The facelifted Hyundai Palisade is now on sale in South Africa at a starting price of R1,099,900.
Available in either a seven or eight-seater configuration, the SUV is the most expensive model in the automaker’s local catalogue and offers an appropriately luxurious driving experience that is enjoyable for all occupants.
I recently had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of Hyundai’s latest creation to see what it offers, and how it improves over the previous iterations.
All the space in the world
The first thing you’ll have to decide on when looking at the Palisade is whether you’ll want it with seven or eight seats, as both versions share a price tag.
The key difference is that, in the seven seater, you’ll receive two captain’s chairs with armrests, manual recline, and heating and ventilation functions in the second row – not to mention the convenience of having unobstructed access to the rear bench.
Whether or not you’ll want that extra seat in the middle row will depend entirely on how you intend to use the car, but the loss of one seat seemed a small price to pay based on how enjoyable the remaining two middle seats were to be in.
We had multiple drivers on our test run, which provided the opportunity to switch between various seating positions, and all held up well.
The two front and middle-row chairs provided a generous amount of legroom, the aforementioned ventilation functions proving to be a delight on a hot summer’s day, and the rear bench managed to provide a level of space that made it comfortable for multiple adults at once.
Even then, the default boot size is a workable 509 litres, and of course, you can fold or move the second and third rows to provide up to 1,297 litres of storage space. In fact, the cabin as a whole is ultra-roomy.
The feeling of spaciousness is amplified thanks to the addition of a dual sunroof, though you can close these if you want, and Hyundai has even included blinds on the passenger windows for those times when you want to really want to cut out the outside world.
On that note, one of the more quirky things added to the SUV is a collection of ambient noises you can play through the 12-speaker Infinity stereo, which includes things like ocean waves, rainfall, or a crackling fire.
Another function of the cabin-wide speaker system is an intercom, which allows the driver to project themselves to those in the back. It’s another appreciated feature to be sure, though the driver and I didn’t have any difficulty hearing each other when I was in the back, even without the intercom.
Driving in comfort
The lack of communication issues in the cabin is in no small part thanks to the returning 2.2-litre, turbo-diesel powerplant, which is exceptionally quiet.
When idle, it was actually difficult to tell that the engine was on, and even when we hit the road it was rare to get a noticeable reaction out of the Palisade – save for Sport mode.
The addition of a Sport mode and paddle shifters is a bit unnecessary for this type of car, though the option is there if you want it. Instead, it’s the Eco and Comfort settings that you’ll probably want to leave it in.
The eight-speed auto is prompt, however, it could benefit from a bit more than the 142kW output as overtaking acceleration is nothing special and on uphills, it seemed to run out of spirit quickly.
There are a number of assistance features, too, such as the blind-spot monitors that display on the digital driver’s screen whenever you indicate, and lane-keep assist. The latter was quite aggressive as it immediately beeped at the slightest deviation in steering even if a line wasn’t crossed, and we only found a button to turn it on or off completely and no setting to adjust the sensitivity.
Steering is also surprisingly light, which means you aren’t conscious of its size while driving despite its large proportions – measuring 4.9 metres in length and 1.9 metres in width.
First impressions
The new Palisade may not be the cheapest seven-seater on the market, in fact, it’s not even the cheapest model from the same brand, as the Hyundai Grand Creta that launched last year also comes with space for seven passengers.
What you will get, however, is a quiet and comfortable people carrier that comes with many of the features you’d expect from a high-rolling SUV at a price that is generally more affordable than competitors with comparable spec sheets.
Hyundai Palisade launch
Keyword: Hyundai Palisade test drive – A super smooth seven-seater