Comments by "Stephen Hendricks" (@stephenhendricks103) on "" video.

  1. A more(or less) powerful engine in the Telluride? Ain't happenin'. At least it's very unlikely in the foreseeable future for several reasons. First, the Telluride (and Palisade) has a Hyundai Lambda 2 3.8L NA engine lifted from the Genesis line-up. They are VERY unlikely to do anything that's likely to cannibalize sales of the forthcoming Genesis SUV that will undoubtedly have a large displacement turbo V6. Hyundai already faces major challenges in developing the Genesis brand. They certainly aren't going to add to those challenges. Well then, what about the 3.3L turbo from the Stinger/G70? One of the few weaknesses of the KIA and Hyundai product lines has always been fuel economy. The Telluride/Palisade have an engine that runs the Atkinson cycle, a design that sacrifices some performance in return for better mpg's. The result is an EPA rating essentially identical to the smaller 3.3L NA engine in the KIA Sorento. Considering that scalding performance ranks about 25th among the top 10 priorities of midsize 3 row SUV buyers, KIA is very unlikely to negatively impact their overall corporate CAFE scores with a model that will return a minuscule number of sales. Furthermore, KIA is already selling Tellurides faster than they can build them. There are no magic wands that enable a manufacturer to create additional production out of thin air. If you were a KIA decision maker would you divert production from vehicles that already have buyers with deposits to build vehicles that are unlikely to appeal to many buyers? Finally, and perhaps most important, KIA's business model aims to produce vehicles that hit a sweet spot among shoppers with fewer add on options than their rivals. It's a recipe designed to contain the cost of production. Not only does the Telluride offer only one engine option, it's worth noting that KIA offers fewer color combinations (exterior and interior) in their top trim SX than in lower trims. Further, very few individual options are offered at any trim level. Instead, trim levels carry the bulk of differences and within trims only one or two option packages are offered. Compared to European and American brands where vehicles can be customized to result in literally hundreds of configurations, KIA offers only a few. The effect is to reduce the cost of production across all versions of a particular vehicle. A single production line is less costly than two smaller production lines with the same output. Many of a vehicles components come from third party suppliers. Larger orders from those suppliers give KIA (and Hyundai) an advantage in terms of volume purchases. And by limiting the number of configurations KIA reduces the likelihood that a less popular version of a vehicle will sit for an extended period on a dealer lot, a situation that dealers (who pay daily flooring charges for unsold vehicles) hate. All in all KIA has been transformed from a manufacturer of "cheap" vehicles to a brand that offers highly competitive vehicles with extensive options at a price other brands find difficult to match. There are reasons for that.
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