The Kia Telluride has received its fair share of praise from car critics and customers, but it can’t win anything. The Kia Telluride actually lost to an SUV that few thought it would lose despite being such a great car that it has seen near-universal praise. Here’s a look at how the Ford Escape came out on top of the Kia Telluride, at least according to one list. 

The Kia Telluride’s many wins and accolades

It’s almost too difficult to talk about how many things the Telluride has won. It has won awards from a diverse selection of review sites. Even when adding up all the different reviews, the consensus is the same. Whether it’s Consumer Reports, Kelley Blue Book, or Good Housekeeping, the Telluride is either the best or one of the best midsize SUVs on the market.

Car and Driver gave the Telluride a perfect 10-out-of-10 review. Other publications generally land at around the same mark. This isn’t something that’s isolated to car reviewers — customers who have bought the Telluride love it. The Telluride may actually be too popular at this point. 

Despite all of that, there are a few people who disagree. One of those dissenters is TrueCar, which only named the Telluride as the eighth-best SUV of the year. Other SUVs, such as the Hyundai Palisade and the Toyota RAV4, beat the Telluride on this list. However, one of those SUVs that beat the Telluride was unexpected: the Ford Escape.

The Ford Escape easily beat the Kia Telluride on this list

TrueCar decided to mash up SUVs from different segments into one list. Although the Escape is a compact SUV while the Telluride is a midsize SUV, TrueCar tried to compare the two. On TrueCar’s list, the Escape actually soared high. It ended up in third place.

This is rather surprising since Escape usually gets worse reviews than Telluride. Car and Driver gave the Escape only a 7.5 out of 10. Other sites recommend skipping the Escape and buying something else in the segment instead. To be perfectly fair to the Escape, it’s not a bad car by any means, but it’s definitely no Telluride as far as reviews go.

The main issue is that they’re not very comparable cars. The Telluride is bigger, more expensive, but also more loaded with features. TrueCar didn’t just make up these rankings out of thin air. Like other car review sites, TrueCar put in a lot of effort to determine which SUVs were better than others.

How TrueCar made this list

TrueCar tested many cars while looking at a set of criteria. Their criteria aren’t out of the ordinary. According to TrueCar, its teams looked at comfort, efficiency, and performance, among other things. Additionally, TrueCar has extra dimensions to this process.

TrueCar said that it’d look at customer surveys and industry research to determine its rankings. TrueCar claims that this process allows it to provide data-driven results. Despite Telluride’s low ranking, TrueCar does agree with most reviewers about many aspects of the car. This isn’t a huge snub for the Telluride.