HYUNDAI PALISADE
Large, pleasingly polished SUV can seat eight, or spec it with middle-row captains’ chairs and demand everyone on board respond with ‘aye, skipper!’
SOMETIMES, AS THE expression goes, attack is the best defence. Whether you’re trying to stop a marauding hoard of rebels breaching your ramparts, or protecting your turf in Australia’s fiercely competitive new-car market, landing a solid right hook while your opponent is still tying their shoelaces can be a cripplingly effective move.
And that’s exactly what Hyundai has done with the introduction of its new grand SUV, the Palisade. Five metres long and two metres wide, its silhouette on the horizon should be as intimidating to rivals as Hannibal’s elephants. But this plus-size SUV is somewhat more sophisticated – and brings a lot to the battleground.
Two variants lead the Palisade charge in Australia – an entry-level version and the more premium Highlander – with the choice of a 3.8-litre petrol V6 and front-wheel drive combination, or a 2.2-litre turbo diesel four-cylinder, which comes with the company’s H-Trac all-wheel-drive. Go for the most affordable of everything and Hyundai asks $60,000 plus on-roads, but we focused on the top Highlander with the diesel and allwheel drive for $75,000.
It doesn’t take long to realise Hyundai is on the offensive with its newest model. As the new flagship of the South Korean brand, it has to make a big impression with its quality, equipment and provide an air of luxury balanced with practicality – and it does.
Its commanding looks on the outside might appear a little brash and bold for some, and there’s definitely a little of the US market-satisfying design on show, but it is unapologetic. The bold vaulting light signatures front and rear turn heads and the
whole aesthetic approach confidently places large blocks of panelling about the Palisade like a tilt-slab office block. It’s not pretty, but the Palisade somehow manages to wear its proportions elegantly, especially when matched with the larger 20-inch wheels standard to the Highlander.
Even in entry grade, the big
Hyundai gets black leather upholstery, an impressive 10.3-inch central touchscreen with 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster, powered driver’s seat, three-zone air conditioning and an Infinity audio system. It also has keyless entry, push-button start and an extensive list of Hyundai SmartSense safety features, including autonomous emergency braking, driver attention warning, blind-spot collision avoidance, lane-following assist, rear cross-traffic avoidance and adaptive cruise control that functions down to static traffic speeds.
Step up to the Highlander and you get Nappa leather, beautiful suede roof lining, heated and ventilated powered front seats, dual-panel sunroof, wireless charging, a head-up display and a powered tailgate, as well as a difficult interior choice...
While most seven-seaters offer the third row as the option, the Palisade has a three-seat third row as standard and it’s the second row that requires some thinking about. It can either be fitted with a more conventional three-seat bench for eight in total, or a luxurious pair of ‘captain’s chairs’. These are equipped with their own armrests, heating and cooling, and all the adjustability you could ever dream of; and offer easy access to the rear seats through the middle. If you’re after the most premium cabin and spoiling your middle row passengers, this is the way to go.
Adding to the unique interior, Highlander versions get a cool flying buttress-style centre console, which places a dominating slab of switches and gear high up in the cabin for easy access, but offers storage underneath to avoid wasting space.
Another highlight is a blind-spot-eliminating camera that uses the 7.0-inch screen nestled in between the gauges to display an image from either side of the vehicle depending on which indicator has been flicked.
There’s no full digital instrument cluster akin to the Palisade’s smaller Santa Fe sibling, but the head-up display makes it easy to forgive that.
The Palisade easily nails the comfort and equipment formula, and the grand appeal continues on the road.
The 2.2-litre turbo-diesel is the same as in the updated Santa Fe and might seem a little breathless for such a large application, but performance is surprisingly good. Power is an adequate 147kW but the important load-lugging torque figure is a more impressive 440Nm. That means prompt off-the-mark acceleration and decent performance for overtaking and cruising without gasping every time you click off the fuel bowser.
A generous 71-litre tank and a combined fuel figure of 7.3L/100km means the Palisade will almost cover Sydney-to-Melbourne on a single tank.
It’s only at higher speeds that the large frontal area and resulting drag start to bog down the diesel’s muscle.
The eight-speed auto is not the same snappy DCT offered by the new Santa Fe diesel, but it’s a good pairing for the grunty four-cylinder.
Standing out from all the other pleasing road manners is the sublime ride quality, which is accentuated by a cabin as quiet as Melbourne Airport’s international baggage claim hall. And the handling exceeds expectations; it’s reassuring and defies the car’s size.
But the Palisade’s scale does not limit it to the freeway or cruising out of town. Huge areas of glazing and considerate roof pillar design and placement mean excellent visibility. And for the less confident driver or parker, a host of driver assistance features shrink this behemoth in town.
Opt for the diesel and you get the promise of genuine off-road capability. Numerous driving modes cater for different surfaces and, combined with more than 200mm of clearance, the Palisade is a convincing dirt tracker (if not rock crawler). In fact it’s hard to place a black mark on its score sheet.
Palisade dives into the Australian market with a compelling list of features, decent driving dynamics, plenty of practicality, and all at a respectable price. That alone should be enough to garner some success.
However, the really powerful part of its proposition is its positioning. Models with three genuinely usable rows of seats are few and far between, let alone ones that offer space for up to eight occupants. Those that do, usually do a bad job of hiding their van origins or people-mover proportions and certainly don’t offer much SUV off-road ability.
The Palisade does all of that at significantly less than $100,000, while offering some attractive style and quality touches. So we’ll save you the effort of trying to find a rival that can offer everything Hyundai’s new flagship does – there simply aren’t any.
Ironic then, that its maker should name the Palisade after a defensive structure as passive as a big fence. This large but elegant offering has so much potential to hit the market hard that it might have been more suitably named the Trebuchet.