat up and funky down and have complexities. The brand new Telluride strikes from a naturally aspirated V6 to a turbocharged four-cylinder and hybrid system. What did Kia engineers do to make sure long-term reliability of the turbocharged engine in contrast with the earlier engine?”
Sang Lee:
“I believe what you are referring to with turbo issues previously, again within the ’80s, again within the ’90s… So again then, there was no digital injection. There was much less management of the warmth. There’s much less management of the enhance.
Fashionable know-how with direct injection, there’s extra exact management of the turbo. And so principally, merely put, older turbos have been type of uncontrolled. Fashionable turbos are completely superior, the administration is a lot superior.”
Armen Hareyan:
“Once you say ‘older,’ you imply earlier than the digital age, ’80s, ’90s?”
Sang Lee:
“Sure, sure – with port gas injection.”
Why Individuals Nonetheless Mistrust Turbocharged Engines
When you grew up round vehicles within the Nineteen Eighties or Nineties, you heard the tales. Turbo engines that wanted to idle for a number of minutes earlier than shutdown or danger “coking” the oil across the bearings. Turbo engines that could not be pushed laborious till totally warmed up. Turbos that failed at 80,000 miles, generally much less, leaving house owners with a restore invoice that made their eyes water. The status was earned, not imagined. These engines actually did have severe vulnerabilities, significantly round warmth administration, oil degradation, and enhance management.
The issue is that a variety of patrons at the moment are nonetheless making 2025 selections primarily based on 1989 information factors.
Let’s Unpack What Sang Lee Simply Stated About Kia’s Turbocharged Engine As a result of It Actually Issues
When Lee says “older turbos have been type of uncontrolled,” that is not advertising and marketing communicate. That is a exact engineering assertion. This is what he means.
Within the period of port gas injection, the gas was sprayed into the consumption port earlier than the combustion chamber – in a roundabout way into it. That system gave engineers comparatively little management over precisely how a lot gas hit precisely the place, at precisely what second, below the various strain circumstances a turbocharger creates. Add in primitive enhance management methods and restricted thermal administration, and also you had an engine that was continually operating on the sting, usually hotter than ultimate, with inconsistent combustion occasions.
Fashionable Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection – GTDI, the system powering the 2027 Telluride – modifications all of that. The gas is injected straight into the combustion chamber with extraordinary precision. The engine administration laptop controls enhance strain, injection timing, gas amount, and thermal circumstances in actual time, hundreds of instances per minute. When Lee says “the administration is a lot superior,” he is speaking in regards to the distinction between an analog thermostat and a contemporary sensible residence system. One guesses. The opposite is aware of.
That is additionally exactly why a turbocharged four-cylinder in 2026 is essentially not the identical dialog as a turbocharged four-cylinder in 1993. The {hardware} has modified. The software program has modified. The supplies have modified. The oil formulations have modified. People who find themselves nonetheless afraid of turbos primarily based on older-era horror tales are, in some ways, afraid of a automobile that not exists.
However Wait, Not All Fashionable Turbos Are Created Equal
This is the place it will get attention-grabbing, and the place I need to be clear with you reasonably than simply cheerleading for Kia. Not each trendy turbocharged engine has earned its reliability stripes but. Torque Information has lined a spread of turbocharged engine reliability considerations throughout manufacturers, and the image is nuanced.
A Toyota skilled evaluation of turbocharged engines in recent times, lined intimately on Torque Information, recognized that the primary strategy to shield your turbocharged engine from early failure is constant oil modifications, significantly when the automobile is used for towing or aggressive driving as a result of turbo warmth accelerates oil breakdown quicker than a naturally aspirated engine. That is not a knock on trendy turbos, however simply actuality. The upkeep bar is barely greater, and house owners who respect that are inclined to have very totally different long-term experiences than those that do not.
Then again, Client Studies, in information that Torque Information reported on when inspecting which manufacturers have turbocharged engines with better-than-average reliability in comparison with non-turbo engines, discovered that a number of manufacturers – together with Honda, Lexus, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Subaru – really fielded turbo engines that scored higher for reliability than the common naturally aspirated engine of their lineup. So the concept that “turbo equals unreliable” is already outdated as a blanket assertion.
There’s additionally an necessary context shift occurring right here that patrons ought to perceive. Our 2021 Kia Telluride overview on Torque Information famous that the Telluride remained one of many final V6-powered holdouts within the phase as turbocharged four-cylinders continued to realize traction throughout the category – a distinction that, on the time, felt like a promoting level. Wanting again now, it reads extra like a countdown. The phase has moved on, and the 2027 Telluride’s engineering displays the place the business really is, not the place it was.
The Greater Business Development Behind the Telluride’s New Engine
Kia’s transfer towards a turbocharged hybrid system within the 2027 Telluride just isn’t occurring in isolation. It displays a broader shift throughout the business.
Automakers are balancing three competing objectives:
- gas effectivity
- emissions rules
- efficiency expectations
A turbocharged engine paired with electrification can ship sturdy torque whereas utilizing much less gas than a big naturally aspirated V6.
And that issues in a three-row SUV.
The Hybrid Issue Provides One other Layer
The hybrid system within the new Telluride additionally modifications how the engine operates.
Electrical motors can help throughout acceleration, decreasing the load positioned on the gasoline engine. Meaning the turbo engine doesn’t all the time need to work as laborious.
Over time, that decreased stress may very well assist sturdiness.
It’s one purpose hybrid automobiles usually present spectacular long-term reliability information.
The Human Facet of Reliability
There’s one other level price mentioning. Reliability isn’t decided solely by engineering. Possession habits matter too.
Common oil modifications, correct upkeep, and taking note of remembers all play a job.
In reality, one of many extra uncommon tales we lined concerned a Telluride that caught hearth after a recall discover about seat heater wiring went unnoticed by the proprietor.
The lesson is easy however necessary. Even probably the most superior engineering can’t change accountable possession.
What You Ought to Really Do as a Purchaser To Higher Preserve Your Turbo Engine and Give It Extra Miles
When you’re trying on the 2027 Telluride, or any trendy turbocharged SUV, right here is the sensible steering that follows from all the pieces above.
First, use the proper oil grade and alter it on schedule. Turbo engines run hotter, particularly below load. When you’re towing a ship, a camper, or a trailer repeatedly, contemplate shortening your oil change intervals from the producer’s suggestion. The oil is the lifetime of your turbo, full cease. Do not wait till the upkeep reminder tells you it is time.
Second, give the engine a minute or two at idle earlier than driving aggressively from a chilly begin. Sure, trendy turbos are much more tolerant of chilly begins than older models, however they nonetheless profit from a quick warm-up cycle earlier than being pushed laborious. This prices you nothing besides thirty seconds.
Third, after a tough drive, particularly after prolonged freeway cruising or towing, let the engine idle for a minute earlier than shutting it off. This enables the turbocharger bearings, that are oil-cooled and oil-lubricated, to chill down earlier than oil stream stops. Fashionable turbos have improved thermal administration considerably, however this behavior continues to be a great one to maintain.
These aren’t sophisticated habits. They’re the type of factor that separates the house owners who get 250,000 miles out of a turbocharged engine from those who’re on the seller at 85,000 miles questioning what went improper.
Past the mechanics, if you would like a deep-dive comparability of whether or not a four-cylinder turbo or a conventional six-cylinder higher matches your driving life-style and desires, Torque Information printed a helpful and detailed information on selecting a four-cylinder turbo over a typical six-cylinder – and vice versa – that walks by way of the professionals, cons, and driving situations that favor every method. It is price studying earlier than you signal something.
The Greater Image: What Kia Is Actually Telling You
There’s one thing else price noticing in Lee’s reply. He did not say “don’t fret about it.” He did not give a sophisticated PR non-answer. He defined the mechanism, the precise purpose why older turbos failed and why the engineering answer to that failure is now constructed into the 2027 Telluride’s GTDI system. That type of direct, technical transparency is what good journalism must be pulling out of automakers, and it is what makes this reply price studying fastidiously.
Kia has spent a decade constructing the Telluride into one of the crucial credible household SUVs within the American market. Our long-term overview of the 2024 Kia Telluride SX-Status X-Line, which you’ll be able to learn right here as a reminder of simply how succesful the outgoing V6-powered Telluride was at its greatest, exhibits how a lot of a status Kia has to guard with this transition. They are not switching engines casually. They’re doing it as a result of the engineering, the emissions requirements, and the long-term platform technique all level in the identical course.
And when you’re nonetheless on the fence in regards to the hybrid variant particularly, which mixes the two.5-liter turbo with an electrical motor, contemplate this: the hybrid system really reduces the thermal load on the inner combustion engine below many driving circumstances, as a result of the electrical motor handles a portion of the workload. That is not simply good for gas financial system. It is probably good for the engine’s long-term sturdiness as nicely.
The Ethical of This Story
This is the life lesson hiding inside this technical dialog, and it applies far past automobile shopping for.
We frequently let outdated fears make present selections for us. We feature ahead the failures of the previous and apply them to the current, even when the current has essentially modified. Sang Lee did not say the previous turbo status was unfair. He stated it was earned, and that the engineering has moved on. The sensible response to that is not blind belief. It is knowledgeable reassessment.
Whether or not you are evaluating a automobile, a profession path, a relationship, or a monetary resolution, the self-discipline of separating what was true then from what’s true now is without doubt one of the most beneficial issues you possibly can develop. Worry constructed on previous data protects nothing. Understanding constructed on present proof protects all the pieces.
Now, I need to hear from you straight.
When you at present personal a turbocharged SUV or sedan with important mileage on it, over 100,000 miles, has your expertise confirmed or challenged the reliability fears that also encompass turbo engines at the moment? What habits, if any, have you ever developed to guard it?
And for these of you contemplating the 2027 Kia Telluride particularly: does Sang Lee’s clarification in regards to the distinction between old-era port injection turbos and at the moment’s GTDI know-how change how you’re feeling about committing to this engine for the lengthy haul, or do you continue to really feel it’s essential to see real-world high-mileage studies earlier than you are satisfied?
Drop your private expertise and your ideas within the feedback part beneath. What you have lived by way of behind the wheel is probably the most priceless information level any of us has.
Pictures by Armen Hareyan of Torque Information.
About The Creator
Armen Hareyan is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Torque Information and an automotive journalist with over 15 years of expertise writing automobile evaluations and business information. Now primarily based within the Charlotte area (Indian Land, SC, he based Torque Information in 2010, which since then has been publishing skilled information and evaluation in regards to the automotive business. He may be reached at Torque Information on X, Linkedin, and Youtube. Armen holds three Masters Levels, together with an MBA, and has turn into one of many identified voices within the business, specializing within the panorama of electrical automobiles and real-world tales of precise automobile house owners. Armen focuses on offering readers with clear, data-backed evaluation bridging the hole of complicated engineering and automobile purchaser practicality. Armen incessantly participates in automotive occasions all through the US, nationwide and native automobile reveals and personally test-drives new automobiles each week. Armen has additionally been printed as an automotive skilled in publications just like the Transit Tomorrow, discussing how will autonomous automobiles reshape the provision chain, and rising applied sciences in automobile upkeep.
Observe us at the moment…
