New Hyundai Palisade review
The Hyundai Palisade Calligraph all-wheel drive. Now, that’s a bit of a mouthful, but it is a big SUV inside and out, and it’s packed full of features.
Hyundai Palisade PRICE
But with a price tag that’s tickling a little bit over $80,000, is it worth your consideration? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
As I mentioned, this is the Calligraph variant. It’s available as a petrol two-wheel drive or a diesel all-wheel drive.
This is the diesel, so it has an all-wheel drive system, and it also has a price tag, just under $80,000, but that does not include on-road costs.
Hyundai Palisade FEATURES
Standard features include this 12.3-inch multimedia touch screen, and that has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
There’s also a wireless phone charger, a 12-speaker premium audio system, Napa leather seats, and a whole lot more.
The calligraphy has 20-inch Alloy wheels and a full-size spare on board. Exterior paint choice include burgundy, silver, and emerald.
DESIGN
In terms of design, the calligraphy is at the top ranks of the Palisade range, so you’d expect it to look pretty eye-catching, and it is.
It’s got that real premium feel about it inside and out. But from that eye-catching grill all the way back, its official name is Rogue Emerald. It’s actually. But all in all, it’s a nice-looking wagon.
Hyundai Palisade INTERIOR
The interior has a real premium look and feel to it. This is a cleanly designed space, and it’s comfortable to be in.
There are lots of soft touch surfaces, and it’s pleasant on the eye. What’s more impressive is that the build quality is superb and the fit and finish, it just all feels They’re so well put together.
Once you’ve spent a bit of time in the Palisade calligraphy’s cabin, you get to realize just how comfortable it is.
The seats are very comfortable and very supportive, and these are both power-adjustable. The driver is actually twelve-way power-adjustable, so you can really dial in your position.
There are plenty of storage spaces, there are plenty of cup holders, and there are plenty of charge points, including a USB up the front and two USB-C for each row of seating back there, so everyone should be fine with plugging their devices in.
SECOND ROW
The second row is very comfortable and it is quite spacious, and the passengers back here get access to a lot of controls, including climate control.
The outboard seats are both heated, and you also get controls for the fan.
You get some USB-C points, a couple of cup holders either side as well as handy sun shade on the window.
That’s helpful if you’re trying to get some little ones to sleep. In terms of child restraint points, in the second row, you have three top tether points and two isofix points.
THIRD ROW
And in the third row, you have two top tether points and one Isofix point.
The third row really is the domain of children children, or you could put two adults here that you don’t really like there’s not a lot of room.
There are a couple of cup holders either side in the third row, and they do have access to air vents, and it will be comfortable for children, but it’s a no-go zone for adults, I reckon.
BOOT SPACE
With all three rows in use, there is acclaimed 311 liters of cargo space in the boot area. That doesn’t mean a lot until you can see what you can actually We pack in here.
Hyundai Palisade ENGINE SPECS
Hyundai Palisade has a 2.2-litre four-cylinder Common Rail diesel engine, and that produces 147 kilowatts and 440 newton meters.
It’s matched to an eight-speed automatic transmission. This is an all-wheel drive version of the Palisade, so it has a system called H-Track, which stands for Hyundai Traction.
It operates on the same principle as any all-wheel drive system in a city-going SUV, and that is, it will direct power to the appropriate wheels to optimize traction.
This vehicle also has drive modes, comfort, sport, eco, and smart for on road, and sand, mud, and snow, obviously, when you get off road.
Now, these drive modes are no substitute for four-wheel drive. This is, after all, not a hard core four-wheel drive vehicle, but those modes are perfectly fine for when conditions get a little bit slippery, say there’s a little bit of rain on the bitumen or the dirt track gets a little bit muddy.
ROAD EXPERIENCE
This is an easy driving wagon. It really is. It’s nice and comfortable. It’s refined. It’s always composed and it’s always controlled.
It’s just an all-around nice drive from the engine and the auto, which are a really nice pair. Not very dynamic, to be honest, not very lively, but just a nice, consistent feel to it all.
And being nice and consistent is really important with something that’s intended as a people mover, as a family vehicle, because that’s what you want.
Ride and handling are really well sorted out, and that ride quality, there’s a little touch of firmness to the suspension, but otherwise it’s nice and smooth in general terms.
There are the paddle shifters on the steering wheel if you want a little bit more input into shifting up and down in the automatic transmission, but otherwise you can let it just do its job, and it does it pretty nicely.
There are four on-road drive modes: comfort, eco, sport, and smart. Smart tweaks everything to suit your habitual driving style.
Depending on which mode you opt for, it will tweak everything just to suit the terrain or the conditions you’re driving in.
While this Palisade is pretty impressive all around in terms of performance and driving characteristics, there are a few niggles, though.
The driver assist tech can be a little bit intrusive, a little bit abrupt. The traffic sign recognition is pretty clunky.
It picks up on signs that don’t apply that time of day, say, school signs, or it picks up on signs that don’t actually apply to that section of road.
So it’s forever chopping and changing between what speeds you should be at and what speeds you shouldn’t.
You can adjust those settings or switch them off in the Hyundai app that’s on the touch screen multimedia system, but they come back on when you get in the vehicle again.
But apart from that, there’s not a lot of negative stuff you can say about this vehicle. It really is a nice all-round, city-focused SUV wagon.