Versatility on Wheels: The 2025 Kia Seltos Delivers Space, Style, and Smarts

We are situated at the head end of a season bringing intense change and promise here at Jim Butler Kia of St. Louis! Cooler temperatures will soon make their way into the forecast, Halloween costumes will be purchased, and the excitement of fall football will find its way onto big screens statewide. Times such as these will call for a versatile and value-packed small SUV, with the bonus of a very spacious cabin.

The 2025 Kia Seltos was the topic of a thoughtful blog on the U.S. News Cars forum last week, where they first commended it for its excellent handling and wealth of features. After thoroughly testing the Seltos they also highly approved of its direct steering, balanced handling, and firm suspension. It was simple to maneuver when things got a bit cramped and was a blast to take aggressively around curves. For catching up on notes or just taking a minute to yourself, the cabin stays serene most of the time!

The Seltos is equipped with two engine options: a 146-horsepower four-cylinder and a 195-horsepower turbo-four. The first is mated with a continuously variable automatic transmission and the turbo with an 8-speed automatic. Front-wheel drive is standard on the S and EX models, with the benefit of all-wheel drive available on the LX, X-Line, and SX trims. The turbo-four was the U.S. News crew’s powertrain of choice, as it instilled a greater deal of confidence during highway driving. Fuel economy is one of the traits that prospective buyers are currently eyeballing most. 

The Seltos fares quite well in this category, as the front-wheel-drive models nail down an EPA-estimated 28 mph in the city and 34 mpg on the highway. The cabin is well-crafted and very attractive. The ability to haul different types of gear is quite a selling point for any model today, as after-school sports and heeding the call of the wild are both popular activities. You’ll benefit from 26.6 cubic feet of storage space behind the rear row and 62.8 cubic feet with all the rear seats folded down.

Any SUV’s child safety brownie points are sprinkled generously among new parents: one less worry on a busy day is always warmly accepted! The Seltos has two complete sets of LATCH connectors to man the rear outboard seats, and a tether anchor to take care of the middle seat. This busy and savvy gang’s favorite trim was the EX, which comes with attractive features such as a 10.25-inch touchscreen, heated front seats, navigation, and blind-spot monitoring. It also is equipped with the most fuel-efficient engine of the group.

The touchscreen is situated high up, with the most useful controls directly visible on the center stack. One detail that won’t go unnoticed by busy parents on the go is the large door pockets. They are perfect for any music-festival-bound 24-ounce water bottle, or cellphone. The Seltos’ excellent maneuverability, minimal body roll, and quick ratio steering all make it a great choice for urban commuting. Another final verdict from the team was that the infotainment system was the best and easiest to use in the segment.

The all-wheel-drive EX and SX now receive a standard hands-free power liftgate. The U.S. News team dove deeper and looked at how the 2025 Kia Seltos performed in different areas. The EX trim is where you gain goodies such as full synthetic leather upholstery, heated front seats, and a power-adjustable driver’s seat with lumbar support. The SX trim’s coolest feature for long hauls? The Bose audio system brings anything from Blake Shelton to The Bouncing Souls fully to life for the drive!

Kia’s Crowned APEAL King: Several Models Rule the Road in 2024 Study

Awards and accolades are incredibly valuable to us here at Jim Butler Kia of St. Louis, as they officially back our commitment to stellar quality! Kia America has set a new standard in the J.D. Power 2024 Automotive Performance, Execution, and Layout (APEAL) Study, securing an impressive five model-level awards—the most of any contender this year. This remarkable achievement also highlights Kia's strong position in the Mass Market segment, where it holds its position as the third highest-performing brand.

This marked the 4th consecutive year that the K5 was the highest-ranked Midsize Car, while the all-electric EV6 and Carnival dominated their respective segments for the third row straight. Excitement among BEV owners is now at an all-time high as the EV9 claimed its first Upper Midsize SUV segment award during its first year on the market. The Forte reigns proud as the highest-ranked Compact Car for the second year running! The K5 and Kia Carnival were also included in the brand-wide achievement with consecutive awards of their own.

The J.D. Power 2024 U.S. APEAL Study is now composed of detailed responses from over 80,000 owners of brand-new vehicles. The respondents were surveyed after the first 3 months of ownership. This study measures how well each new vehicle provides exceptional experiences with perceived quality, design, performance, safety, usability, and comfort. This caliber of study helps automakers understand just how a new vehicle performs against its targets and core competitors. It also is an excellent guide for which product priorities should be placed for the development of models in the future.

Some of the experience groups for APEAL include walking up to your vehicle and getting in and out. Using the infotainment system, driving comfort, and satisfaction with the interior are other traits the organization pays attention to during their evaluations. Fuel usage is another scrutinized category, as consumers are rightfully concerned about making every dollar count. Owner satisfaction with new vehicle design and performance has now rebounded after the previous two years of study showed a considerable decline.

The 2024 Kia K5 arrived on the scene with the unique style and substance to set it apart from many other family sedans in the same segment. It places a focus on being easy to drive and offering the luxury touch needed for long trips. It’s now offered with the choice of two turbocharged engines, with the base engine cranking out 180 horsepower and the GT stepping things up to 290 hp. The Edmunds.com team claimed that the K5 “is as silent on the highway as some luxury sedans, with a suspension that soaks up road imperfections and is not overly soft.”

The 2024 Kia EV9 was billed by The Drive as “a three-row family SUV that will smoke its V8-powered competitors at traffic lights, and burn a total of zero hydrocarbons while doing so.” This is an incredibly stylish model that they also claimed boasts the best interior to ever wear a Kia badge. Even the base-level trims have a strong assortment of cabin tech and driver aid, with the Wind, Land, and GT-Line models swapping in the larger 99.8-kWh battery. After the addition of a towing package, the dual-motor EV9 examples also claim up to 5,000 lbs of towing capacity.

The EV6's Marvelous Heart-Stealing Effect: Fast-Charging & Family-Approved

Making a quick pit stop with an EV is a task we've become accustomed to here at Jim Butler Kia of St. Louis! A speedy retail errand or run to return the goods from the library can offer a chance to acquire a much-needed boost. The InsideEvs.com review staff were on duty last week test-driving the Kia EV6, and the writer's wife made a ten-minute pit stop inside a Walmart. In just ten minutes, a 350 kW Electrify America station boosted the vehicle from 39 to 80%!

After many years of riding with her husband while he tested many vehicles for their fast-charging capabilities, she was quite taken aback. The couple loved it so much that they had actually purchased one for themselves, and they had recently taken advantage of a great summer leasing deal. The two had been testing EVs almost exclusively over the past few years, knowing that 2024 was when they wanted the best of today's current offerings permanently in their garage.

He then said that the current leasing deals were simply too good to pass up, and they finally settled on an EV6 Wind AWD. They embarked on a 330-mile road trip from Rochester, NY back to their family home. Range, performance, technology, and design were always the couple's predominant judgment criteria. The EV6 has been on sale since 2021, and a comprehensive facelift is coming soon. Theirs was equipped with a 77.4-kWh battery pack with an EPA-rated 282 miles of range. Its aerodynamic shape makes it easily nudged ahead of the Hyundai Ioniq's 260-mile range.

Offering a robust and combined 320 horsepower and 446 lb-ft of torque, the dual-motor EV6 was the most powerful car they had owned! It quite eagerly comes in at under 5 seconds for the 0 to 60 time. The Sport mode will even veer off into the territory which can cost you your license. The EV6 GT can even face off with supercars, but this pair's EV education led them to seek out the best they could find range-wise. On most days, they average around 3.2 miles per kWh but have even seen efficiency numbers rise after driving conservatively.

The duo now owns a solar-powered ChargePoint Level 2 plug in their garage but were thrilled outright with DC fast charging's speed. This is one of the currently available EVs with a true 800-volt architecture, which allows for the very admirable juicing capability. Going from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes can allow for the type of day that wins big in the productivity category! All the errands, after-school activities, or fall outings can be accessed that much quicker, without having to wait impatiently. The InsideEVs staff believes firmly that the nation needs more public Level 2 charging everywhere, as it is useful for so much more than just a quick “boost.”

It would allow the general public a chance to see that EVs can bring about the change needed for a cleaner environment and provide an amazing driving experience in the process. The 2024 Kia EV6 will “warn” you that you may not quite have the juice to get to your final destination, while quickly rerouting you to another option. Another very happy EV6 owner on an internet forum claimed that her EV6 “was the hands-down best vehicle she'd ever had”, with the 360 camera views sealing the deal during tight parking-lot retail runs of her own.

Room for More: Kia Telluride's Stellar Luggage Capacity Revealed

As the back-to-school season is coming quickly here at Jim Butler Kia of St. Louis, many busy families are thinking about all that needs to be done! Meal planning, after-school activities, and options for weekend fun all require some sensible space for carry-ons. The Autoblog review team recognized that drivers sometimes need more than just performance specs, so a luggage test for the Kia Telluride had ranked high on their to-do list. 

Their first test a few years back rendered it an all-out luggage-hauling champion, and now the group eagerly pulled into their headquarters in Portland. The time had now come, with the prime focus being on the space behind the third row. 21 feet is the official claim, which measures up nicely to the 16-18 ft range that most of the competition boasts. The only vehicle that even comes close in the rival community is the Volkswagen Atlas, which resides at 20.6 feet. As every luggage test commands, the group used two midsize roller suitcases that had to be checked in at PDX.

This pair of roll-aboard suitcases were 26 inches long, 16 wide, and 11 deep, and they barely fit in the overhead. There was also a smaller roll-aboard that was 23L x 15w that fit easily. To add a real-world flair, there was also the writer’s wife’s overnight bag, which was 21L x 12W x 12D. The Telluride also boasts the ability to remove the floor, and the cargo cover underneath to increase capacity. Readers worldwide LOVE these tests, as they are an accurate representation of what to expect when it is vacation time, or simply shuttling around the lacrosse team. 

Even though the overnight bag did not fit at first, there was still room left above the two vertically stacked bags as well as in the lower left in front of the wall. It was also of note that the reclining third-row seatback was angled for comfort, which affected the final tally. With it positioned upright, there’s the ability to fit more. When the crew went eagerly to work with the Honda Pilot and VW Atlas, the Telluride remained the champion. As action sports have gained popularity and more people are enjoying going out, being aware of spatial capacity is a must.

The Edmunds.com review staff claimed that the Kia Telluride is an “impressive 3-row SUV with a quiet and upscale cabin, great tech features, and a satisfying driving experience. It has been a class leader for five years now, and this review team has a hard time recommending another SUV because it's just that good. On the inside, the panel gaps are tight, the material choices are top-notch, and everything is built quite solidly.

It's the best of both worlds, with the V6 providing an excellent acceleration response. The crew performed consistent stops from 60 mph in 123 feet, which is on the short end in its class. The Telluride's steering is light at parking lot speeds and then spans up naturally during turns. The engine's fuel-saving stop-start feature works smoothly and quietly.

The off-road-oriented X-Pro turned out to be great on the pavement as well while boasting a superior layer of ride comfort and absorption of rough roads. There are plenty of large windows which aid visibility, and the camera systems are very helpful extras. All Tellurides come with a variety of collision avoidance systems and incredibly well-functioning cruise control. A standard 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen provides all trim levels with a sweet XL display that is easily accessed from the driver's seat.