Palisade delivers long-distance luxury and utility

Aug. 19—In the crossover-eat-crossover world of family haulers, few carmakers have more accurately gauged the American car buyer than Hyundai and Kia.

The former's Palisade and the latter's Telluride three-row crossovers have become hits with both the automotive press and families who need to transport multiple humans and their belongings from points A to B and beyond. Mechanically similar, the two share standout styling, a powerful V-6 engine, ample cargo and passenger room, and when fully equipped, a near-luxury driving experience.

So we were excited about the prospect of having at our disposal a 2023 Hyundai Palisade for the annual road trip to our longtime haunts in the Grand Traverse region of Michigan — a roughly 1,800-mile jaunt crossing the Pennsylvania Wilds, the corn-covered plains of northern Ohio, and into the rolling, glaciated landscape of the Great Lake State's northwest lower peninsula.

When it debuted as a 2020 model, the Palisade leapt to the top of many an auto-writer's best-of list for three-row, large-ish crossover and sport-utes. Blessed with a well-balanced chassis, spacious cabin and comfortable ride, it was well-positioned to compete with established models like the Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot and Ford Explorer.

The Palisade rolled into 2023 sporting some freshened front and rear styling cues, a new XRT trim level, an expanded instrument display, a Wi-Fi hotspot, heated third-row seating in upper trim levels, and more. There are five trim levels — SE, SEL, XRT, Limited and Calligraphy — all of which are powered by a 3.8-liter V-6 rated at 291 horsepower and 262 foot-pounds of torque. Power is channeled to a standard AWD system via an eight-speed automatic transmission with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters for drivers looking to row their own gears.

Pricing starts a shade over 37 grand for a basic but still nicely equipped SE-trimmed Palisade. Standard kit includes a set of 18-inch alloy wheels, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a second-row bench seat allowing for eight passengers, a digital key system allowing the driver to use their smartphone as the vehicle's key, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, satellite navigation, LED headlights, and a long list of safety-sensing systems.

The list of standard goodies grows longer and prices rise as one checks off the successively higher trim levels, all the way to the princely $50,800 bottom line for our all-the-way Calligraphy-trimmed test vehicle. While that's a sizable pile of cash for a non-premium-branded family ride, it remains competitive with the top-trim sticker prices of the competitors mentioned earlier.

Our Palisade's long list of standard equipment included a set of trim-specific 20-inch alloy wheels, unique designs for the grille and front and rear fascias, Nappa leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats and second-row captain's chairs, dual-pane powered sunroof, 360-degree exterior camera array including a blind-spot camera display, highway driving assist, power-folding third-row seats, an automatic posture-checking driver's seat, Harman Kardon audio, and lots more.

Factoring in a $215 charge for some floor mats along with $1,250 for delivery, and the grand total for this year's Great Lakes conveyance came in at a cool $52,310.

As mentioned in earlier reviews of other long-distance loaners, the Cole clan does not travel lightly, to the point that a casual observer might suspect we were planning a monthlong escape. That being written, the 45.8-cubic-foot cargo area behind the second-row seats easily swallowed all of our luggage, coolers, room fans, guitars and beach chairs with a bit of room to spare. Volume swells to 86.4 cubic feet with the back two rows stowed, and shrinks to a still-useful 18 cubic feet with all rows in place.

The big V-6 engine delivers power in a smooth and linear fashion, hustling its charge to 60 mph in a reported 6.4 seconds — sufficiently brisk for a crossover weighing well-north of 2 tons. The EPA estimates the Palisade will extract 25 miles on the highway out of a gallon of regular, which bettered our observed 23.7 mpg of mostly interstate travel.

We were impressed with the Palisade's quiet, comfortable and, yes, even luxurious ride quality. We noted, though, that a full load tended to increase our awareness of road conditions such as potholes and expansion joints. The handling was precise and predictable, and the maneuvering through crowded parking lots surprisingly easy.

Instrumentation and gauges were well-organized and clearly displayed, particularly where the large LED infotainment interface was concerned. We generally use Apple CarPlay's navigation program, but found Hyundai's factory-installed sat-nav system to be more than satisfactory. Its traffic-awareness and shortcut suggestions saved us precious time while working our way through the road-construction war zone that is U.S. 23 around Ann Arbor.

JOHN COLE reviews automobiles for The Times-Tribune. When he's not driving cars he's driving the pen behind Times-Tribune editorial cartoons. Contact him at johncoletoons@gmail.com.