Palisade vs Telluride: A $31 Gap Over Five Years

Our calculator puts the 2021 Hyundai Palisade at $33,055 to own for five years and the 2021 Kia Telluride at $33,086. That is a $31 gap, in the Palisade's favor. Both come out to $551 a month.

So the Palisade wins, but barely. Thirty-one dollars over sixty months is about 50 cents a month. If you are choosing between these two SUVs on running costs alone, you are choosing on noise. The real decision comes down to price, condition, and how long you plan to keep the thing.

The $31 gap is made of three small pieces that mostly cancel

These two share a platform and a lot of hardware, and our numbers show it. Fuel is identical at $13,292 over five years. Maintenance is identical at $3,756. Registration is identical at $255. Three of the six cost lines are a dead heat.

The differences live in the other three:

• Insurance: $142 more for the Telluride.
• Repairs: $32 more for the Telluride.
• Depreciation: $143 more for the Palisade.

The Telluride is worse on two lines, and those two add up to more than the Palisade's one bad line. The Palisade comes out ahead by the leftover amount. Nothing here is dramatic.

The depreciation line is the odd one. Our assumed purchase price for the Palisade is $20,100, and for the Telluride it is $20,900. Those are our estimates for this model year, not listings you will see on a lot. The cheaper car loses more value in our model: $5,052 over five years against $4,909. That fits a pattern many used buyers see. The Telluride has held its price a bit better because shoppers keep asking for it. You pay $800 more up front for that, and you get a little of it back on the way out.

That $800 is the bigger number in this comparison. It is larger than every cost difference above combined. If you find a clean Palisade and a clean Telluride at the prices we assumed, the Palisade needs $800 less cash, a smaller loan, or both.

Insurance is where the Telluride loses most of its ground

Our insurance figures are estimates built from each car's value and vehicle class. They are not quotes. Your own number will differ, sometimes by a lot, depending on your age, ZIP code, driving record, and insurer.

With that said, the estimate has the Telluride at $8,315 over five years and the Palisade at $8,173. The Telluride costs more in every single year. In year one it is $1,727 against $1,703. By year five it is $1,605 against $1,575.

The logic is simple. A car with a higher assumed value costs more to replace, so it costs more to insure. If your insurer sees these two as the same risk, this advantage disappears. Get a real quote on both VINs before you count on it.

Year by year: the Palisade is more expensive until the very end

Here is the part most people will not guess. The Palisade is the cheaper car over five years, but it is not cheaper along the way. It spends most of the ownership period behind.

Our calculator's yearly totals look like this:

• Year 1: Telluride $6,149, Palisade $6,229.
• Year 2: Telluride $6,095, Palisade $6,146.
• Year 3: Telluride $6,395, Palisade $6,401.
• Year 4: Telluride $7,446, Palisade $7,368.
• Year 5: Telluride $7,001, Palisade $6,911.

The Telluride is cheaper in years one, two, and three. The Palisade only takes over in years four and five. Running total, the Palisade does not actually pass the Telluride until the last year. At the end of year four, the Palisade has cost $26,144 and the Telluride $26,085. The Palisade's lead only appears in year five.

Why? Depreciation. The Palisade's depreciation is heavier early: $1,311 in year one against $1,204, and $1,127 in year two against $1,044. By year four the Palisade's depreciation drops to $847, below the Telluride's $886. In year five it is $792 against $842. The Palisade takes its value hit sooner, then flattens out.

So the cheaper car is cheaper only if you stick around for the cheap years. Sell the Palisade after three years and you will have paid slightly more than you would have with the Telluride.

Year four is the one to budget for, in either car

Both SUVs carry the same maintenance schedule in our figures, and it is lumpy. Maintenance runs $289, $335, $630, $1,560, and $942 across the five years. That $1,560 in year four is the biggest single maintenance bill on the page, and it hits both cars equally.

This is what a 60,000 to 90,000 mile SUV looks like when it starts needing the bigger scheduled services. Think fluids, brakes, tires, and the items that get skipped in the early years. If you buy one of these, put money aside for year four. A $1,560 year feels like a repair even though it is routine upkeep.

That spike also explains why year four is the most expensive year for each car: $7,446 for the Telluride and $7,368 for the Palisade. Year five eases off, but only because the maintenance bill shrinks to $942. Repairs keep climbing.

Repair risk: a tiny edge to the Palisade, and a rising bill for both

Our calculator has the Telluride at $2,559 in repairs over five years and the Palisade at $2,527. A $32 difference is not a reliability verdict. It is rounding with a name on it.

The yearly pattern matters more than the gap. Telluride repairs go $284, $379, $474, $616, $806. Palisade repairs go $281, $374, $468, $608, $796. Both nearly triple from year one to year five. The Palisade is a few dollars cheaper every year, and the lines never cross.

For real-world reliability, check the RepairPal listings for each model. RepairPal collects repair shop data on how often cars visit the shop and how costly those visits are. Look at the frequency of unscheduled repairs and the share of severe ones, not just the overall score. Those two details tell you more about surprise risk than a single rating does.

Our take: neither SUV is likely to hand you a surprise that the other would spare you. They share a lot of engineering, and our numbers treat them nearly the same. A car that is six years old with 75,000 miles can still throw you a four-figure repair. That is true of both, and a pre-purchase inspection will tell you more than any brand loyalty will. Pay a independent mechanic roughly one hour of labor to look at the specific car you plan to buy. That is the cheapest way to cut your risk.

Fuel is a wash: $222 a month for both

Fuel is the largest cost in both ownership budgets at $13,292 over five years. It also does not separate them. Our calculator shows $222 a month for each, and the yearly figures match exactly: $2,554 in year one rising to $2,765 in year five.

That is a big number for a family hauler, and it is bigger than the whole depreciation line. If you came here worried about which one is cheaper at the pump, the answer is neither. The monthly difference is zero.

If you want the official MPG ratings, they are on fueleconomy.gov for the 2021 Kia Telluride and the 2021 Hyundai Palisade. Look both up, then compare them to what you drive. Your own commute may push your fuel bill above or below our $222 average.

Both of these are big three-row SUVs. They are not cheap to fuel, and no trim choice will change that.

Who should buy which

Buy the Palisade if you keep cars for five years or more. You get the lowest five-year total in our calculator, $33,055, plus the lower asking price in our estimate, $20,100 against $20,900. The Palisade also costs a little less in insurance and a little less in repairs, and its depreciation curve flattens just when you will be driving it the longest. This is the right car for someone who buys, drives it into the ground, and does not think about resale. It is also the better choice if you are tight on cash up front. The $800 purchase price gap is real money on day one.

Buy the Telluride if you plan to sell in three or four years. Through year three, it is the cheaper car to own in our numbers, and it holds its value a bit better, which is what you want when the day to sell arrives. If you trade in vehicles regularly, the Telluride's slower depreciation helps, and you will skip the stretch where the Palisade catches up. Pick it only if you can find one near our assumed price, though. Paying a lot more than $20,900 wipes out the case.

If you have no plan either way, take the Palisade. It is $31 cheaper, which is not much, but it is the only edge in this comparison that does not depend on a guess about your future. Then spend your effort where the money actually is: get the inspection, get insurance quotes for both, and negotiate the price. Any of those will beat $31.