2023 Kia Telluride1st gen facelift (2023–2025)

Updated 2026-08-28NHTSA counts read on this date — 202 complaints. They rise over time.

Fourteen Owners Say the 2023 Kia Telluride’s Sunroof Shattered

Fourteen complaints describe the sunroof on the 2023 Telluride shattering on its own. Twelve of them say it happened while the car was moving; one says the car was parked and undisturbed. In one of the fourteen filings, the owner took the car to a Kia dealer and reports that the dealer’s inspection found the glass had broken outward.

That direction is the detail. Impact damage generally drives glass inward, so outward points away from something hitting it. One inspection, reported secondhand, is not a finding about all fourteen.

The 2023 refresh brought a new face, a new dashboard, two off-road trims, and the first Top Safety Pick+ in the model’s history. Oil consumption complaints are zero for the first time in the nameplate’s history.

Whatever the redesign changed, the sunroof complaints carried straight through it. It also didn’t stop the engine cutting out or refusing to start, which fourteen filings describe separately — the same number again, for a completely different failure.

Owners have filed 202 complaints about the 2023 with NHTSA, down from 318 on the 2022.

The basics

The 2023 model year is the facelift. Everything from 2020 to 2022 shares one body and dashboard; this is the other half of the generation, running through 2025.

What changed:

• Restyled front end and a redesigned interior with a new steering wheel
• Optional dual curved 12.3-inch displays across the dash
• X-Line and X-Pro trims added. X-Line brings a Tow Mode, heavier roof rails, its own 20-inch wheels, and about half an inch of extra ground clearance. X-Pro drops to 18-inch wheels on all-terrain tires, adds close to another inch of clearance, and puts 12-volt and 110-volt outlets in the cargo area. Both are AWD only
• Powertrain untouched — same 3.8L V6, 291 hp, 262 lb-ft, eight-speed

Pricing climbed substantially. The ladder ran from roughly $37,000 for the LX to about $54,000 for an SX Prestige X-Pro.

Kia sold 110,765 Tellurides in calendar 2023. Model years and sales years don’t align, so complaint rates here are approximate.

How it was received

This is the year the Telluride finally took IIHS Top Safety Pick+, the higher of the two awards, after three years of Top Safety Pick. NHTSA five stars overall, as before. IIHS added a tougher side-impact test after the earlier cars were rated, and this is where the refresh shows up: the 2023 through 2025 Tellurides score Good on it, against Marginal for the 2020 through 2022. Kia added structural reinforcement and revised the front and rear side airbags starting with the 2023.

TSP+ requires good headlight performance as standard equipment across the trim range, not just on the expensive ones. The 2020’s award depended on optional LED units, which is why it stayed at the lower tier.

Worth being careful about what that does and doesn’t say. Headlight complaints had already collapsed by 2021 — 168 to ten — two model years before this refresh, and the 2022 was down to eight without winning the higher award. So this isn’t a story about the lights getting better in 2023. It’s about which trims they came on, and IIHS also revised its own criteria over this period. The side structure is the one place where the refresh changed a rating on its own.

What owners filed

These 202 filings are what people bothered to report to a federal database. It only collects complaints — nobody files to say the car is fine — so nothing here is a survey.

Windshields — 37 complaints

Down from 98 on the 2022, and the same complaint — counted as filings that name the windshield and describe it cracking, chipping, spidering, or shattering: cracks the owner can’t attribute to anything. From ODI 11732233:

“I was driving 20 mph when I heard a loud crack, shortly after I noticed my windshield had a huge crack toward the bottom that has gotten progressively worse and affects my vision while driving.”

Electrical — 22 complaints, and a specific one

Intermittent no-start is the pattern that repeats. One owner filed twice as it kept happening (ODI 11755209, updated at 11755922):

“My 2023 Kia Telluride […] has an intermittent no-start/no-crank defect that has occurred on four separate occasions… In each occurrence, the dashboard and infotainment system power on normally, but the engine will not”

Four occurrences between about 49,850 and 51,180 miles. The dash lights up, the engine doesn’t turn over, and the car has to be towed.

Sunroof glass — 14 of 15 sunroof complaints

The redesign changed the face, the dash, and the trim lineup. It did not change this.

From ODI 11739754:

“The sunroof exploded. Nothing hit it, there was nothing wrong with it previously and it was not being used at the time it exploded. We were driving and it exploded with a loud boom.”

One owner (ODI 11726551) reports that a Kia dealer inspected the car and reached a conclusion the owner considered significant:

“An authorized Kia dealership inspected the sunroof and determined that the sunroof exploded outward - which is consistent with a manufacturing defect that should be covered under the vehicles bumper-to-bumper warranty.”

That one word — outward — is why the owner filed at all. What the record holds is that inspection as the owner described it — not a manufacturer finding. There is still no recall.

Engine shutdown and no-start — 14 complaints

Fourteen filings describe the engine quitting or refusing to start, and they are not one failure. The most alarming version is a warning that arrives mid-drive. From ODI 11749226:

“While driving my car randomly displays a warning that I need to shift to park or neutral immediately and turn off my engine. Sometimes my car will work afterwards, other times it will not and I’m stuck for 5-7 minutes.”

A second version is the car simply not cranking. ODI 11755209 documents four occurrences between 49,850 and 51,180 miles:

“In each occurrence, the dashboard and infotainment system power on normally, but the engine will not crank when the start”

And one owner (ODI 11749449) reports the car failing to accelerate on the highway after codes P0016 and P0017 came up, both crankshaft position faults.

None of this is oil consumption, which is what “engine problems” meant on the 2020. It is a different fault in a different part of the car, and the redesign didn’t touch it.

Suspension — eight complaints

The rear self-leveling shocks, and they fail more than once. Owners describe a clunk or thump over bumps and from the third row, get them replaced under warranty, and have the replacements fail too. One owner (ODI 11683874) is on the second set and reports the dealership refusing to replace them again. Kia has an extended warranty program covering this part, which is an acknowledgement of sorts.

Driver assistance braking for nothing — five complaints

Sixteen filings use the word “brakes”. Five of them are the car braking when nobody asked, three are the brakes themselves failing, and the other eight are service complaints and warning lights. NHTSA’s own labels cut it differently: 14 filings under forward collision avoidance, seven under service brakes. From ODI 11668687:

“After a recall on the emergency braking system was resolved, we’ve had frequent occurrences where the rear cross traffic alert system will report traffic that does not exist. The vehicle will then stop abruptly.”

That owner’s “recall on the emergency braking system” doesn’t correspond to any of the six NHTSA campaigns on this model year, so it was probably a dealer service action rather than a recall. Worth knowing if you go looking for the number.

Brakes — three complaints

Three filings describe the brakes themselves. One (ODI 11572624) reports the accelerator and brakes both going unresponsive after stopping to turn in Snow Mode, with the dealer unable to reproduce it. Another (ODI 11658207) is a shutdown event where the brakes went with everything else:

“the car shut off while in drive, the brakes failed, and the steering wheel locked”

That car had been towed three times.

Headlights — three complaints

Three, out of 202. On the 2020 this was the whole story at 168.

Oil consumption — zero

For the first time in the nameplate’s history. The 2020 had 78.

Before reading that as a fixed engine, note when those 78 arrived. The 2020 had collected two of them by the end of 2023, four model years in — and then went 11, 43 and 22 across 2024, 2025 and 2026. Oil consumption is a mileage failure, and these cars haven’t done the mileage yet. Zero today is real. It isn’t proof.

Recalls

Six campaigns on file for this model year, and all of them stay open on any VIN where the work was never done.

The seat motor fire recall (26V430000) reaches back to 2020 and is covered in detail in the 2022 post; the short version is that Kia recalled the same cars twice, and NHTSA says park outside until the second repair is done.

The two that belong to this model year alone are more interesting, and neither is minor. 23V035000 covers a manufacturing error in the wire harnesses for the second row side airbags, which may keep them from deploying in a crash — a restraint that doesn’t work is not something an inspection will show you. 23V298000 covers the digital instrument cluster.

The remaining two carry over. 24V214000 covers 2020–2024 cars whose intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged, which can let the car roll away in PARK. 25V494000 covers 2023–2025 cars where the door belt molding can delaminate and detach.

All VIN-specific.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

Oil consumption. Zero filings out of 202, where the 2020 had 78 and it was the defining story of ownership. The engine still appears — fourteen times, in the section above — but never for drinking oil.

The third row, the ride, the new interior and the two new off-road trims also produce nothing.

What the complaint curve says

Filings by year: two in 2022, 59 in 2023, 49 in 2024, 48 in 2025, and 44 so far in 2026.

The measured trend is downward — 59, 49, 48 — and the 2026 figure is eight months of a year that isn’t finished. Extrapolating it is tempting and unreliable: NHTSA filings arrive well after the incident, so the most recent year is always the least complete.

What can be said is that this car didn’t do what the 2020 and 2021 did, which was go quiet in the middle and then spike. Whether it spikes later is open. The mileages in the filings above — one owner at 49,850 to 51,180 — are close to the five-year, 60,000-mile basic warranty, and that’s the boundary the older cars fell off.

If you’re looking at one

None of this is a verdict on the car. It’s a Top Safety Pick+ with no oil consumption complaints on the record. It’s where to spend ten minutes.

Ask whether the sunroof glass has ever been replaced, and why. Fourteen filings describe it shattering on its own, and nothing about the car predicts it — there is no recall and no inspection that catches it in advance. A replacement in the history means this car already had the failure once. It does not mean the new panel is any different.

Check the windshield and price a replacement. Thirty-seven complaints, and the driver-assist cameras mean the camera behind it has to be recalibrated after the glass is replaced, which is not what a chain glass shop quotes over the phone.

Ask about no-start episodes and stalling specifically. Not “any problems” — ask whether the car has ever failed to crank with the dash lit, or told the driver to shift to park and shut the engine off. That’s the second fourteen, and it has nothing to do with the sunroof. It’s intermittent, so a test drive won’t surface it, but a seller who’s been through it usually remembers.

Ask whether 23V035000 is completed, in writing. This is the second-row side airbag harness. You cannot see it, you cannot test it, and it only matters once. Do the same for 26V430000, the seat fire recall.

Check the door belt moldings along the base of the windows for lifting or gaps. There’s a recall.

Oil consumption is a much lower priority than on a 2020, where it was the first thing to check. Zero complaints here. But the dipstick costs nothing, and these cars may not have reached the mileage where it shows up.

Numbers worth writing down

Recalls are per-VIN and free to check at nhtsa.gov/recalls, which also holds all 202 complaints, searchable by ODI number.

The 2024 is next.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 202 complaints for the 2023 Telluride, retrieved 2026-08-26
• GoodCarBadCar — Telluride US sales figures
• IIHS — 2023 Kia Telluride ratings
• NHTSA — Park Outside recall, Kia Telluride
• NHTSA — 2023 Kia Telluride vehicle detail

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.