2024 Kia Telluride UP Roadtrip To MAMA New Car Spring Rally

KIA TELLURIDE to the MAMA New Model Spring Rally
Road trip through the UP, eh?

By Steve Purdy
Senior Editor at Large
Michigan Bureau
The Auto Channel

Elkhart Lake, WI, May 2023 - Early in my late-onset automotive journalism career I joined the Chicago-based Midwest Auto Media Association after hanging out with these guys and gals at a California Volvo launch. MAMA’s signature event, known as the Spring Rally, is based at the historic Road America race track where they bring together about 80 cars, trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, at least as many journalists and enough marketing and PR staff to keep us hoppin’ and informed for a couple days as we drive, drive, drive on the 4-mile race track, two off-road courses, lovely country roads and even an autocross track.

My routine for most of these years has been to use this as a road trip opportunity. If I took the conventional route from my south-central Michigan headquarters around Chicago I could do the drive in about 6 hours - only a little of that time would be pleasant. Sure, dicing with fast city traffic in a competent car can be fun with the right attitude, but if I go around the northern shore of Lake Michigan, through Michigan’s quiet and scenic Upper Peninsula, it will take about 9 hours, nearly all of that time therapeutic . . . radio off, brain in neutral, attuned to the appreciation of Mother Nature and my own thoughts.

This year our friends at Kia offered a loaded Telluride SX-Prestige X-Pro AWDfor the trip. Telluride is Kia’s popular three-row crossover and this one is the top trim level with a few off-road touches. The sticker shows a tad over 55-grand. It’s a sweet shade of blue, has a direct-injected 3.8-liter V6, with 8-speed transmission and all-wheel drive. The 20-inch black wheels are shod with modestly aggressive treads and the two-tone, rich-looking interior says, c’mon in, the leather’s fine. Nice materials and thoughtful design throughout include: headliner of a suede-like material, an understated androgynous wood/metal trim piece the width of the dash, two 12.3-inch electronic display screens, and a conventional shifter emerging from the console . . . as God intended.

Being a dedicated roadie, I usually drive to the Spring Rally and back virtually non-stop but this year I’ve added a day onto the front and another to the end of the trip so I’ll have time to explore along the way, and coincidentally to meet up with the designer of my upcoming book (more on that later) in Petoskey along Michigan’s “Gold Coast.” The plan is to head east of the Mackinac Straits to Drummond Island first, having not been to the end of that road, and I’d like to run down the peninsula bordering Big Bay De Noc, where the Fayette State Park celebrates the 19th Century village where pig iron was smelted and shipped. The map shows a lesser road extending another 10 miles out to the tip of the peninsula.

By the way, I reviewed the Telluride’s cousin – Hyundai Palisade – on a road trip to Maine last year and thought it a worthy steed for that long road trip with four of us dedicated travelers. For that review go HERE

Not far north of the Mackinaw Bridge, Michigan Highway 134 heads off east off I-75 following the north shore of Lake Huron for about 41 miles offering dozens of opportunities to pull off and enjoy the mostly undeveloped shoreline. Only a few small villages punctuate the route to De Tour Village where one must catch the ferry onto Drummond Island. I just missed the ferry and realized I hadn’t enough time to do justice to an island exploration if I waited for the next one, so I’ll save that for another trip. Rather than backtrack, though, the Kia’s navigation system showed me a couple of lesser road loops to add a bit more context to the drive. I found miles and miles of well-maintained paved and gravel county roads leading through the pristine wilderness ending up in Manistique for the night.

The next day I needn’t be in Elkhart Lake until late afternoon, so had most of the day to explore, beginning with that road along the shore of Big Bay De Noc. Though I hadn’t visited the Fayette State Park in years my focus was on finding the end of the road just beyond the tiny, shabby settlement of Fairport. I found what was left of a fishing boat repair shop that apparently is a fishing dock as well along with a couple dozen modest homes. The map showed the smaller road leading another few miles into the woods ending at the shore right near the peninsula’s tip. It started out as well-maintained dirt but after passing a couple small houses it began to get narrower and rougher as it became a rocky two-track through dense trees. (I hope I didn’t scratch the Telluride.) Finally, it became a lane that hadn’t enough traffic to even kill the grass. It looked to be about a hundred yards from the shore when a sign posted on a tree warned against trespassing. Bummer!

Again, heading back up the peninsula I found a couple dirt roads that saved some backtracking and led past pastures of nice-looking cattle, lots of freshly mowed hay fields and quite a substantial wind farm interspersed with forests and wood lots.

Then, with still a few hours to spare, I left Highway 2 and headed due west just before Escanaba where I was surprised to find beautiful well-tended, productive farms along the well-maintained paved county roads before I was forced back onto Highways 41 and 2 headed for Iron Mountain, a major UP city right on the border with Wisconsin. Iron Mountain is famous for a 37-acre, 2,500-year-old fungus, sometimes called the “humungous fungus,” claimed by some to be the largest and oldest living thing on earth. The veracity of the claim is in question, but it’s still mighty big and mighty old. Too bad it lives underground where we can’t see, touch or smell it. Another Bummer!

The final leg of the drive, fast and straight past Green Bay then into the rich dairy farming regions of east central Wisconsin. The Telluride’s “Sport Mode” made that a bit more fun, but a pedal-to-the-metal thrust to pass on the two-lane sections before and after Green Bay were less than satisfying. We had enough power but the transmission was a tad indecisive.

Elkhart Lake resides within an area of glacial moraines surrounded by vast, rolling farm lands where much of our milk and cheese comes from. The Osthoff Resort dominates the little town. Atop the hill just south of town is the world-famous Road America race track and motorsports complex. That’s where we will spend our time the next couple days.

HIGHLITES OF THE MAMA SPRING RALLY.

Surrounded by huge tracts of some of the finest farm land in the country, the village of Elkhart Lake hosted a few road races through and around town in the earliest 1950s. Road America opened in 1955 leading the Midwest into the golden era of road racing, which theretofore had mostly been on the coasts. In the 1970s, this reporter first attended a race there, crewing for brother Warren’s C-Sports racer during the Sports Car Club of America’s June Sprints. I remember mostly, brats, beer and pretty women punctuated by the smell of spent racing fuel.

Now we’re here with our colleagues to schmooze and drive as many cars as we can. So many cars – so little time. I managed at least three dozen.

Most amazing of the cars and crossovers I snagged to run around the scenic countryside were the high-end electrics including the Lucid Air and the Genesis G90 EV, cars so smooth and sophisticated, so silky and fast. They represent high-end cars of the future for the well-heeled. I’m all in on these. In addition to the adrenaline-on-demand thrust these EVs offer I’m particularly fond of the one-pedal mode of driving that Genesis calls iPedal. The regenerative braking system can be adjusted to bring the car to a full stop, with whatever intensity the driver wishes just by lifting off the go-pedal - lift off quickly for a rapid stop, or more gently for a gentler stop. It was a bit disconcerting at first but soon felt entirely natural and intuitive.

On the more brutish side of the high-end field of cars was the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 AMG, a mid-size crossover with enough gasoline-fueled horsepower, raucous sound and feel to engender another kind of adrenaline rush on acceleration. Noisy, brash and tactile, this is the vehicle I’d like to be driving if being chased by kidnappers or other evil-doers. Most memorable was the inside view from the driver’s seat where starkly contrasting black and silver in-your-face shapes with dozens of intense little lights and icons are punctuated by aggressive orange and red lights coming out of the IP right at me as I gave her her head on the deserted country road.

The good folks at Stelantis introduced us to their newest entry in the small crossover segment, perhaps the most competitive in the industry. It’s badged a Dodge Hornet, a historic name but it’s visually underwhelming. It will have the most power in its class and share the Dodge high-performance personality with both conventional and plug-in hybrid versions.

Teasing us a bit, the Ford folks showed us the new Mustang “Dark Horse” in a lovely white color with a 500-hp, naturally aspirated 5-liter V8, they didn’t bring it for us to drive, though. How cruel is that? At about 59 grand it’s one of the very few cars we can still have with a manual transmission.

Ford also brought the Bronco Raptor with huge tires and lift kit for both off-road and country-road dives. It was as high off the ground as a Super Duty pickup and I barely struggled in behind the wheel without a running board to help. It was a hoot to be behind the wheel fantasizing about it being and original Bronco with so many heritage styling and performance cues. Back into the paddock I nicknamed it Teddy Roosevelt because it was a rough-riding SOB.

Hyundai hosted breakfast so they could have our undivided attention for the preview of their newest EV, a sedan, if you can believe that - the IONIC 6. Sedans have mostly gone away but Hyundai, Toyota and a handful of others are keeping that segment alive. With a race car-like 0.219 coefficient of drag it looks like a Mercedes in the rear and a second-gen Saturn in the front, but has every conceivable tech and driver assist feature and comes with either RWD or AWD.

Perhaps most ostentatious was the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge. With a sticker of nearly half-a-mill I can’t believe they turned me loose with that powerful steed without at least a minder in the #2 seat. Opulence is da name a dat tune.

BACK ACROSS THE UP

The Spring Rally adjourned after lunch. A leisurely drive along the western and northern shores of Lake Michigan with the sun at my back took me as far as Mackinaw City. I had to stop a few times along the way to photograph the trillium, marsh marigolds, shore scenes, and the mighty Mackinaw Bridge.

The final leg of the journey took a slight detour west off I-75 into the wilds of the northern forests for a spectacular drive along Michigan’s Highway 119 north of Harbor Springs, affectionately known as the “tunnel of trees” - a narrow paved 20 miles of beautiful homes, cliff views of Lake Michigan, one old cemetery and more trillium than you can imagine.

My book designer, Colleen, is in nearby Petoskey and we’re approaching the half-way point in the colorful art book we’re creating featuring the best of my mascot and hood ornament photography from the past 40 years and tidbits of stories to go with them. It’s called “Mascots in Motion: Images and Stories of Automotive Aesthetics.” We hope to have it out this fall. Colleen’s doing a fabulous job. Watch this space for more on the book project.

KIA TELLURIDE SUMMARY

Contrary to popular myth, the beautiful, Rocky Mountain resort village of Telluride, Colorado was not named for the treacherous way into the gold-rush town of the 1880s -“to Hell you ride.” Rather, it’s named after a mineral found there. The former is a much more interesting story, don’t you think.

The Kia Telluride is a well-equipped crossover with three rows of seating or lots of cargo space. Our test car has captain’s seating in the second row. Access to the rear-row is better than some and the push of a button brings the second-row seat forward and out of the way. Not so convenient is the need for two hands if you want to return the second-row seat back to upright if you’ve folded it for cargo.

The conventional powertrain performed well. Transmission modes add to the versatility and we easily averaged 23-mpg in spite of a driving style not attuned to maximizing mileage. Taking the Telluride through one of the off-road courses at Road America demonstrated its chassis sophistication. I was surprised to find it even has downhill descent control. You’ll not want to take it on the Rubicon but it is entirely capable of offering some fun on the “seasonal” roads in northern Michigan.

The Telluride, of course, comes with Hyundai and Kia’s 100,000-mile powertrain warrantee with 5 years and 60,000 miles for the whole car. The basic Telluride can be had for around 36 grand and it comes in about 10 trim levels and iterations, including a plug-in hybrid.

As with most of the Hyundai and Kia products we’ve reviewed the Telluride comes with a more content for the money than you might expect. If it’s a three-row crossover you’re after you’ll do well to put this one on your shopping list.