Long-Term Test Introduction: 2020 Hyundai Palisade
It’s been quite some time since Driving.ca last had a long-term test, but with the ever-increasing complexity of vehicles, all to often one week is barely enough to scratch the surface and really get to know it. With a family vehicle in particular, settling in to a routine and seeing how it holds up after weeks and months of harried schedules and never-ceasing activities reveals just how much it enables peace of mind or builds frustration.
After a pair of glowing reviews and a Comparison Test victory, we still couldn’t get enough of Hyundai’s entirely new 2020 Palisade. Hyundai has been delivering ever more refined products behind its Hyundai badge and making impressive first steps into the luxury market with its Genesis brand, and the Palisade makes a much more convincing play in the midsize-large-ish three-row SUV arena than the awkwardly styled Veracruz and undersized Santa Fe XL. There has certainly been a lot of interest in the Palisade, both from my colleagues in the office and hockey parents from my son’s team, so we hope to answer any and all questions we get about its driving characteristics, capabilities and features.
Of course, the interior of such a large vehicle isn’t just meant to be pretty, it also needs to carry lots of stuff, and the Palisade certainly has abundant passenger and cargo space. In fact, the very first thing my daughter said when she first got into it was, “Can we take this on our next camping trip?” She was convinced it had a much larger interior than the Kia Sedona we packed to the rafters for our trip to Killarney Provincial Park this past summer. In reality, its 509 litres of trunk space and 1,297 with the third row folded doesn’t hold a candle to the Sedona’s 960 L in the trunk, and 2,220 with the third row down. However, passenger space is on another level with massive headroom, legroom and shoulder room, especially for young children, but even for adults, and that translated into my daughter’s view that she could have brought six more bags of stuffed animals and diversions along for the ride.
The Palisade is proving to be an easy companion for family life so far, so stay tuned for updates, a comparison with one of the most popular vehicles in this segment, and perspectives of various staff here at Postmedia’s head office. If you have any questions or requests, please post them in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer or demonstrate in a future post.
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