July 8, 2026

Three Rows, Zero Drama: Family Road Trips in the Kia Telluride

There is a specific moment on every family road trip when the wheels come off. Not literally — literally would be easier to fix. We mean the moment somewhere around exit 98 when someone's elbow crosses an invisible border, someone else's snack is declared contraband, and a person who is legally an adult announces that they are "not touching, just hovering." Every parent in New Jersey knows this moment. Most of them have negotiated a ceasefire in a rest stop parking lot.

We think a lot of that tension is a packaging problem, not a parenting problem. Cram five to seven people into a vehicle designed for four and a gym bag, and you have engineered a conflict. So we went looking for the antidote, and it just pulled into the fleet: a 2022 Kia Telluride LX AWD, in a deep gravity grey, with three genuine rows of seats and a cargo hold that treats a week of luggage as a warm-up.

Meet the Newest Member of the Frosty Flame Fleet

If you have paid any attention to three-row SUVs over the past few years, you already know the Telluride's reputation. It arrived and quietly rearranged the segment — the kind of vehicle that makes shoppers walk out of other showrooms mid-sentence. Ours is the LX with all-wheel drive, which is the trim that proves the point best, because "base model" here still means a genuinely nice place to spend six hours.

Under the hood is a 3.8-liter V6 making 291 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, paired to an eight-speed automatic. That is not a sports car number, and it is not trying to be. It is a merging-onto-287-with-a-full-load number, which is the one that actually matters when you have eight people and a cooler on board. All-wheel drive with a Snow mode means it does not become a liability the second the forecast turns.

The rest of the headline figures: eight seats, 87 cubic feet of maximum cargo space, 5,000 pounds of towing capacity, and 8.0 inches of ground clearance. It is 196.9 inches long and 78.3 inches wide, which means it is substantial without being the kind of vehicle that requires a three-point turn to leave a Whole Foods parking spot.

Why the Third Row Changes the Entire Trip

Here is the part people underestimate. A third row is not just about carrying more humans. It is about separation. It is diplomacy with cupholders.

With three rows, the two people who cannot sit next to each other do not have to sit next to each other. The kid who gets carsick gets the middle row. The teenager who wants to be left alone with headphones gets the back. The grandparent who does not want to climb over anything gets the captain's position by the door. Suddenly nobody is negotiating armrests, because there are enough armrests.

The second-row bench has a one-touch fold-and-slide function, which sounds like a brochure line until you are standing in a parking garage in Boston holding a duffel bag with a seven-year-old already halfway into the back. Then it sounds like a small miracle. Third-row access does not require flexibility training or an apology.

And when the third row is not carrying people, it folds flat and the whole thing becomes a cargo van with better seats. Which brings us to the math.

The Cargo Math Nobody Does Until It's Too Late

Everyone plans the trip. Almost nobody plans the trunk. Then it is 6 a.m. on departure day, the driveway looks like a yard sale, and someone is asking whether the cooler "really" needs to come.

The Telluride's numbers are the reason we like it for this: 21 cubic feet behind the third row, 46 cubic feet behind the second, and 87 cubic feet with everything folded. That first number is the important one. Twenty-one cubic feet behind a full third row means you can carry eight people and their bags at the same time — which sounds obvious, and is exactly what most three-row crossovers cannot actually do. Plenty of them give you a third row or a trunk, and make you choose.

In practical terms, behind a full third row you fit roughly four carry-on-sized suitcases plus a soft cooler, or a week of beach gear for a family of five, or — and we have tested this — an absurd number of grocery bags from a Costco run that got out of hand.

Five Northeast Trips That Suit It Perfectly

The Jersey Shore, obviously. Long Beach Island, Ocean City, Cape May — the classic run down the Parkway. Beach chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, and a wagon all disappear into the back with the third row folded, and you still have room for four passengers in comfort. Leave before 7 a.m. on a Saturday or accept your fate.

Lake George and the Adirondacks. About four and a half hours north, and the payoff is enormous: mountain air, clear water, and a town built entirely around summer. This is the trip where the third row earns its keep, because it is the one where you inevitably end up bringing a cousin.

The Delaware Water Gap. Barely ninety minutes from Bergen County and it feels like a different state entirely. Waterfalls, hiking, and river access, with enough ground clearance for the gravel lots that guard the good trailheads.

Hershey and Lancaster County. A three-hour run into Pennsylvania that works beautifully as a two-night trip. Amusement park one day, farm country the next, and a cargo hold ready for whatever gets purchased at a roadside stand on impulse.

The Poconos or the Catskills for a cabin weekend. Groceries, bedding, a grill's worth of food, and a family that does not want to take two cars. The tow rating means a small trailer or a boat is on the table too, if your version of a cabin weekend involves a lake.

Packing Tips From People Who Load These for a Living

We load and unload vehicles constantly, so a few things we have learned the hard way:

Heavy and low, forward of the axle. Coolers and suitcases go on the floor, pushed toward the back of the seats — not stacked up by the tailgate. It keeps the handling neutral and stops the whole load from lunging forward when you brake.

Soft bags beat hard cases. Duffels conform to the shape of the space. Rigid suitcases enforce their own geometry and waste the corners. If you own both, bring the duffels.

Pack a "day bag" last. Whatever you need at a rest stop — snacks, wipes, a phone cable, the one stuffed animal that cannot be lost — goes in a single bag that rides in the cabin, not the cargo hold. Otherwise you will unpack the entire vehicle in a Wawa parking lot. We have watched it happen.

Leave a sightline. Do not stack above the headrests. The rear camera is excellent; the rear window is better. Use both.

The Tech That Keeps the Peace

The 10.25-inch touchscreen runs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so navigation and the family playlist come straight off a phone without anyone learning a new interface at 70 mph. There is dual-zone climate control up front and rear controls, which resolves roughly forty percent of all in-car arguments before they begin — the driver and the third row genuinely do not have to agree on temperature anymore.

USB charging keeps devices alive, which is not a luxury on a five-hour drive; it is infrastructure. And Kia's Drive Wise suite is standard across the board: forward collision-avoidance assist, lane keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, driver attention warning, and smart cruise control with stop-and-go. On a long highway haul, adaptive cruise is the difference between arriving tired and arriving wrecked.

Why Rent Instead of Buying One

Here is our honest pitch. If you need a three-row SUV every single day, buy one. If you need a three-row SUV four or five times a year — the shore week, the college drop-off, the holidays, the airport run when everyone's flight lands at once — then buying one means paying for a big vehicle three hundred days a year to solve a problem that exists on sixty.

Rent the big vehicle for the big trip. Drive your normal car the rest of the time. The math is not close, and you get a clean, freshly detailed SUV with current tires and no mystery smell under the third row.

Book It

The Telluride is live in our fleet now at $119 a day, based here in Bergen County and available for shore runs, mountain weekends, airport pickups, and every family logistics puzzle in between. Comprehensive insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance are included, as always.

Bring the whole crew. There is finally room.

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