The Kia Telluride and the Hyundai Palisade arrived together for 2020, and the record on both is heavy: 1,624 complaints on the Telluride and 1,579 on the Palisade across six model years. The Telluride year to be careful with is the first, 2020, at 748 complaints, 124.7 per year on the road and a CAUTION verdict at 66; the 2021 car halves the count to 354 and scores 82, and the 2023 to 2025 cars score 76 to 79. The Palisade is the reverse shape. Its 2020 and 2021 cars score 78 and 77 on 528 and 429 complaints, and its 2024 and 2025 cars fall to CAUTION at 61 and 58, with Service Brakes at 220 and 96. Buy a 2021 or 2023 Telluride or a 2020 to 2021 Palisade; treat the 2020 Telluride and the 2024 to 2025 Palisade as the years to think twice about.
The Telluride's first year
The 2020 Telluride's 748 complaints spread across four categories that are each large enough to be a pattern on their own: Exterior Lighting 183, Unknown Or Other 140, Engine 138, Visibility/Wiper 135, and then Power Train at 70. The lighting count has a campaign behind it, 24V148000 (26/02/2024), for high beam headlights that may fail on the 2020 car, issued in 2024 for a 2020 model year car, which is a long time for 183 owners to have been reporting it. The Engine and Visibility/Wiper counts have no campaign on the 2020 car; the record shows them as owner-reported patterns without a documented cause, and the Visibility/Wiper category is the one that takes windscreen complaints.
The 2020 car has seven campaigns, two safety-critical: 19V594000 (13/08/2019) for seat belt assemblies that may not hold a child restraint tightly, and 20V436000 (28/07/2020) for trailer brake lights that do not come on when the Smart Cruise Control brakes. Three more run from 2020 through 2024 and apply to every Telluride in that span: 24V407000 (05/06/2024) for a front power seat motor that can overheat from a stuck slide knob and start a fire, 26V430000 (02/07/2026), which recalls the same cars again because some 24V407 repairs were done improperly, and 24V214000 (20/03/2024) for an intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft that may not be fully engaged, allowing the car to roll away in Park. Campaign 22V626000 (15/08/2022) covers the tow hitch harness on 2020 and 2021 cars.
The Telluride from 2021
The 2021 car has 354 complaints and 70.8 per year on the road, still high, but Exterior Lighting drops out of the top five entirely and Unknown Or Other leads at 98, followed by Visibility/Wiper 62, Engine 61, Electrical System 39 and Structure 32. Its one safety-critical campaign is 21V164000 (11/03/2021), the occupant classification unit that may not detect a child seat in the front passenger seat. The 2022 car has no complaints on record and no verdict; that is a gap in the data, not a clean year.
The 2023 car has 203 complaints and scores 79 on high evidence, with Unknown Or Other 57 and Electrical System 49 leading; it carries 23V298000 (26/04/2023) for a digital instrument cluster fault and 23V035000 (29/01/2023) for second-row side air bag wiring harnesses that may be damaged, both safety-critical, plus the door belt moulding campaign 25V494000 (28/07/2025) that runs to 2025. The 2024 car has 214 complaints, 107.0 per year, and campaign 24V077000 (07/02/2024) for engine valve springs that may break while driving and put a hole in the block, the one engine campaign on the nameplate. The 2025 car has 105 complaints with Engine leading at 36, a seat back frame campaign, 26V105000 (23/02/2026), and an incorrect spare tyre campaign, 25V745000 (31/10/2025). The rate per year on the 2024 and 2025 cars, 107.0 and 105.0, is higher than on the 2021 and 2023 cars, so the Telluride has not finished getting better.
Kia Telluride: the record, year by year
| Year | Score | Verdict | NHTSA complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 79 | BUY | 105 | 3 |
| 2024 | 76 | BUY | 214 | 5 |
| 2023 | 79 | BUY | 203 | 6 |
| 2022 | — | DATA PENDING | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 82 | BUY | 354 | 5 |
| 2020 | 66 | CAUTION | 748 | 7 |
Live from the federal record as of 2026-10-04; linked years have their own page. Full table and repair costs on the Kia Telluride model page.
The Palisade: 2020 and 2021
The Palisade's first two years have more complaints than the Telluride's second and third but score better, 78 and 77, because the complaints are spread and the safety-critical campaigns are few. The 2020 car's list is Engine 126, Visibility/Wiper 114, Unknown Or Other 84, Suspension 60 and Seat Belts 50. The 2021 car's is led by Seat Belts at 108, then Unknown Or Other 79, Electrical System 55, Engine 55 and Visibility/Wiper 48.
Two of those categories have campaigns behind them. The wipers: 22V627000 (15/08/2022) covers 2020 and 2021 cars for a windscreen wiper motor that may become inoperative, and 23V180000 (17/03/2023) covers the 2021 car for a motor that fails when snow or ice builds up on the glass. The seat belts: 25V607000 (12/09/2025) covers every Palisade from 2020 to 2025 for buckles in the driver, passenger and second-row window seats that may fail to latch, and it was issued in 2025, long after the 2021 car logged 108 Seat Belts complaints. The 2020 car also has 19V802000 (07/11/2019) for side curtain air bag mounting bolts that can damage the bag on deployment, and the 2021 car has 21V840000 (27/10/2021) for contaminated brake fluid that swells the master cylinder seals. Campaign 26V034000 (23/01/2026) covers all six years for third-row curtain air bags that may deploy improperly. The Engine count of 126 on the 2020 car has no campaign to explain it.
The Palisade's 2024 and 2025
The 2022 and 2023 cars have no complaints on record and no verdict. Then the 2024 car has 382 complaints in a single year on the road, 191.0 per year, more than double the 2020 car's 88.0, and 220 of them are Service Brakes, with Forward Collision Avoidance 53, Seat Belts 48 and Air Bags 21 behind. The 2025 car has 240 complaints, a rate of 240.0, and Service Brakes leads again at 96, with Seat Belts 57 and Air Bags 31. There is no brake campaign on either year. The 2024 car's three safety-critical recalls are 23V599000 (25/08/2023), an occupant detection system on cars with dark suede seats that can switch off the passenger air bag; 25V607000, the seat belt buckles; and 26V034000, the curtain air bags. It also carries 24V106000 (13/02/2024) for the same valve spring fault as the Telluride and 23V526000 (27/07/2023) for the Idle Stop and Go oil pump controller. The 2025 car has 25V291000 (06/05/2025), an electric oil pump controller whose seal lets moisture onto the circuit board.
A brake pattern of 220 complaints with no campaign is the single largest unresolved item on either nameplate, and until the record shows what it is, the 2024 and 2025 Palisade are CAUTION verdicts with high evidence behind them.
Hyundai Palisade: the record, year by year
| Year | Score | Verdict | NHTSA complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 58 | CAUTION | 240 | 3 |
| 2024 | 61 | CAUTION | 382 | 5 |
| 2023 | — | DATA PENDING | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | — | DATA PENDING | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 77 | BUY | 429 | 6 |
| 2020 | 78 | BUY | 528 | 5 |
Live from the federal record as of 2026-10-04; linked years have their own page. Full table and repair costs on the Hyundai Palisade model page.
Which one the record prefers
Year for year, the Palisade wins 2020 (78 against 66) and the Telluride wins everything after: 82 against 77 in 2021, and 76 and 79 against 61 and 58 in 2024 and 2025. Both share the valve spring campaign on their 2024 cars and a tow hitch harness campaign on 2020 to 2021 cars. The Telluride's problems are front-loaded and partly recalled; the Palisade's are recent and not.
What to check before you buy
- On any Telluride, confirm 24V407000 and 26V430000 by VIN, the second exists because the first was sometimes done wrong, and 24V214000; try the power seat slide knob and make sure it does not stick.
- On a 2020 Telluride, confirm 24V148000 and test the high beams, and inspect the windscreen for cracks.
- On a 2024 Telluride or Palisade, confirm the valve spring campaign, 24V077000 or 24V106000, and ask for the repair order.
- On any Palisade, confirm 25V607000 and 26V034000, and latch and unlatch every seat belt buckle yourself, front and second row.
- On a 2024 or 2025 Palisade, brake hard from speed and gently at low speed on the test drive, and ask the seller directly whether the brakes have been serviced or the pads and rotors replaced; 220 complaints in the category is the reason.
Summary
Treat the 2020 Kia Telluride as CAUTION and the 2024 and 2025 Hyundai Palisade the same. Buy a 2021 or 2023 Telluride, or a 2020 or 2021 Palisade, with the seat, driveshaft and seat belt campaigns confirmed. The 2022 Telluride and the 2022 and 2023 Palisade have no record on this site yet.