Palisade breaking new ground
The active safety array centres on Hyundai’s SmartSense advanced safety package. This includes blind spot, front and rear and collision warning and avoidance systems, driver attention warning, autodipping headlights, lane keeping assistance and radar cruise control with stopandgo functionality.
What’s it like to drive?
Hyundai bills the Palisade as fulfilling the dual role of people mover and large SUV, and it achieves this ambitious double with aplomb.
Around town it’s not exactly handy and nimble, but — thanks in equal measure to its high driving position, good visibility and many driver aids — nor does it feel its size.
Having peak torque on tap from 1750rpm endows the turbodiesel with adequate performance for the open road haul, as does the nicely calibrated and smoothshifting automatic transmission. Performance, to be fair, isn’t shatteringly quick but it is respectable.
Comfort, eco and sport drive modes are all available, but I found Smart mode, into which the vehicle itself switches as it deems appropriate, perfect for around town and openroad use. That feature highlights a key aspect of the Palisade, its underlying smart systems — driver assistance, drivetrain and sat nav route selection — are all very good.
Given that this SUV is a large and tall vehicle designed primarily for the US market, it comes as no surprise that the steering is light and the suspension delivers a fairly soft ride with attendant body roll when pushed. That it cossets without too much wallowing has as much to do with its carstyle chassis, as with judicious suspension finetuning for Australian and New Zealand conditions.
Road noise is well contained too. Although the turbodiesel, unlike its V6 sibling, is a ‘‘proper’’ fourwheel drive, there was little opportunity for venturing off the beaten track on test, although several gravel roads — some quite rough — were traversed without drama. The three designated terrain modes — snow, mud and sand — don’t immediately signal what is the optimal setting for gravel, but it’s actually sand mode.
Finally, it’s worth commenting on fuel consumption: the official standard cycle figure of 7.3L/100km isn’t save the planet stuff, but for a vehicle of this size and weight (two tonnes) it is actually pretty good. Mind you, the turbodiesel Santa Fe with essentially the same drivetrain manages a far superior 6.1L/100km.
Verdict
Asked to choose between the Palisade and Santa Fe, I’d opt for the latter every time, and happily pocket the considerable stack of change. But some people genuinely need a vehicle with up to eight seats and an absolute heap of space, so from that perspective, the Palisade turbodiesel Elite makes sense.