Hyundai Palisade

The Hyundai Palisade impresses massively with its plush and premium cabin, which is comparable to those of the pricier European cars. There are three leather upholstery options to choose from – Black monotone, Warm Grey and Burgundy.

The wide-looking dashboard of the Hyundai Palisade has a horizontally stretched cockpit sitting atop it, which includes a scooped housing for the conventional-looking instrument console behind the multi-functional steering wheel. This instrument console has a TFT MID in between the analog gauges. The left half of this horizontally-laid cockpit has a wide 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The middle layer of the dashboard looks sleek while accommodating the slim AC vents in the middle, the push start-stop button, and buttons for the audio system. This layer is characterized by a thin strip of silver garnish across the dashboard.

The Hyundai Palisade has a high-placed center tunnel, which houses controls for the climate control at the front. In addition to these, there are other controls for transmission, drive modes, and electronic parking brake below the climate control buttons. The cabin of the Palisade feels luxurious of the presence of premium features like heated and ventilated front seats, powered front seats with memory function for the driver’s seat, a two-part sunroof, a head-up display, and a wireless charger.

It is the sheer road presence and aggressive design language of the Hyundai Palisade, which combine to give it a nice first impression. Despite its huge size, the Hyundai Palisade maintains a premium and smooth appeal in its design, without going too overboard.

The front profile of the Hyundai Palisade is graced by a cascading front grille, which gets studded chrome-like elements within it. The additional bordering of chrome around the grille further raises its premium appeal even more. The all-LED headlamps of the Palisade have a split design, which goes the same for the vertically-aligned C-shaped daytime running LEDs on their inner edges. The SUV looks tough with the silver skid plate and black cladding at the bottom of the front bumper.

Move towards the side, and the Hyundai Palisade impresses even more with its gigantic road presence. The large side glass panels, 20-inch machined alloy wheels, and high ground clearance gives it the bulk of a full-size luxury SUV, while the chrome touches on the window frames and door-mounted rear view mirrors add the touch of panache to its side profile.

The Hyundai Palisade retains the muscular essence of its design on the rear profile, which is stylized by the presence of wraparound vertical tail lamps with LED inserts, the outer edges of which are placed on the slightly flared humps over the wheel arches. The boot lid has angular lines present on it, which along with the rugged-looking rear bumper with skid plate and black molding, give the rear profile of the SUV a rugged character.

The Hyundai Palisade is bestowed with a conventional suspension setup of Macpherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear, which is tuned to offer a cocooned drive experience with excellent ride quality. The additional drive modes and active on-demand all-wheel-drive in the diesel version further enhance the mannerisms of the Palisade on rougher terrains.

For Malaysia, the Hyundai Palisade is being offered with two engine options. First is the 3.5-liter naturally-aspirated V6 petrol engine, which claims a maximum power output of 295 PS and a peak torque output of 355 Nm. There is also a 2.2-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, which claims 200 PS of maximum power and 440 Nm of maximum torque. Both these engine options are available with a standard 8-speed automatic transmission.

The Hyundai Palisade gets a host of autonomous driving assistance features like smart cruise control with stop-and-go function, blind-spot collision-avoidance assist, lane-keeping assist, lane following assist, forward collision avoidance assist, high beam assist, driver attention assist, leading vehicle departure alert, safe exit alert, rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist and rear occupant alert. Apart from these, the other basic safety features available in the SUV are six airbags, ABS with EBD, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management, traction control, hill hold assist, hill descent control, trailer stability assist, front and rear parking sensors, parking cameras and ISOFIX mounts for child seats.

The striking road presence with bulk and style, a plethora of features, refined engine options and a comfortable ride quality all make the Hyundai Palisade a sensible SUV to choose over similarly-priced but smaller compact and midsize European SUVs.