2022 Kia Telluride1st gen (2020–2025), pre-facelift, final year

Updated 2026-08-28NHTSA counts read on this date — 318 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2022 Kia Telluride: Windshields and Screens Got Worse

Three model years in, the complaints that defined the first Tellurides had thinned out. Oil consumption complaints ran 78 on the 2020, 25 on the 2021, and eight here. Headlights went 168, 10, eight. Paint delamination fell from 48 to four on the 2021, and it’s still four here.

Three counts went the other way.

Windshields: 60 on the 2021, 98 here. Screens and displays: 22 on the 2021, 51 here. Transmission went eight to ten, which is small enough to be noise. The other two aren’t. And they aren’t the same owners filing twice: 147 filings name one or the other, and only two name both.

The sunroof count fell, from 101 to 41 — but 32 of the 41 describe the panel shattering rather than the mechanism breaking, and 25 of those say it happened while driving. That is a different failure from the 2021’s.

Owners have filed 318 complaints about the 2022 with NHTSA, against 349 for the 2021. Roughly the same volume, and a very different mix inside it.

The basics

Built in West Point, Georgia. This is the last year of the original design — the 2023 refresh brought the restyle, dual widescreen displays, and the X-Line and X-Pro trims.

What changed for 2022:

• Kia’s new badging and a redesigned grille
• 10.25-inch touchscreen with navigation became standard on LX and S — it had been an 8-inch screen with the big one optional
• Automatic climate control and Highway Driving Assist added as standard on those trims
• Prices up $200 to $700 over 2021

That screen change matters if you’re shopping used. A base 2022 LX has hardware that cost extra on a 2021.

Kia sold 99,564 Tellurides in calendar 2022, the model’s best year. Model years and sales years don’t align, so treat complaint rates as approximate.

Specs

From Kia’s official materials. Mechanically identical to 2020 and 2021.

Original pricing ran from $34,015 including destination to $43,915 for the SX before options.

How it was received

Another IIHS Top Safety Pick with Good ratings across all six crashworthiness categories, and another five stars overall from NHTSA. Still not a Top Safety Pick+ — the last year that would be true. The 2023 refresh takes the higher award. IIHS later added a tougher side-impact test that did not exist when this car was rated. The Telluride scores Marginal on it, a rating that covers the 2020 through 2022 cars and comes from crashing the structurally similar Hyundai Palisade. It is on the ratings page today and was not part of the award.

Crashworthiness testing measures how glass and structure behave in a collision. It does not measure whether a windshield cracks on a cold night in a parking lot, or whether a sunroof lets go at 66 mph with nothing hitting it. The 2022 scores well on the first. On the second it draws 139 glass filings out of 318 — counting any filing that names a cracked windshield or the sunroof — fewer than the 2020’s 188, and a smaller share of the year than the 2021’s 160 out of 349. Glass is not getting worse in total — the windshield count rose while the sunroof count collapsed. It is what is left after the rest got quieter.

What owners filed

The standing caveat: NHTSA’s database collects complaints only. Nobody files to say the car is fine. Most 2022 Tellurides aren’t here.

Windshields — 98 complaints

The largest count on this car, and up from 60 on the 2021 despite fewer complaints overall — counted as filings that name the windshield and describe it cracking, chipping, spidering, or shattering, the same rule used on the earlier years. The recurring theme is that the glass seems fragile beyond what road debris explains.

One owner (ODI 11732381) put it in a sentence:

“Windshield cracks so easily, slightest road debris creates a chip then crack”

Others report no impact at all. From ODI 11719611:

“The windshield cracked for no apparent reason. The crack was on the driver’s side, about 16 inches long, starting near the top and curving around the driver’s view to the middle of the windshield.”

And a thermal one (ODI 11706066), which shows up more than once in cold-climate filings:

“I had noticed a 1” wide crack had formed in the center of the windshield after first night of cold weather (~10°F). There was no prior damage to the windshield before the crack formed.”

Screens and displays — 51 complaints

Up from 22 on the 2021 — the sharpest rise on this model year, counted as filings that name a screen, a display, the head unit, the instrument cluster, the radio, or navigation. Kia has recalled the instrument cluster twice on this model year, for the same symptom. From ODI 11755746:

“Just started the car and the whole dashboard went blank, no speedometer, gas tank, nothing is showing like the whole dashboard died on us while driving”

That is what campaigns 21V577000 and 22V344000 cover — the instrument cluster going blank at startup, two separate recalls for the same symptom, the second traced to excess adhesive on a circuit board.

The infotainment head unit is a separate failure with a separate price. ODI 11714734:

“Infotainment screen is blank most of the time. Backup camera works intermittently. Dealer confirmed head unit failure and stated software updates cannot be performed. Quoted approximately $7,500 for full replacement.”

A backup camera display is federally required equipment. That quote is one dealer on one car, not a going rate — but it is the number that owner was given.

Sunroof — 41 complaints, and 32 of them are the glass

The 2022 diverges from the 2021 most sharply right here. On the 2021, the sunroof failure was mechanical: the wind deflector or the arm broke and the panel wouldn’t close. Here, the dominant failure is the panel itself coming apart.

From ODI 11747772:

“I am reporting a spontaneous sunroof glass failure involving my 2022 Kia Telluride. While driving at normal highway speed, I suddenly heard an extremely loud bang that sounded like an explosion or gunshot. I did not see or hear any object strike my vehicle before the incident.”

Another, filed through NHTSA’s contact process (ODI 11734250):

“While driving at 66 MPH, the sunroof unexpectedly exploded. There was no impact on the sunroof to cause the failure. The sunroof cover was closed during the failure. There were no injuries sustained.”

And one owner filed a single sentence (ODI 11741664):

“Sunroof exploded while driving in the 540 expressway.”

Panoramic roof shattering is not unique to the Telluride; owners in these filings say as much themselves. But 32 filings on one model year is a pattern, and there is no recall covering it.

Engine shutdown — 14 complaints

Down from 26 on the 2021, counted as filings describing a stall, a shutdown, or a loss of power while driving. Nine of the 14 say it happened at a stated speed, on a highway, or in a live lane. The rest describe it at idle or don’t say where. So this is not simply a car that won’t idle.

The idle version is the one owners can point to a cause for. From ODI 11755180, at 12,000 miles:

“The contact stated that while stopped on several occasions, the Auto START/STOP feature was activated, and the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was able to restart without any further issues. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on three separate occasions; however, the failure was not duplicated.”

Three dealer visits, no reproduction. Another owner (ODI 11749731) documents it starting at 59,761 miles and continuing.

The nine that happen at speed are a different event. From ODI 11736782:

“On three different occasions this car’s engine shuts off on me sometimes at highway speeds. It is terrifying being in the left lane and losing all propulsion and power steering. I have to quickly put the car in park (in the middle of the highway) and then restart the car to go again.”

Fourteen is fewer than the 2021’s 26 and far fewer than the 2020’s 55. But the count is the wrong thing to look at when nine of them describe losing power at speed.

Brakes — 12 complaints

NHTSA files 12 filings under service brakes. Several read almost identically: the pedal goes to the floor while the dashboard lights up all at once. From ODI 11527744:

“I pushed on the brake and every possible warning went off. ABS light, traction control, collision warning, error messages kept coming on. The brake pedal went to the floor. I continued to pump the brakes.”

Two of them ended in a collision. ODI 11644790 describes one at walking pace:

“complete brake failure while exiting an elementary school garage, leading to a collision with the closed gate. ABS warning lights came on and witnesses heard ABS sounds despite dry pavement and slow speed. Driver stopped car by throwing into park. CCTV captured the incident.”

The same filing reports that two repair shops and a Kia dealer later found multiple ABS and stability control errors. What they have in common isn’t worn pads — it’s the electronics around the brakes reporting failure at the same moment the pedal stops working.

Driver assistance braking for nothing — 12 complaints

The opposite problem, and it needs to be counted separately: the car braking when nobody asked. From ODI 11635067:

“While driving approximately 40mph down straight roadway without anything around, the vehicle has unexpectedly slammed on the brakes. This has happened four times to date”

From ODI 11538285:

“we were driving with adaptive cruise on and the vehicle will inexplicably engage the FCA system and slam on the brakes. This has occurred with no vehicles in front of me in clear conditions And had nearly caused a rear end collision.”

Twenty-two filings use the word “brakes”, but the word covers two opposite failures. NHTSA’s labels split them: 12 are filed under service brakes, 12 under forward collision avoidance. Three filings carry both labels, which is why the two twelves come to 21 and not 24. Brakes that don’t work and brakes that work uninvited are opposite problems on the same pedal.

Transmission — 10 complaints

Not one failure but several. The AWD coupling binding up through turns, intermittent failure to shift with a check engine light, a shimmy at 35 to 45 mph that dealers couldn’t reproduce. One (ODI 11609976) reports the car jerking forward while parked in a driveway, which is close enough to what recall 24V214000 covers to be worth a VIN check.

Headlights — eight complaints

A different complaint from the 2020’s. Three describe a single headlight cutting out intermittently, one traced to a baffle inside the assembly that stopped moving. The rest say the headlights simply aren’t bright enough for night driving. On the 2020, 168 filings describe the assembly dying outright. Three intermittent cutouts is a different scale, and reads like a different failure.

Oil consumption — eight complaints

Down from 78 on the 2020, to 25, to eight. The complaint record shows the decline; it does not show what Kia changed, or whether the 2022s are simply too young to have gotten there yet.

Recalls

NHTSA lists seven campaigns against the 2022 Telluride. All of them stay open on any VIN where the work was never done, so the question is never whether a recall is old.

The one in the news is the power seat motor fire, 26V430000. Kia recalled about 463,000 vehicles for it in June 2024 under 24V407000, then recalled essentially all of them — 462,869 — again in July 2026 after an internal investigation found further switch failure modes, and that some dealers hadn’t completed the original repair correctly. Kia’s filing lists seven seat fires and eleven melted motors. NHTSA says park outside until the second repair is done.

Two more are safety items nobody talks about. 24V214000 covers 2020–2024 Tellurides whose intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged, which can let the car roll away in PARK — one of the transmission filings above reads like exactly that. And 22V626000 covers 2020–2022 cars fitted with the genuine Kia four-pin tow hitch harness, where debris and moisture on the circuit board can start a fire.

The rest are 2022-specific: 22V509000 for an incorrect spare tire that impairs ABS and traction control when it is on the car, and 21V577000 and 22V344000 for the blank cluster covered above.

All VIN-specific. And for anyone buying used, note what the second seat recall implies: a completed-recall record is not by itself proof the work was done.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

Nothing about the third row, the ride, or the seats as furniture rather than as a recall. Equipment shows up as screens failing and as a collision system braking for nothing, but never as something anyone wishes the car didn’t have. Oil consumption, which defined the 2020 ownership experience, appears eight times; headlights eight; paint four times.

Read only the improvement columns and the 2022 looks like the year Kia finished the job. Every count with a 2021 number to compare against fell or held flat except three, and the third — transmission, eight to ten — is small enough to be noise. The two that rose enough to matter are the two you look through and look at every time you drive it.

What the complaint curve says

Filings by year: 26 in 2021, 96 in 2022, then 53, 47, 45, and 51 so far in 2026.

This is a different shape from the earlier cars. The 2020 and 2021 both went quiet in the middle and spiked after year three, as things wore out and warranties expired — the earlier posts in this series have those curves. The 2022 front-loaded — its biggest year was its first — and then settled into a steady 45 to 55 a year that hasn’t fallen off.

That fits what’s in the filings. Windshield cracks and shattering sunroofs aren’t wear-out failures that wait for 60,000 miles. They happen on a cold night, or on a clear highway. There’s no warranty cliff to wait for, so there’s no spike.

If you’re looking at one

All of this comes out of the data above. It isn’t a verdict — this is a Top Safety Pick that sold nearly 100,000 units in a year. It’s where to spend ten minutes.

Turn the car on and watch the dashboard come up. Screens and displays are the sharpest riser on this model year, at 51 filings; two recalls cover the instrument cluster going blank; and one owner was quoted $7,500 for a head unit. An intermittent fault is what a short test drive misses, so do it twice.

Inspect the windshield closely and price a replacement before you buy. This is the top complaint on this model year, owners report cracks from minor debris and from cold snaps with no impact at all, and a replacement on a car with a camera-based driver-assist system needs recalibration afterwards, so it isn’t priced like ordinary glass. If you live somewhere cold, weight this more.

Look at the sunroof glass, and decide how you feel about it. Thirty-two filings describe the panel shattering rather than the mechanism breaking, and 25 of them say it happened while driving. There’s no recall and no inspection that predicts it. What you can do is ask whether the glass has ever been replaced and why — a replacement means this car already had the failure once, not that the new panel is any different — and open and close it twice while you’re there. The mechanical failure that dominated the 2021 hasn’t vanished; it’s just no longer the main event.

Brake firmly a few times during the test drive and watch the dashboard. NHTSA files 12 complaints under service brakes, and the ones that describe a pedal going to the floor tend to describe the ABS and stability lights coming on at the same moment. Two filings describe hitting something. Warning lights appearing under normal braking is the pattern — though an intermittent fault may not show on a single drive, which is what the service history is for.

Search the service history for stalls, not just the test drive. Fourteen filings describe the engine quitting or losing power, nine of them at a stated speed or in a live lane. A single drive will not surface an intermittent stall, so the question is whether a dealer has ever had it in for one.

Check for a four-pin tow harness. If the car has one, it falls under fire recall 22V626000.

Ask whether 26V430000 is completed, in writing. Second attempt at the seat fire fix. “Scheduled” and “done” are different answers.

Worry less about oil and headlights. Eight complaints each out of 318. On the 2020 these were the first two things to check.

Numbers worth writing down

Recalls are per-VIN and free to check at nhtsa.gov/recalls, which also holds all 318 complaints, searchable by the ODI numbers above.

The 2023 is a different car — new face, new interior, new trims. We’ll take that one next.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 318 complaints for the 2022 Telluride, retrieved 2026-08-26
• Kia Media — 2022 Telluride (official)
• GoodCarBadCar — Telluride US sales figures
• IIHS — 2022 Kia Telluride ratings
• Cars.com — 2022 Telluride equipment changes
• NHTSA — Park Outside recall, Kia Telluride

Specs and pricing checked against Kia’s media site. Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved 2026-08-26, with ODI numbers attached. Model years and calendar sales years don’t align, so complaint rates here are approximate. This summarizes what owners and reviewers reported; it isn’t buying or repair advice.