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2020 hyundai palisade test drive


Dlcorbett

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Had the opportunity to test drive the palisade yesterday.  It was a gray limited(fully loaded) model. Below are my thoughts with slight 2018 expy ltd and 2019 cx5 touring comparisons:

Exterior - in general, though its polarizing, the quality is def there.  Small but even gaps, nice and properly placed accents as well as great paint quality help give off a beautiful vibe.  You could easily take it out for date night and get a few looks. It doesnt look better than my expedition or cx5, but its visually more interesting than both and has way better paint quality than the expy.

Interior - this is one area that impressed me the most, Interior quality is at or near luxury car levels and blows both our current cars away. Switchgear felt well damped, all screens and cameras had great resolution, leather felt fantastic, and everything was placed conveniently.  There was some weird choices made to save money(passenger seat has hlf the adjustment as driver, separate glass roof from sunroof), but overall great ambiance.

Tech - theres a huge amount of new tech and great implementation of older tech but it was odd that some old tech seemed missing. The turn signal blind spot view is relatively quick and has great clarity but had a awkward camera placement.  Theres a lot of options for the infotainment like quiet mode etc.    The sound system was good, but not as strong as the expy or as clear as the cx5 system. The heads up display was clear, but didnt have a lot of features or options.  Like i stated before, theres no panoramic sunroof but theres an expansive glassroof behind a divider btw it and the sunroof.  My sisters sorento has an expansive panoramic roof so why couldnt they use the same styled roof.  Also theres kick handsfree tailgate, its supposed to automatically open with the keyfob present, but it seems more gimmicky than the kick tailgate.  All in all like all other east asian companies, its def the tech leader in its class.

Performance - the engine is mostly smooth and has more than adequate power.  It's moves with grace and doesnt get too gruff at high rpms.  In hard acceleration tests, Theres a slight delay in downshifts which caused a weird jerk, but afterwards its very linear in delivery.  There are different drive modes which affects the throttle and shift points, but the difference is less noticable than the expy.  In all, the drivetrain is smoother than the expy, nowhere near as flexible and not as linear as the cx5.

Ride/comfort - the interior at low speeds is somewhat quiet, but at high speeds is exceedingly quiet.  At 80mph, interior quietness barely changed and didnt even feel the speed increase.  Also, the structure is very strong and taut, no jitters or shakes in the cabin, my biggest complaint about my expy. Handling is also quite good, but steering is vague and a tad too light even in sport mode.  The ride is smooth and taut as well but compliant without feeling disconnected.  Its def up there with other crossovers in terms of ride.  Its better than my expy on bad days, not as good as the expy on good days.  We drove our expy on the same route and my wife and her brother agreed the expy was smoother for the most part.  The seats are supportive, but not as plush as they look.  The adjustability was also a bit light even though the drivers seat is 12 way.  It was weird that my wife and i felt the sec row seats were more plush than the first row seats.  Theres oodles of room in both first and sec row though and the center console was fantastic in terms of utility, space, and quality.  The third row has a good amount of hip and head room, but leg room is in short supply with the middle seats more than half way back.

We drove the palisade because the expy is due to be turned in the end of next year, so im preparing for its replacement.  In case we need to downgrade, we want to try all options( like we did before purchasing our current expy).  It was a quick test drove only about 5 miles, but afterwards, i was left highly impressed.  Its a great car with lots of benefits.  What stuck out to me was quality, hyundai did a great job with making it feel premium for the price.  I cant imagine many luxury vehicles feeling as nice is this let alone its direct competitors.  Hell the expy was $20k more and doesnt even compete in terms of interior quality.  Wife likes the cx9 still but i told her mazdas gonna need to update it cuz the palisade felt better.  Hyundai got a winner.  Next were gonna drive a telluride and 2020 explorer to compare(though im not feeling the explorer much).

Edited by Dlcorbett
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The telluride and palisade will get test rides when we replace our Flex. I prefer the look of the KIA, but KIA has bounced around dealers near me, whereas the Hyundai dealer has been stable and is well liked.  Not sure we’ll stick with a seven passenger SUV though. 

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I have read that you can Max build one of these and they are AT LEAST $10,000.00 less than some of the competitive models.

 

That's why (in-part) I bought my wife a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe XL-Limited, it was $5,000.00 less than Toyo/Honda/etc.

 

It has 25,000 miles thus far and no issues. My Son has a Sonata at 125,000 with zero issues to date.

Edited by CKNSLS
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