Hyundai Palisade review and buyer’s guide
The Hyundai Palisade is a big, comfortable holiday machine for growing families and offers excellent value, generous 8-seat SUV space, and practicality on par with LandCruiser - but it’s $30K more affordable.
The Hyundai Palisade is an eight-seat large SUV with acres of space, excellent equipment levels and grunty powertrains, all wrapped in a body and interior that rivals anything European. But there’s more to it than tough looks.
Palisade is all-new in 2025 onwards, remaining an excellent vehicle if you need to move a large family of growing teenagers to their various social/sporting commitments and also get yourself to work in comfort.
It will double as a smart choice for long-distance holiday roadtrip adventures. while also offering a good case for morphing into luxurious fleet transport for business clientele flying in from wherever.
New Palisade lacks subtlety and now being fractionally bigger in every dimension, it’s also got multi-purpose practicality only typically associated with Toyota LandCruiser, Nissan Patrol or some big American suburban. Only it’s a Hyundai, so it’s more reliable than the Yank tanks and it’s better equipped and more luxurious than the Japanese stalwarts.
Palisade will seat up to eight, there’s loads of luggage space and ample legroom for big drives on school holidays. So you’ll want to compare it with:
Hyundai Santa Fe >> | Kia Sorento >> | Mazda CX-80 >> | Mazda CX-90 >> | Toyota Kluger >> and you should definitely entertain the idea of a Kia Carnival >> and the Hyundai Staria >> people movers as the near-perfect tactical response to having lots of kids with people to see and places to go.
You can download the full Hyundai Palisade spec sheet here >>
Hyudai Palisade is based on the Santa Fe platform, but gets a bigger body, essentially - without becoming a tank. It’s exactly 1 per cent longer than the old first-generation Palisade and still 4 per cent longer than a Santa Fe which is 4.83 metres long.
Palisade is also only 1 per cent (61 mm) longer than a Toyota LandCruiser Sahara, which means you get offers the same amount of legroom, headroom, seats and luggage space - and it’s even got a full-size spare wheel.
But the Palisade range starts out at $97,500 - whereas a LandCruiser 300 just keeps going well past $100K. Admittedly, the LandCruiser has a monstrous twin-turbo V6 diesel and lots of hardcore four-wheel drive equipment which adds complexity, expense and (notably) weight.
Palisade is available in just two model grades for now, the base model and ‘Calligraphy’ (both hybrid only), so here are the main good things and bad things about this second-generation Palisade.
CON
Compromised towing capability
No more diesel powertrain (TBC)
Better seating & sliding doors on Kia Carnival (at lower price)
Price increase over old model
PRO
8-seat combination; 7 seats (captain’s chairs row 2)
Full-sized spare wheel and tyre
AWD hybrid powertrain
Long list of standard equipment
Very good fuel economy
Flat luggage space & versatile cabin
Excellent dynamic stability, superbly comfortable
Comparatively decent pricing & value against rivals
Palisade offers a formidable soft-roading all-wheel-drive terrain response package, but sales are directly comparable to the lighter-duty SUVs.
Palisade managed 3770 sales in 2024, behind Santa Fe on 5300 units, the Kia Sorento on over 7900 sales, Toyota Kluger on over 9800 units - even a Tiguan Allspace beat Palisade with 4200+ sales. The Subaru Outback was technically the class leader on 10,000+ sales, but it’s a 5-seater costing $15,000 less than its rivals, so it’s not really in the same league.
But what’s fascinating to see is how much Palisade is asking (over $90,000 - closer to $100K driveaway) and yet its previous version was losing sales to newer vehicles, more expensive rivals and more capable options. Sorento had the same engines, yet costs $10,000 less. Pajero Sport is positively ancient and costs $20,000 less while being a highly capable off-roader. And then there’s the cannibalisation factor with new Santa Fe with its hybrid powertrain and modern square-themed design.
This new arrival leans much harder into the luxury quasi people mover territory, minus the sliding doors. It means two important things for you, as a consumer.
You can look forward to some run-out pricing and good deals on existing previous-gen stock. It also means that if you do want to come down off the fence about getting the outgoing Palisade, you’d best make that choice quickly. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with the newer one as old stock runs out over the next few months.
If you’re unsure, give it another six months of so to see if new Palisade has any foibles or if sales completely tank - however unlikely. (Always wait 6-12 months on the first arrival of a model’s new generation.)
Wheelbase is now 2970mm: 70mm (2 per cent) of extra legroom between the axles.
Given Hyundai’s recent history, it’s hard to see the new Palisade being anything other than reliable, comfortable, practical and capable - and a decent seller. It remains an optional 8-seater with all-wheel drive and gets the 2.5-litre turbo-petrol hybrid powertrain we’ve seen implemented quite successfully into the Santa Fe to replace the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine.
What remains unknown is whether the 2.2-litre diesel might actually stay in Palisade as either a premium engine option in Australia, given that over 90 per cent of Palisade sales are the 2.2 diesel.
It’s also quite reasonable to expect the XRT treatment from the Santa Fe to make its way into the Palisade line-up.
What’s unlikely is that Palisade would ever become a successor to the long-dead Terracan 4X4 from the late 2000s. This would absolutely be achievable with the underpinnings and R&D investment that Hyundai-Kia has tipped into developing the Tasman ute (arriving mid-2025). But the company doesn’t appear interested in the lucrative market of big 4X4 SUVs to compete with Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan.
It’s also hard to see Hyundai Motor Co. making that investment given how long it took them to come to the dual-cab ute party and now that Tasman is here yet, it’s kind of too late.
Hyundai is also quite good, it must be said, at proving its detractors wrong.
FEATURES & PRICING
Prices have not been quietly creeping up in the last six months (like everything else has) despite the imminent arrival of the new Palisade arriving in second-half of 2025 - which is a nice change from the norm these days.
There is only one model grade of Palisade, meaning there’s a very long list of standard equipment - because you get it all - on the Palisade Calligraphy, essentially.
Palisade is the most expensive Hyundai at $90k plus on-road costs. That sounds like it’s a bad thing, but when you think about it, it’s actually about $34,000 cheaper than a fully-loaded Toyota Landcruiser. (And a Landcruiser 300 offers only seven seats.)
Choosing the 7-seat version will cost $1000 over the 8 seats on the Calligraphy because you’re getting the massive, luxurious, massaging captain’s chairs instead of the typical bench seat.
Here are the headline features you’ll get on Palisade:
PALISADE CALLIGRAPHY: $97,500 approx. driveaway | 2.5L turbo-petrol hybrid
8-seat configuration
2 x 12.3-inch LCD screens (1 driver display, 1 infotainment touchscreen)
21-inch alloy wheels + full-size spare wheel
14-speaker BOSE premium sound system
16-way electric driver’s seat
12-way electric front-passenger seat
Heated steering wheel
Heated seats: rows front, 2 & 3 (outboard only)
Ventilated (cooled) seats: rows front & 2 (outboard only)
Leather seats + steering wheel (Nappa) w/ suede roof lining
6 x 100-watt USB-C charging ports, 1 x USB-C data port
Wireless phone charging
Smartkey & push-button start
Head-up display, digital rearview mirror
Dual sunroof
Fingerprint recognition
Full LED headlights & taillights
Adaptive cruise control (incl. stop-go), tyre pressure monitoring, blindspot monitoring & collision avoidance, lane-keeping, distraction monitoring, safe (door) exit warning
Satnav, powered tailgate
Dual-zone climate control, row 3 vents & fan speed
Solar treated windscreen & front door glass, extendable front driver/passenger sunvisors
Rearview camera monitoring, front/rear parking sensors x 4
Remote parking (forward/reverse), reverse light ground projection
Auto wipers, row 2 outboard headrest bolsters, row 2 sunshades, auto windscreen de-fogging
Head-up display, digital central mirror w/ full-screen integration
Blindspot camera, rear parking collision avoidance, 360-degree camera system incl. side camera, full 6-sensor parking array (front & rear) + tailgate opening guidelines & trailer connection mode
Acoustic treatment on rear door glass & ‘hydrophobic’ (water beading) front door glass
CALLIGRAPHY: $98,500 approx. driveaway | 2.5L turbo-petrol hybrid
7-seat configuration w/ row 3 walk-thru access
The Calligraphy is available in ‘abyss black pearl’, ‘creamy white pearl’, ‘shimmering silver metallic’, ‘ecotronic grey pearl’, cast iron brown pearl’, ‘galaxy maroon pearl’, ‘classy blue pearl’ (below) and ‘robust emerald pearl’.
US model shown
INTERIOR
The Palisade’s biggest appeal is its interior functionality. Choosing the 8-seat Palisade option is, happily enough, a no-cost option, but if you’d prefer the 7-seat version, that’s going to be another $1000 - but hold on: there’s good reason for that.
The row 2 seats in the 7-seat version are what’s known as ‘Captains chairs’. They get fold-down arm rests and allow centre walk-through access to row 3. Those row-2 outboard seats also get independent heating and cooling. The adjustable wings in the headrest, which are standard, are perfect for letting teenagers sleep while you drive them home from wherever.
So you get more passenger carrying capability or easier access, it’s up to you. But just keep in mind here, if you want to have the best of both worlds (the centre walk-thru access to row 3 and that middle seat in row 2) you could consider a Kia Carnival, which allows you to remove that centre row 2 seat entirely - you just don’t get an 8-seat configuration, only 7.
The fundamental choice you have to make on the Palisade is: seven seats, or eight? Either way, the cost is not unjustified given that an entirely different set of seats have to go in instead of the conventional bench seat. You get big comfy bucket seats at the front and a three-wide bench right at the back in row 3. Seven seaters get the captain’s chairs in row two, or the eight seater gets a three-seat bench in row two.
Thanks to the 2970mm wheelbase (increased by 70mm over its predecessor) Palisade not only offers an abundance of legroom, it also improves the driveability. More on that later.
There’s now better headroom for all three rows due to 15mm of additional height, there’s greater lateral space for bigger shoulders thanks to the 5mm of increased body width, and luggage cappacity has increased substantially as a result.
If you’ve got young kids, you’ll enjoy hearing there are five top-tether child seat anchor points on eight-seat models and four on seven-seaters). The big trick for seven seaters is the walk-through functionality to access row three, but the one-button sliding built into row two is also excellent and efficient for accessing row three on eight-seaters - provided you don’t have to move a child restraint out of the way first.
The ability to move seats individually makes moving in and out easy, and adjusting the front seats in every direction makes it effortless for you, even if you’re very tall, or very short, and trying to find that ideal driving position is traditionally a challenge for you. And they’re remarkably comfortable for long-distance driving.
If you’ve got up to eight arses to convey from A to B, and you also need luggage space, Palisade is a beast. This is a huge plus for a niche market of enthusiastic parent.
In fact, Palisade is an ideal vehicle if your objective is to maintain a social standard whereby SUVs are in, and even the best people movers like the Kia Carnival and Hyundai Staria are ‘too much’ for some. In reality, most seven-seat SUVs cannot carry much when there’s a backside sitting on every seat. Footwells can only hold so much.
Palisade also earns bonus status points for being an actual an SUV - meaning you’re not damned to automotive hell for eternity by the curse of being seen in a people mover. It might be a bit irrational, but it’s understandable if that’s you.
If you want a big SUV and you can’t choose between Palisade and Santa Fe - buy the Santa Fe if you don’t intend to use the third row of seats frequently.
Objectively the justifications for Palisade are: You need eight seats (with curtain airbags to match) and you can’t consign yourself to a people mover. Or if you need maximum internal cargo versatility - as in, cargo space with all seats occupied - or family transport that you sometimes also use for transporting bulky items. Palisade wins in these areas.
Palisade does have the larger boot space (over Santa Fe), so if you’re a family of maximum packers, it will be easier to get more into it than its slightly smaller sister. It also has 135mm of wheelbase advantage over Santa Fe, meaning Palisade does have greater legroom - ideal for that growing family.
The cabin’s versatility is profound even in the context of having, say, three kids. This is because the third row of seats does have 2 child restraint anchor points of the top tether variety (the left-outboard and the centre), and one set of ISOFix anchor points on the left outboard seat - that’s both the 7- or 8-seater. The right-outboard row-3 seating position has no anchor points.
In the 8-seat version, you get 3 top tether points along the second-row seats, with 2 pairs of ISOFix points on the outboard seats. There is no capacity for child restraints in the centre of row 2.
So the maximum number of child seats you can get in here using ISOFix only, is three. The maximum number of child restraints you can get in either the 7- or 8-seater is four - because the centre seat of row 2 is the one you do or don’t get depending on which version of Palisade you pick.
With one push of a button, you can slide the whole seat forward so it’s actually out of the way so an adult can step into row 3.
One size really does fit all, in a Palisade. You can be doing the whole ‘soccer mom’ thing one minute, and then nip down wherever and pick up some properly bulky item, nudge the seats aside, transport it home, and be back in time to pick up the kids from the game. And nobody will ever know about your sick, twisted cargo van fetish.
You can also hedge your bets, internally, by mixing and matching passengers and bulky items, length-wise, and width-wise. It’s a very versatile vehicle.
They’ve put a lot of thought into the interior. The floating console is extremely space efficient, especially for big and bulky things like oversize water bottles, snacks, or whatever thing you might need to pop on charge which doesn’t fit in the primary cubby hole up top or which might simply get in the way of vehicle ops. Like a tablet or the camping torch, etc.
This USB cable management port between the storage area on the ground floor and the penthouse in the console lets you charge two USB devices in the penthouse, or three if you use a 12-volt to USB converter in the cigarette lighter power outlet in the basement. And these magic centre cupholders are also very versatile and space efficient.
You get wireless inductive charging for your smartphone, and there’s a tonne of additional USB outlets, storage spaces and air vents throughout the cabin. So, even in row three you’re hardly slumming it.
The business end of the new Palisade is without doubt the rear half, where you’ve got over 2000 litres if you drop rows 2 and 3, over 1800 litres if you drop just row 3 and run as a 5- or 6-seater. And with the third row deployed you’ve got a decent 540 litres which is more than most medium SUVs have behind row 2 alone.
ENGINE
The 2.2 diesel powertrain was the one to get in the old Palisade, but it’s now a 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol hybrid, and what’s impressive here is how closely the hybrid supplants that dependable, grunty little diesel.
The 2.5 hybrid makes a combined 245kW, which is a 66 per cent increase in peak power. That’s astonishingly good. But it would want to be because the 2.2 diesel was by far the most popular engine sold in previous-generation Palisade, Santa Fe and sister-brand Kia Sorento. It was popular because it had plenty of power (especialy when laden), it was smooth and it mated beautifully with Hyundai/Kia’s dual-clutch and epicyclic auto transmissions.
So putting a hybrid in its place might seem either a stroke of sheer stupidty, or utter brilliance.
The thirsty old 3.8L V6 petrol is dead too, thankfully - made a fossil by the same 2.5 turbo-petrol hybrid you’ll also find in the Hyundai Santa Fe (launched in 2024).
The power-to-weight ratio tells the only story worth telling here. With the old 3.5 V6 it was 112kW per tonne thanks to being only offered in 2WD, meaning fewer components and a much lighter block than the AWD diesel. The AWD diesel was 72kW per tonne, although becuase it was diesel it had much better low-to-mid RPM power available and was the ideal engine for this platform.
But on the new 2.5 hybrid the power-weight ratio hits 108kW per tonne. now, that’s pretty good and in fact it’s over the somewhat magical number of 100kW per tonne, which means it goes pretty hard for a 2-tonne SUV. But there’s something even more interesting here, and that’s how Hyundai uses the hybrid powertrain to full advantage.
To account for the low-down grunt you got in the old diesel, you get the immediacy of two electrical motors powered by the 1.65kWh battery pack we know from the Santa Fe. That battery itself puts out 64kW alone.
Hyundai has designed the electrical side of the powertrain to mimic that low-down power you got from the diesel, so getting off the line from a standstill is a very similar experience, only it’s slightly more immediate thanks to the nature of the percieved instanteneousness from the AC syncronous electric motor.
Said motor will also spin backwards as you slow down to trickle charge the battery, and together with the regenerative braking energy recovery, it doesn’t take an excessive amount ot time to replenish the battery.
But it does mean that you will consume more electrons once you start adding weight like kids, luggage and perhaps even a trailer - we’ll get to that shortly.
This hybrid powertrain in Santa Fe has proven quite robust, seemingly, and based on Hyundai and Kia’s success with its 1.6 hybrids its hard to see that not being the case for Palisade.
What we don’t know in terms of the Australian offering is whether the diesel will ever return. It’s quite possible that in fact it will remain a deleted powertrain, which is a shame.
Just on weight, Palisade is actually pretty light in the context of other large SUVs with 4WD like Patrol or LandCruiser - by about 600kg. So Palisade actually goes better in a straight line than both of them, which is nice. But the Palisade also performs better on open roads, on twisty mountainous touring roads.
And of course Palisade also brakes better because: less mass at the same speed means less kinetic energy to restrain.
TOWING:
Standard towball download limit on Palisade remains 100kg, which is a bit light in terms of the vehicle’s overall braked towing capacity of 2000kg, which has been slightly downgraded (probably for the better) from 2200kg in the old Palisade with the AWD diesel powertrain.
Very experienced and qualified towing drivers would generally be okay with this configuration, but with all the necessary pre-flight checks and inspections.
What will make palisade such a good option for those light to moderate - and conservative - towing assignments is that it’s going to be an inherently stable combination.
Palisade in its heaviest form weighs about 2000kg, and it’s limited to exactly that, so dynamic stability at speed, in the event of something jumping out in front during cornering, is not going to descend into some tragic crash situation where the trailer dominates the towing vehicle.
Palisade has both the kerb mass and the healthy limitations on towing to make it a decent option in these conditions.
The overarching point here is if you’re going to max-out the Palisade on towing, you won’t really be able to max the payload - you’ll have to compromise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you don’t have a big heavy trailer; but if you do, a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport or one of our other Best Heavy Towing Vehicles will be better suited.
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DRIVING
Palisade is a superbly comfortable vehicle to drive long distances thanks in no small part to the bespoke Australian suspension damper tuning done by Hyundai Australia.
It’s quiet, the ride is excellent and the dynamic performance is reassuring. Like, a vehicle this size is not something you chuck about, for kicks, but it is deceptively capable A-B on the open road. And it doesn’t feel like a tank on the open road (unlike the comparatively excellent off-roaders that are Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol. Good on-road does not mean goo off-road and vise versa.)
The big coil springs front and rear are supported by chunky dampers that Hyundai has a proven track record for tuning toward the ideal balance between firmness for great responsiveness, minimal body roll and positive steering feedback - as well as being suitably soft enough for passenger comfort. This latter aspect is where Palisade is slightly more biased toward, without going toward early-Lexus roly-poly.
And it’s nice that Hyundai has achieved this kind of ride comfort without subscribing to the ‘add weight & complexity’ mantra of, say, a Range Rover - which never helps on the reliability or durability front. Thankfully, Palisade is quite clever in striking this balance.
Palisade has a proper full-size spare wheel and tyre underslung, at the rear. This is perfect for regional touring. As opposed to what could be rather a long limp home on a space-saver, after getting a flat in the middle of the night in a Mazda CX-90.
On fuel consumption while driving, the Palisade is going to perform better than most of its 7-seat large SUV counterparts, thanks again to being lighter and having a smaller engine, but also because it’s using that electrical side of the powetrain to accelerate from stationary and to assist the 2.5 petrol engine under high load demands such as long steep hills and aggressive overtaking.
Officialy official fuel consumption (based on standardised lab tests) is 6.7 litres per 100km on the combined cycle. That’s 32 per cent better than a LandCruiser 300 Sahara.
Your Palisade is going to perform in plenty of light duty soft-roading conditions thanks to its ‘active’ AWD system which can direct drive to the rear wheels when the computer detects wheel slip or under high throttle applications. Any time you transition from sealed bitumen to gravel, the HTRAC system will be working in unison with the traction control underneath you to keep the vehicle from breaking traction or getting unstable.
The six-speed automatic transmission is nicely tuned to hold gears when needed, such as long downhill country roads or freeways, but it also can be quite intuitive in shifting down when you encounter uphill sections that require more of that low-RPM combined electric-combustion grunt.
The adaptive cruise control is pretty slick to use out on the road in the mundane traffic. The pre-set distances are in the Goldilocks zone, no too far away from cars ahead that you’re impeding others, and nor too close that you’re not leaving enough time to react.
Long distance driving is going to be quite comfortable in Palisade’s big, supportive seats, and the kids are going to be kept entertained thanks to USB type-C charging ports and ventilation (cooling) in row 2 outboard positions.
If you have a steep driveway or some interesting angles to deal with in the course of your regular driving, (or even if you want to venture off-bitumen from time to time) there are some pretty good angles on Palisade in terms of approach (18.5 degrees) and departure (20.3 degrees), and its break-over angle at 17.9 degrees. (Note: Toyota doesn’t explicitly state these angles on the LandCruiser 300, despite being the alleged king off-road).
Even Palisade’s ground clearance is respectable at 187mm which is 16mm (yes, 1.6cm) less than the old Palisade at 203mm, and it’s now is just 48mm (4.8cm) shy of a LandCruiser 300 Sahara. In fairness, Sahara’s approach and departure angles are better - to be expected - at 24 and 25 degrees respectively. But this only matters in the most extreme of driving scenarios - and you’re never going to be testing these limits in a Palisade.
What this does mean is unless you’re planning to tow lots of big, heavy stuff routinely or drive through the toughest terrain, a great deal of what LandCruiser can do in a large portion of daily driving can be done with a Palisade at a much lower price, with more standard equipment. And reliability is hardly going to be an issue, realistically.
And if you’re potentialy thinking ‘it’s too big’, here’s some context.
Palisade is just over five metres long - meaning it’s 715mm longer than a Kona small SUV. Call it two and a half feet, in the old money. We’re not talking about a road train here here. There’s no universe where you can’t handle a Palisade if you can handle an average small SUV, which most people can.
MAIN COMPETITORS
Twenty years ago, if you bought a prestige car, it cost you roughly twice as much as a mainstream car the same size because you got more - more safety, more performance, more comfort, more convenience. It was measurably, objectively more car for your money.
But today, you don’t actually get that. Or, if you do, the margin (of tangibly more luxuriousness) is substantially less. What you’re really paying extra for today is the brand cachet. It’s $90 grand for a big, fat Palisade fully loaded. And it’s $150,000 for the base model Mercedes GLE. A Toyota LandCruiser 300 Sahara costs about the same as a BMW X6.
Part of this is because essentially all technology is available off the rack today. Radar/adaptive cruise control is a widget available to any carmaker. Direct injection, the latest safety tech, infrared cabin air temperature-sensing zone-specific HVAC, auto braking, blind spot monitoring, sensors. They’re all just off-the-shelf widgets made by a parts supplier.
Essentially, mainstream brands like Hyundai snuck up on luxury brands like Beemer and Merc around 15 years ago. And it’s put the squeeze on the prestige brands, because it’s objectively harder for a prestige brand purchase to be justified.
Of course, the flipside of this is that, fully loaded, this is a $90-thousand-dollar Hyundai. And that’s a concept which will challenge some people.
Having said that, Toyota LandCruiser remains one of the most popular vehicles in the country, so don’t be drawn into the rhetoric about 90-grand Hyundais and 80-grand Kias because Mazda and Toyota have the nerve to ask nearly 100K for their big, lardy-arsed luxury 7-seaters too.
Toyota LandCruiser 300 Sahara
It’s quite astounding how many people bought a LandCruiser between January and Septemper 2025 (inclusive) - exactly 8,888 units. But how many of those actual vehicles will be used off-road in situations so severe that it requires a low-range transfer case?
An LC300 Sahara is a $145,000 vehicle in 2025, and that’s not exactly cheap.
It also weighs an extra 500 kilograms over a Palisade thanks to that array of hardcore off-road equipment - differentials, suspension, transmission, the twin-turbo V6. But if you’re never going to actually use all of it, what’s the point?
Admittedly, if you need to do some serious towing with a trailer weighing 2 tonnes or more, the LandCruiser is an inherently good choice thanks to its more stable 2.6-tonne kerb weight under heavy towing conditions. The twin-turbo V6 is a good choice for heavy towing grunt also.
But if you simply need a big 7-seater with all-wheel drive capability for camping, towing a medium-sized trailer, and going on holidays, Palisade is a potential $30,000-50,000 saving. Here’s why…
For more on Toyota LandCruiser 300, click here >>
Before you get the idea that there’s a suggestion the Palisade is just a more affordable LandCruiser 300 - that’s not true. It’s just a different tool often bought and never used for its full potential, which it is designed to do. In fact, the more mundane daily driving many, many LandCruisers actually do every day - in 2-wheel drive on sealed roads - that job can be done by a more affordable, more comfortable, equally well-equipped Palisade.
It’s true that they’re not equivalent vehicles, but a great deal of LandCruisers are seen doing what can be done with the Hyundai. Palisade does not do full-on all-terrain off-roading, nor does it tow 3.5 tonnes. But plenty of people who buy LandCruisers just use them for family transport - they drive out the house paddock driveway onto a dirt road, they head five kays to the bitumen and then they drive 30 kays into town. Rinse and repeat.
Palisade will do that kind of driving all day long, and feel better, and more refined, the whole time. So there’s that. And $54,000 is rather a lot of money, to most people, especially when you dump it on a depreciating so-called ‘asset’.
Even Palisade’s payload is better. Based on a GVM of 2755kg (8-seat Calligraphy diesel), you get a 757kg of payload. The Sahara (current LC300 model) only gets 650kg of payload (GVM: 3280kg minus 2630kg kerb weight). So that’s 16 per cent more permissible payload.
Kia Sorento
Good: 7 seats, 4 x ISOFix child restraint anchor points, reliable frugal diesel-AWD combination, rotary transmission selector, full-size spare, excellent value in Sport+ or GT-Line, 7-year warranty, high standard equipment levels, decent moderate towing capacity, Australian ride & handling tune;
Bad: lacks row 3 curtain airbags, smaller than Palisade, tricky row 3 access by comparison
More on Kia Sorento here >>
Kia Carnival
Good: 7-seats (4 x ISOFix), sliding row 2 door make carpark access easy, detachable middle row centre seat means walk-through row-3 entry, decent moderate towing capacity, economical hybrid or grunty diesel powertrain option, looks like an SUV, Australian ride & handling tune;
Bad: space-saver spare wheel on diesel variants and no spare on hybrid
More on Kia Carnival here >>
Hyundai Santa Fe
Good: full-size spare, 7 seats, high equipment levels in Elite & Highlander, reliable and punchy hybrid-AWD powertrain, decent moderate towing capacity, Australian ride & handling tune, XRT soft-roading package available;
Bad: awkwardly low rear towbar height arrangement reduces clearance
More on Hyundai Santa Fe here >>
Nissan Patrol
Like the LC300, the Patrol does do hardcore low-range all-terrain off-roading, and it does tow 3.5 tonnes, none of which Palisade can do.
Nissan wants $100K for the Patrol now, which is a big chunk of money more than Palisade. So do you actually intend to take your Patrol off-road, into low-range and across the Great Dividing Range, or just drive around in the suburbs?
Plus, Palisade is 15 years more modern in terms of the interior, the design, the fuel economy and there is no woodgrain interior trim to be found anywhere.
Hyundai also enjoys an emphatically better customer support culture both and dealer and head office level. To be fair, Patrol does get dual DVD player screens in the back of the front headrests for the kids in the back. Remember when those were all the rage?
Click here for more on Nissan Patrol >>
DRAWBACKS
Towing
It’s bigger than Santa Fe but doesn’t tow as much. A 100-kilo towball download limit makes a mockery of the 2000-kilo tow capacity. If you want tow capacity in this big, fat, soft SUV class, get a Sorento diesel: 2500kg and 200 on the towball, out of the box.
The safe and conservative among you should strictly adhere to the standard 100kg towball download limit on Palisade and keep your trailer’s aggregate trailer mass to 1200kg (1500kg at the absolute maximum). This will maintain overall dynamic stability and will keep you and other road users operating with a healthy margin of safety.
But you should only push the 2000kg maximum capacity with 100kg towball limit if you have no other alternative, and for obvious reasons, if you drive extremely conservatively.
This means keep your speed at 90km/h or less (no matter who’s on your caboose), tyre pressures perfectly inflated at all times and with no signs of wear/tear, the trailer is roadworthy, and you (ideally) have an electronic brake controller or simply apply brakes gently while allowing yourself more than enough braking distance to all vehicles ahead of you - then you’re probably going to be quite safe while keeping others so.
Counterpoint on price
Palisade costs about $10,000 more than a Kia Carnival - which is approximately as versatile and as capable, except for the Carnival’s lack of AWD. And the seating on Carnival is actually more versatile, principally because it does something Palisade cannot - which would be to morph between seven and eight seats, and back, as many times as you like.
Of course, the Carnival is cursed in the minds of many by its categorisation as a people mover, which for many people is not as alluring as an SUV. Although, Carnival is styled to look like one.
Having previously talked up the Palisade’s price, if you want eight seats for eight arses and space for luggage, configurability, versatility - etc., a Kia Carnival is $10k cheaper, ballpark, and also quite a good thing.
For the same kind of saving, in club SUV, you can own the works burger of Santa Fe - seven seat only, and less ultimate interior volume, but it does almost everything else just as well.
SAFETY
The 2026 Palisade is still waiting for crash testing and safety ratings to be published, but it’s hard to imagine it would get anything less than 5 stars from ANCAP and a Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS in the US. Untill then, use the old model as a guide.
Palisade was objectively a very safe vehicle. Still is in 2024 with the IIHS classifying it as a Top Safety Pick. But ANCAP’s safety rating for old Palisade was botched, to be completely honest.
For example, it has critical side-airbag head protection that covers all three rows, according to Hyundai, and it has the typical suite of crash avoidance gear including auto emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and reverse emergency braking at low speeds.
Considering ANCAP is actually including submergence as part of testing in 2024, however absurdly insignificant that kind of road death is in the real world, it needs to be stated here clearly that the Palisade is inherently safer than its previous 4-star rating (later updated to 5) allowed it to seem.
Let’s look at this in depth.
ANCAP’s ever-shifting safety-rating goalposts meant Palisade’s official safety rating in mid-2022 was 4 stars, initially.
It shares the same platform as the Kia Telluride which was tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (in the US) in 2021 and received five stars. Here’s the full analysis on what ANCAP did to the Hyundai Palisade’s safety rating:
Just to summarise, Palisade is a five-star vehicle in terms of its safety rating, derived from 2022 testing. You can download its full 5-star rating report here >>
Given that ANCAP loves ADAS systems (so-called ‘driver assistance’) Palisade should be praised for performing so well in the assortment of lane-keeping, auto emergency braking and adaptive cruise control related tests.
But unfortunately, despite looking like it passed in all the tests in the video below, it was only scored as ‘marginal’.
The problem here is that ANCAP insinuates that anything other than ‘good’ in its scoring system is the equivalent of almost-certain death. But in fact it’s not. Palisade’s vehicle-to-vehicle auto emergency braking system tests received ‘good’ scores, preventing all collisions.
The problem with Palisade’s original 4-star rating, in very simplified terms, was that it was subjected to the much stricter 2020-22 ANCAP testing protocols when in fact it was a four-year-old platform that first arrived on the scene in 2018 in North America, but only got to Australia in 2020.
It now has a 5-star rating for all vehicles from late-2022 onwards - so the Palisade you buy today has the full suite of equipment it was notionally lacking in 2022, to put it simply.
The front-centre airbag does its job, the overall scores in the adult occupant crash tests are decent and survivable, and child occupant protection was a whisker away from a perfect score. There are also side-impact airbags added to the rear of 2023 models which don’t appear in the side-impact test videos as shown here by the IIHS.
Palisade has been consistently rated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as one of its ‘Top Safety Pick+’ award winners for several years. It cannot be possible that it gets such an award and yet be some diminutive sub-par vehicle as ANCAP originally roasted it for back in 2022. Palisade is very good at keeping you alive in the event of a crash.
See below where it does have weaknesses in one of the hardest and most extreme crash tests currently performed. The ‘small overlap’ frontal crash test is so brutal because only a narrow section of the vehicle is being subjected to the impact.
The concentration of all that energy into such a small section of the Palisade should fill you with two things: the pang of dread such a crash would have on you (giving you even more reason to put the phone down and pay full attention). And second: it should reassure you that despite the ‘poor’ rating the IIHS gave it, there’s a glimmer of hope you would survive this 60km/h crash. Prevention trumps cure, however:
It’s important to understand the context here, because looking at this series of images and seeing the results of ‘poor’ for the overall evaluation requires context. This is the moment the ultimately got that result:
Despite the IIHS report stating the “rear passenger dummy's head remained a safe distance from the front seatback” and that both shoulder and lap belts “remained in the ideal position” across the shoulder and over the pelvis, the loads on the head and neck were ultimately too great.
Rear passenger dummy injury values indicate a moderate risk of injury to the chest and a likely risk of injury to the head or neck
In overall terms, Palisade is much like any other five-star and top safety pick+ vehicle being rated by IIHS - it is generally very safety and gets very good scores in plenty of areas, but is not perfect, nor impervious to all tests.
During pedestrian detection tests at night, the Toyota Kluger (called Highlander in the US) did not reduce its impact speed by as much as the Palisade in identical tests conducted at 60km/h using high beams. Kluger reduced impact speed by 40km/h, down to in impact speed of 20km/h. Palisade reduced it by 51km/h to impact at just 9km/h.
Using low beams in the same 60km/h test, Palisade was beaten by Kluger with impact speeds of 27km/h versus 20km/h. Kluger has also been tested using a child dummy at night in the same test in 2024, whereas Palisade has not been tested to that level.
What is never discussed by any of these safety organisations is the ease at which you can turn off supposed safety aids that make driving more distracting for you. In Palisade you can turn off the lane-keeping functions with a 3-second push of a button on the steering wheel and the speed warning system is relatively straightforward to turn off in the touchscreen menu. So there’s that to consider as well.
To summarise then, Palisade is not the safest vehicle ever, but it is still very safe, without being perfect. You might say its safe enough by modern standards.
Choosing, Servicing & Warranty
The Palisade range is dead simple. Even a politician would be able to decide, were he or she to spend their own actual salary on their own piece of transportation.
There are essentially two variants, the base model, which hasn’t actually been given a sub-title (kinda like Santa Fe base model is just called ‘Santa Fe’). So, there’s the Palisade ‘Palisade’, or the Highlander. Such brilliant decisions amde in the product planning department in car companies.
Anywho, I suggest the fact you’re spending the best part of $80K on a Palisade, you’re leaving yourself poorer for the experience if you don’t just drop another couple of grand on the Highlander and get all the fruit. And make it the eight-seater, because that’s why you’re here. Sticking to the seven-seater is pretty pointless, spending more for less vehicle.
Make sure you get the super-smooth diesel and Hyundai’s proven HTRAC all-wheel drive system because it’s the more refined powertrain. AWD gives you so much more versatility by splitting the power between four wheels in situations like wet grass parking, camping and dirt roads, plus on steep roads, driveways and whatever adverse driving scenario you might encounter.
You need to also be aware that at this price point, you will be handing over about $2000 to the federal government in the form of Luxury Car Tax.
Any colour other than white will cost you $695, but you get the burgundy Nappa leather standard on the Highlander, so it’s not all bad news.
You might like to know that at this stage you’ve bought all the features endowed upon the typical LandCruiser Sahara buyer, except you’ve bought your Palisade for the same price as the base model Toyota. The only thing you’ve really given up is a hardcore low-range 4WD system, which is an extra 400kg (ballpark) of pretty useless, heavy off-road hardware you’re unlikely to ever need unless you’re crossing the Simpson Desert, via the Telegraph Track. You’ve literally kept $50,000 out of some Toyota dealer’s bank account.
And suffice to say a fully-loaded, pimp’s Cadillac Palisade will, until the heat death of the universe, feel more comfortable on the road than a Toyota LandCruiser could even dream of (if that were possible). I mean this in both a dynamic, driver-centric sense, and also for your passengers. I mean, LandCruiser weighs, at its lightest, before any grey-bearded blue singleted nomad has even climbed his (or her) fat arse aboard, a truly gluttonous 2.75 tonnes. Palisade comes in at just exactly 1.98 tonnes, so it’s going to be the far more frugal, better handling, nicer to drive and quicker vehicle every day of the week.
Palisade’s servicing intervals are at every 15,000kms or 12 months, whichever occurs first.
CONSLUSION
Unfortunately, you, as the respective potential buyer, don’t get to simply hand the Palisade back if you take one home. So, think carefully about what you need yours to do.
How many people will you need to transport?
Can you stretch for the 8-seat Highlander, which is undoubtedly the pick of the bunch?
I don’t always recommend the top-spec model of anything because it generally includes more fruit than you can actually justify wearing your economical rationality hat.
If there’s even moderate towing involved with Palisade’s future, you’ll want to get yourself the Load Assist Kit, or save some cash and get a Santa Fe Highlander instead - compromising on outright cargo space, payload and that eighth seat, obviously.
Or, there is of course, the mighty Carnival, which puts both to shame on outright awesomeness for transforming from luxury people-and-luggage hauler to best mate’s quasi moving van. I’m glad it’s you making this decision on this because there are seriously strong points for either Carnival, Santa Fe or Palisade, and their respective weaknesses are apparent.
But, at the very least, I do hope I’ve at least laid out the cases for and against buying a Palisade - the better to help you make the right choice with a serious wad of cash.
