#pallisade

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Hyundai Palisade llegará al mercado mexicano

Hyundai Motor de México confirma la llegada de uno de los modelos más esperados: Hyundai Palisade. Considerada como la SUV insignia de la marca, Palisade arriba al mercado mexicano con características sofisticadas, un diseño imponente, además de tener una personalidad atractiva en cada ángulo. Las primeras imágenes de Hyundai Palisade están disponibles en las redes sociales de Hyundai Motor de…

Text and Photos By Michael Hozjan

You’ve got to hand it to Hyundai, just months after launching their largest SUV to date, the three–row Palisade, they bring us their smallest, the Venue. Both of which I’m sure will be a hit with many a household. 

Hyundai Palisade: Getting it right the first time

The Palisade shares the same platform with its corporate cousin, Kia’s Telluride. With giddy up coming from the same transversely mounted 3.8L, 291-hp V6 producing 262 lb-ft of torque mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission riding on the same suspension and brakes. See Kia Telluride: More Bang for the Buck further down this page.

Prices for the Palisade start at $38,826.20 for the front-wheel-drive Essential trim and climb to just over 51 grand for the top of the line Ultimate trim. In between you’ve got the $45,699 all-wheel-drive Preferred (Hyundai needs to get more creative with their trim names) and the $50,399 Luxury, which as the name implies gets leather seating, a 10.25” touch screen and surround view and blind spot monitor.

Even the base Palisade gets you heated seats, heated steering wheel and reclining second row seats – competition take note. As well you get trailer sway control, vehicle stability management. Hyundai’s HTRAC all-wheel-drive system, along with multi terrain control modes is a $2,000 option on the Essential if you don’t want or need to step up to the Preferred which adds 20” wheels, auto-leveling rear suspension, three-zone climate control and the usual safety features; blind spot collision avoidance, rear cross traffic collision avoidance and safe exit assist. As mentioned earlier the Luxury will get you into cowhide seating, a 10.25” touch screen and surround view monitor.

My tester, the top tier Ultimate trim featured Nappa leather, heads-up display, a good looking 12.3”digital cluster (not available on the Kia) that spanned half the dash and didn’t look like an after thought add on, a chrome grill and fancier 20” wheels set the Ultimate apart from the lesser models.

On The Road

I can’t really pin point what it was but my ride in the Palisade was a lot more enjoyable than in the Kia. The Hyundai is a lot easier to toss into a corner, the electrically assisted steering feels precise and light, but dial in Sport mode, and it becomes better weighted, making twisties that much more fun. For a bulky vehicle, body roll is well controlled and in par or superior to others in the segment. Yet for all the sportiness that the large Palisade offers it still provided a comfortable ride when the local dirt roads turned into washboards.

The V6 is vibration free delivering smooth power throughout the rev range and though I did find it a tad louder than the Kia when I shut off the sat radio, the greenhouse is still very quite when compared to lesser seven and eight seaters. Push the go pedal up past the five grand mark and the V6 becomes a different animal growling through the gears as the torque kicks in and revs grow.

Towing capacity is 5000 pounds when properly equipped.

The Greenhouse

All too many SUVs are plagued with bland, hard plastic interiors. Happily the Palisade is not one of them. The airy cabin is comes dressed in a faux-suede headliner and premium leather with quilted door panels that give it a touch of luxury.

Seven USB ports should keep everyone happy.

 My seven passenger Ultimate came with ventilated second row seats, in car intercom so you can talk to third row occupants without raising your voice.

There’s 86 cu.ft. of cargo room behind the front seats. With four passengers and the third row folded you still get 46 cubes. Add more passengers into the third row and the volume shrinks to a modest 18 cubic feet, three less than the Kia because the Hyundai has power folding seats. There’s an additional cubbyhole underneath the load floor. I liked the floating center console that offered additional stowage underneath. Perfect for keeping your camera nearby when the seats are full.

Cargo volume behind the front seats is 86 cubic feet, which fit 33 carry-on suitcases in our testing. With the second row in the upright position and the third row folded, there is 46 cubic feet. Store the third row and the volume shrinks to a modest 18 cubes. Underneath the load floor, there is plenty of room to store muddy or wet items. The cubbies in the doors are tight, but there is reasonable storage within and below the floating-bridge center console.

Conclusion

You can’t review the Palisade without comparing it to the Telluride and the two are so closely matched that the final choice will more often than not be down to personal tastes on styling.  The Kia has a classic front end that would be right at home when stepping out to the opera, but the Hyundai’s shark mouthed front end gives the truck a more aggressive appearance. The rear end however is a different story, at least in my eyes.  I found the Kia’s butt busy and the Palisade cleanly executed. Both incidentally have real twin exhaust tips unlike some fakes you’ll find elsewhere.

At test’s end I found the Palisade hard to surrender. It was there in an impromptu stop to pick up an end table and coffee table for a project, and during a particularly foggy day I appreciated the seating height and large glass to see out.  Oh and for those who think that seven and eight seat SUVs suck a lot of gas, think again. During my weeklong test it only drank 9.5L/100kms of the good stuff.

Price as tested: $56,923*

*Includes Delivery and Destination Fees

Hyundai Venue: GREAT things come in small packages 

There’s been a slew of cutesy subcompact crossovers flooding the market and going after consumer dollars over the last couple of years.  Thankfully Hyundai’s latest creation, the Venue, breaks tradition. Yes it’s targeted at Millennials – what vehicle isn’t these days?  But unlike other crossovers the Venue is more butch looking than cutesy and it’s also only available in front wheel drive.

I got lucky and procured mine during a snowstorm, as evidenced by the opening photo, and it never stopped snowing during the entire week.  The Venue proved, or rather reminded me of several things, you don’t need all-wheel or four-wheel-drive to get around in the snow and you don’t need gobs of horsepower.  How did we all survive back in the day when 4x4s were for the military and your local service station plow? What the Venue did have was a set if fabulous winter tires to help it, but more on that later.

The Venue represents Hyundai’s fifth vehicle in the lucrative SUV/crossover market. It joins the Kona, Tucson, Santa Fe and Palisade making the Hyundai showroom a one stop shopping experience for all your crossover needs. At 4,040mm (159 inches) long, the Venue is shorter than its closest competitors, by 255mm (10 inches) against the pricier Nissan Kicks and 125 mm (4.95 inches) shorter than corporate sibling the Kona.

There’s a bit of give and take here, what you gain in parking space and around town maneuverability you loose in trunk space. If there is a downside to the Venue, it’s just that, the lack of cargo room behind the rears seats, a mere 18.7 cubic feet. Good news is that with the rear bench folded almost flat, it expands to 31.9 cubic feet is nearly the same as the Nissan. Unlike the Kicks, the design does allow for taller items, so again some give and take.

Egress and ingress are excellent. At six feet, I never felt crammed, even with my winter layers on. The front buckets are soft and comfortable but the rear bench is on the tight side for someone with my stature. Still I’ve seen worse. 

Unlike its swooped back competition, the boxy design gives great forward, lateral and rear visibility. Though the thick C-pillars do slightly hamper parallel parking. Yes I still look out the back and don’t use the cameras most of the time.

Four trim levels make up the Venue line up with prices staring at $17,099 for the six-speed manual tranny equipped Essential. The CVT automatic is a $1,300 option.  Entry level once meant you got a steering wheel, seats and an engine. Not any more, even the Essential comes with Bluetooth connectivity, 8” touch screen, HD/AM/FM/MP3 audio system, remote keyless entry, heated front seats, heated power side mirrors and front and rear skid plates.

The grab handle in the rear hatch ( above) may not seem like a big deal but when pricier trucks have you grasping at the outside of salt laden hatches it makes all the difference.

The Preferred adds blind spot collision and rears cross traffic warning along with lane change warning. The Trend includes a power sunroof, 17” alloys and cloth seating, drive mode selector, rear view camera, downhill brake control, remote start, heated steering wheel, LED headlights with cornering lighting My tester, the Ultimate added more driving aides, nav with MapCare support, 4-wheel disc brakes and a chrome grille.

SE Manual: $17,099

Preferred:   $21,499

Trend:         $22,599

Ultimate:     $24,899

I’m going to use the Venue’s formula and make my assessment this short and sweet and in plain simple terms. I love this thing. It does everything it’s supposed to do, take you from point A to point B comfortably, with as little effort as possible without emptying your wallet. Critics will balk at the plastic interior trim. What do you expect for under twenty grand? Hell there’s acres of plastic trim on vehicles costing two and three times as much.

 There’s a good balance between ride and handling and driving on country roads with multiple successive bumps, it feels planted and not at all jittery and for a vehicle with its dimensions, it doesn’t exhibit an overabundance of body roll either.

 The normally aspirated double overhead cam 1.6L inline four pumps out 121 horses and 113 lb.-ft. of torque. Simply put that is all you will need. Whether passing semis on the highway, plowing through half a foot of snow while climbing several grades I never felt under powered.  

Oh and did I say how easy the controls are to use! Thank you Hyundai.

I could easily see the Venue in my driveway if it had just a tad more cargo room for my business and farm needs. Sadly you can’t mix and match options these days the way you used to. My perfect Venue would have the 6-speed manual transmission with the heated steering wheel from the Trend and the Ultimate’s four-wheel disc brakes.

I suspect for most buyers there’s more than enough room behind the second row for your groceries and I know that the Venue will appeal not only to Millennial hipsters but also to older drivers who want a no nonsense vehicle that’s easy to drive, get in and out of and easy on the pocket book.

Winter tires:

As mentioned earlier, my snowy week with the Venue’s couldn’t have been as enjoyable were it not for the Pirelli Cinturato Winter tires. As you can imagine I come across a multitude of tire brands and models on all types of vehicles and with prices to match. Having a pricey tire no matter what the brand doesn’t assure you great performance. A tire that is good in the snow might fail miserably on ice and the other way around. Likewise in slushy conditions, dry roads and mix and match. Tire size is also a big factor with most cars/trucks wearing the wrong size winter boots.