Hyundai Palisade

The Hyundai Palisade befittingly serves as a plush and premium cabin, thus justifying its tag of the flagship Hyundai. The cabin has a good mix of black and beige leather, with faux wood and brushed aluminium inserts at several places. The Palisade offers a three-row seating arrangement, with both second and third rows of seats capable of accommodating three passengers each.

The dashboard of the Hyundai Palisade looks wide and premium, with a horizontally stretched cockpit sitting atop it. While the scooped housing behind the multi-functional steering wheel gets an instrument console with TFT MID in between the analogue gauges, the other half of the cockpit has a large and wide 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The sleek middle layer of the dashboard accommodates the push start-stop button and sleek-looking AC vents and buttons for the three-zone automatic climate control below it.

The high-placed centre tunnel between the front seats of the Hyundai Palisade gets controls for the audio system at the front and a host of buttons and knobs for transmission, drive modes and electronic parking brake at the back. The rearmost part of the centre tunnel has a hidden storage compartment. The SUV is bestowed with premium features like heated and ventilated front seats, a two-part sunroof, powered front seats with memory function for the driver’s seat, a wireless charger and a head-up display.

The Hyundai Palisade can give some of the more premium SUVs priced more than it due to its sheer road presence and extrovert design language. The new-age design language of Hyundai carried for the Palisade makes it look smooth and premium, thus justifying its expensive price positioning to the fullest.

At the front, the Hyundai Palisade proudly wears the cascading front grille, which has been a trademark for all the Hyundai SUVs in recent times. With studded jewel-like chrome inserts, this grille also features chrome bordering.

The SUV has a split design for the headlamps, with the upper sleek and horizontal unit getting turn indicators and a part of daytime running LEDs, which extend down to the main headlamp unit in a segmented fashion. The vertical arrangement of the main headlamps on the front bumper incorporates triple LED projectors. While the front hood has smooth contours over it, the bumper with silver skid plate and black cladding make it look rugged.

The Hyundai Palisade looks mammoth when viewed from the side, with the large side glass panels, doors with rearview mirrors mounted on them and the 20-inch machined alloy wheels all adding to the stance and substance of the SUV. The 20-inch wheels, high ground clearance, side body moulding and slim roof rails add to the much-needed SUV-ish character of the Palisade. The chrome finish on the upper and lower waistlines of the window panels gives it a premium touch.

At the back, the Hyundai Palisade looks muscular with wraparound vertical tail lamps with LED inserts placed on the slightly flared wheel humps. The angular lines present on the boot lid, rugged-looking rear bumper with skid plate and black moulding and roof-mounted spoiler add to the overall character of the SUV.

The Hyundai Palisade might be having a conventional suspension setup of Macpherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear, but it is good enough to offer a cocooned drive experience with excellent ride quality, which is further enhanced by the drive modes on offer. However, with a light steering setup and body roll for an SUV of this size, the Palisade is not a driver’s SUV.

Powering the Hyundai Palisade is a 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated V6 petrol engine, which is one of the biggest petrol-powered engines made by the Hyundai group. Available with an 8-speed automatic gearbox as standard, this powertrain claims a maximum power output of 277 bhp and a peak torque output of 336 Nm.

Apart from the basics like six airbags, ABS with EBD, brake assist, electronic stability program, hill hold assist, hill descent control, front and rear parking sensors and 360-degree camera, the Hyundai Palisade is also equipped with a host of autonomous driving assistance features like blind-spot collision avoidance warning, rear-cross traffic collision avoidance warning, safe exit assist and rear occupant alert.

If you are not someone who prefers a vehicle for its snob value over its competitors, the Hyundai Palisade might just be the right SUV with the perfect size and luxury on offer for its price.