2027 Kia Seltos Gives Off More Compact Telluride Vibes

Honey, I shrunk the Telluride.

That’s literally what I thought when the 2027 Kia Seltos X-Line arrived at my office. And in Desert Sand Metallic, it looked a lot like the Telluride X-Pro I tested recently, down to its black alloy wheels and angular fender shapes.

Even shrunk in the wash – it looks cool. 

The first-generation Seltos (2021 to 2026) was a cute, pretty generic crossover positioned between the Soul and Sportage that got good reviews, and also received a mid-cycle design update. Then as they looked ahead to 2027, designers took a page from the just-introduced Telluride, and downsized its chunkier, round-edged box with similarly aggressive design cues.

2nd Gen 2027 Kia Seltos X-Line SX Turbo Styling

So the Seltos starts with a prominent sculpted black chrome-accented grille with squared-off LED headlights framed in vertical DRLs. Longer DRL slashes follow the fender and hood line at outer corners. Since this is an X-Line, with off-road intentions, the chunky black lower grille gets big silver-framed side intakes – they aren’t, really –  with LED fog lights. The whole thing is tied together with a black lower air dam. 

Geometric black spoked alloy wheels wear 19-inch KUMHO Majesty rubber under black flares that connect with the lower grille fascia, geometric flared gloss and matte black lower sills.

The squared-off roof gets a long dark glass moonroof framed in slim black roof rails, more black on the side pillars – with 2-tone side mirrors. 

The back fenders have angled upper sections that bisect the rear window design, gloss black accents making the roof seem to float as the side windows wraps into corner aero accents and window. The geometric LED taillights follow the tailgate’s lower shape, while the tops are connected by a slim light bar. The rear window gets a long body-color spoiler/shade edged in black. The rear bumper echoes the front with big silver corner accents with reflectors.

It’s a cool design, especially in that gold with black, and one that looks as cool as the 2027 Telluride, if smaller. And if you think this subcompact has some size, you’re right. It’s almost 2 inches longer, just over an inch wider, and has a 2.4-inch longer wheelbase.

And BTW –  Seltos is a name apparently derived from Celtos, son of Roman god Hercules.

2027 Kia Seltos X-Line SX Turbo Gets 30-Inch Display

Being a crossover with 8.1-inches of ground clearance puts the front seats at the right slide-in height. Once there, a dark gray-on-gray plastic interior with some silver trim awaits, padded surfaces in touchable areas. The softly leather-like Syn Tex leatherette bucket seats were very comfortable and just supportive enough, with heating, cooling and dual memory presets for the driver, plus flow-through cloth on the head restraints.

Like the Telluride, the Seltos gets a wide digital display – 30 inch’s worth – with configurable info screens in between a digital tachometer and speedometer in front, then a partially hidden (by the steering wheel) climate control screen. The rest of the display is taken up by a wide navigation screen that can also be segmented into boxes for map, audio, phone, weather and much more, all swipeable left or right.

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There are real buttons for fan, dual-zone temperature and vent mode under main menu buttons for navigation, media and more. Below them, three USB ports.

Then the wide center console, framed in hard gray and some silver plastic, gets an inductive phone charger, gearshift, cup holders and buttons for auto-hold brakes, parking sensor and more. The center armrest has a bit of storage underneath as well.

I’m tall, so I had to duck a bit to get under the rear roofline, finding very roomy rear seating under it that’s just a bit higher than the fronts. There are rear air vents too. But rear-seater’s knees will find hard gray plastic on the backs of the front seats, if their knees tap them

The rear power hatch opens high to a 27.8-cu.ft. cargo area, expandable to 64.2-cu-ft when the 60/40 split rear seat backs drop.

The 2027 Seltos sticks with the engine choices from its first-gen – a base 2-liter four-cylinder MPI engine with 147-hp and 132 lb.-ft. of torque and a CVT. Our tester had the more sprightly turbocharged 1.6-liter engine with 190 hp and 195 lb.-ft. of torque, front-biased all-wheel-drive and an 8-speed transmission.

It offers Normal or Sport drive modes that alter engine and steering feel. There’s a manual shift mode – tap the gearshift left for manual moves. And because this is the more rugged X-Line trim level, with higher ride height and all-wheel-drive, you have Snow, Mud or Sand that adjust shift patterns and all-wheel-drive split as needed.

The turbo four has solid performance in Normal mode, quite usable in day-to-day driving. It was moderate off the line, then the turbo joined for 60 mph in 7.9 seconds. We had a fairly strong launch in Sport mode, 60 mph in 7.6 seconds. FYI – the longer second-generation Seltos does weigh in a few hundred pounds more than the first-gen, which shows up in slightly less sprightly launches. But in daily suburban driving, our 4,600-mile-old Seltos happily stays in mostly FWD, and gives about 25 mpg in mostly Normal mode.

That compares to 7.5 seconds to 60 mph in Smart mode in a 2021 Seltos test, and 6.7 seconds in Sport mode, averaging about 24 mpg.

And now as then, one of the gauge display modes offers you an all-wheel-drive mix – launching mostly with front-wheel-drive, then quickly shifting up to 50 percent torque rearward as we moved out.

Our 4,674-lb. all-wheel drive crossover lives atop a McPherson strut front suspension with multi-link rear suspension, drive modes not changing the supple yet taut enough ride. The Seltos was quiet at highway speed except for some tire and side mirror wind noise. Ride motions were well controlled. Bumps absorbed with a solid, lightly buffered rebound. The all-wheel-drive powered aft as needed in turns, secure cornering with a touch of body roll as the Seltos tackled turns. Understeer was almost non-existent when pushed. It was quite neutral.

While a touch larger than the last-gen, this Seltos was agile, with limited body roll around curves. There’s a small turning radius, with nicely direct steering feel in Sport. The 12.8-inch front/11.2-inch rear disc brakes offered good bite high on the pedal and progressive control, stopping quickly with a bit of nose dive at full compression.

We detected no fade after some repeated hard stops from 60 mph. And with its 8.1-inch ground clearance and the ability to lock its center differential, this Seltos is just fine for a beach or dirt road run to a campsite, although we didn’t hit the dirt in our suburban test. It was very sure-footed in some Florida downpours.

For safety, the 2027 model gets a rather insistent lane-keeping assist and blind spot cameras that appear in left and right parts of its gauge.

A 2027 Kia Seltos LX FWD starts at $24,990; our X-Line SX Turbo AWD started at $32,790, well equipped as was bar options like $2,500 Prestige Package with full-width driver screen with navigation, good Harmon-Kardon audio, navigation-based smart cruise control and a bit more; $220 floor liners; $200 carpet mats; and $45 first aid kit total $37,250 with destination fee.

Bottom line: Shrinking the design language of the new Telluride to the subcompact Seltos is a good idea. It looks cool, handles four and cargo without a problem, and is quick enough and agile.

2027 Kia Seltos X-Line SX Turbo AWD specifications

Base price – $32,790 ($32,790 as tested)
Engine type – Turbocharged DOHC 16-valve direct-injection alloy block in-line four
Displacement – 1.6 liter
Horsepower (net) – 190 @ 6,000 rpm
Torque (lb-ft) – 195 @ 4,500 rpm
Transmission – 8-speed automatic with manual shifting
Wheelbase – 105.9 inches
Overall length – 174.4 inches
Overall width – 72 inches
Height – 65 inches
Front headroom – 38.5 inches
Front legroom – 41.4 inches
Rear headroom – 38.4 inches
Rear legroom – 39 inches
Cargo capacity – 27.8 cu. ft./64.2 w/rear seat folded
Curb weight – 4,674 lbs.
Fuel capacity – 13.2 gallons
Mileage rating – 24-mpg city/30-mpg highway