The Hyundai Palisade is a top choice in midsize 3-row SUVs. This family SUV has a roomy interior, great safety scores, and premium features. The 2023 Hyundai Palisade starts at $34,950. The Hyundai Palisade is one of the newer competitors in the arena of midsize 3-row SUVs, and it’s quickly become one of our favorites. It does almost everything well as an SUV alternative to a minivan. It has a roomy and upscale interior with 3-row seating and a generous list of standard features. Also, this SUV can get pretty luxurious in the upper trims with premium comfort and tech features. Families will appreciate its IIHS Top Safety Pick+ status. The Palisade primarily competes with midsize SUVs like the Toyota Highlander, Chevrolet Traverse, and the mechanically similar Kia Telluride. A couple of SUVs have more seating space, and some offer a hybrid option, but the Palisade is one of the most well-rounded SUVs in this competitive segment. The Hyundai Palisade is relatively new, but it’s already received a mid-cycle refresh for the 2023 model year. Updates include an aesthetic refresh inside and out, more optional tech features like a camera mirror and a WiFi hotspot, and standard rear side-impact airbags. This facelift took a good SUV and made it even better. New for the 2023 model year is the Palisade XRT, a rugged-looking model with dark 20-inch alloy wheels, a dark grille, revised bumpers, black roof rails, a power sunroof, and synthetic leather upholstery in black.
2023 Hyundai Palisade Pricing
The front-wheel-drive (FWD) 2023 Hyundai Palisade SE starts at $34,950. With all-wheel drive, the SE starts at $36,950. As an SEL, the 2023 Hyundai Palisade starts at $37,950, while the new XRT begins at $40,250. At the top of the lineup are the Palisade Limited and Calligraphy models, which start at $46,500 and $48,900, respectively. The pricing of the Hyundai Palisade has gone up a bit, but it remains about average for a midsize 3-row SUV. The mechanically similar Kia Telluride is slightly more affordable, and it’s worth cross-shopping if you’re in the market for an SUV like this. Other similarly priced rivals include the Chevrolet Traverse, Nissan Pathfinder, and Volkswagen Atlas.
Driving the 2023 Hyundai Palisade
The Hyundai Palisade does an excellent job of providing a minivan-like driving experience in the form of an SUV. That’s not a bad thing — this is a comfortable family cruiser on city streets and highway road trips. The standard V6 engine delivers satisfying thrust, but the overall performance is about average for this class. The 8-speed automatic transmission provides quick and smooth shifts. The handling is composed for an SUV this size, but you’ll still get some body roll if you take a turn too fast. All-wheel drive (AWD) is optional on the Palisade, but don’t expect rugged off-road capabilities. AWD gives it more confidence-inspiring traction on snowy roads, making it a good option for families in cold climates with harsh winters.
Interior Comfort
The inside of the Hyundai Palisade feels like a more expensive SUV. The interior design is upscale, the materials are lovely, and the seats are comfortable. A new option is an Ergo Motion driver’s seat derived from the Genesis luxury brand. It’s a specially designed seat with air cells inside for enhanced support and comfort. Hyundai updated the interior design for 2023 with a new instrument panel, gauge cluster, steering wheel design, and seating surfaces. These updates keep the Palisade fresh, modern, and high-tech. The Palisade can seat up to eight people, which drops to seven if you opt for second-row captain’s chairs. The second row is roomy and comfortable, and even the third row is spacious enough for adults. On top of the roomy seating space, the Palisade has a pretty big cargo hold.
Exterior Styling
The styling of the Hyundai Palisade is a bit controversial. It has a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it aesthetic, but we think it looks pretty nice. For 2023, it gets a new front and rear bumper fascia, a new front grille, a new headlight design, and new wheel designs. The higher you go in the model range, the more premium the aesthetic. The size of the Palisade is about average for a midsize 3-row SUV. The dimensions are very similar to the Kia Telluride, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander.
Favorite Features
HEATED THIRD-ROW SEATS REMOTE SMART PARKING ASSIST
This is an uncommon comfort feature in midsize SUVs. If you regularly have passengers in the third row and live in a cold climate, your passengers will appreciate this available feature.
With this available tech feature, you can remotely park or exit a parking spot from outside the vehicle using the key fob.
Standard Features
The base Hyundai Palisade is well-equipped for its price point. Standard features include alloy wheels, LED projector headlights, 3-row seating for up to eight, one-touch sliding second-row seats, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and new USB-C ports in the first and second rows. The Palisade comes with many standard safety and driver assistance tech features. These include automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, driver attention warning, automatic high beams, rear parking sensors, full-speed adaptive cruise control, rear occupant alert, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and Safe Exit Assist. You also get nine standard airbags.
Factory Options
The Palisade has many desirable options available throughout the model range, some of which are new for 2023. Interior comfort and convenience options include an Ergo Motion driver’s seat, heated seats in all three rows, leather upholstery, second-row captain’s chairs, and a dual-pane sunroof. Some optional tech features include a 12-inch screen with navigation and a Wi-Fi hotspot, navigation-based adaptive cruise control, a camera mirror, Digital Key 2 Touch, a wireless charging pad, and Hyundai’s Remote Smart Parking Assist. Whether you want an affordable family SUV with nice standard features or a near-luxury SUV without a premium price tag, there’s something in the Palisade model range for just about everyone in the market for a 3-row SUV.
Engine & Transmission
The sole engine option in the Hyundai Palisade is adequate but nothing special. This 3.8-liter V6 engine is par for the course in this segment regarding performance and fuel economy. It’s linked to an 8-speed automatic transmission. Like most SUVs in this class, front-wheel drive is standard, and all-wheel drive is optional. 3.8-liter V6
291 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm
262 lb-ft of torque @ 5,200 rpm
EPA city/highway fuel economy: 19/26 mpg (FWD), 19/24 mpg (AWD)
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KBB Vehicle Review and Rating Methodology
Our Expert Ratings come from hours of both driving and number crunching to make sure that you choose the best car for you. We comprehensively experience and analyze every new SUV, car, truck, or minivan for sale in the U.S. and compare it to its competitors. When all that dust settles, we have our ratings. We require new ratings every time an all-new vehicle or a new generation of an existing vehicle comes out. Additionally, we reassess those ratings when a new-generation vehicle receives a mid-cycle refresh — basically, sprucing up a car in the middle of its product cycle (typically, around the 2-3 years mark) with a minor facelift, often with updates to features and technology. Rather than pulling random numbers out of the air or off some meaningless checklist, KBB’s editors rank a vehicle to where it belongs in its class. Before any car earns its KBB rating, it must prove itself to be better (or worse) than the other cars it’s competing against as it tries to get you to spend your money buying or leasing. Our editors drive and live with a given vehicle. We ask all the right questions about the interior, the exterior, the engine and powertrain, the ride and handling, the features, the comfort, and of course, about the price. Does it serve the purpose for which it was built? (Whether that purpose is commuting efficiently to and from work in the city, keeping your family safe, making you feel like you’ve made it to the top — or that you’re on your way — or making you feel like you’ve finally found just the right partner for your lifestyle.) We take each vehicle we test through the mundane — parking, lane-changing, backing up, cargo space and loading — as well as the essential — acceleration, braking, handling, interior quiet and comfort, build quality, materials quality, reliability.
