2026 Hyundai Palisade First Drive Review: Everybody Else Should Take Note

• All-new Palisade debuts with a bold new design and world-class interior.
• Supremely comfortable and spacious.
• Lengthy list of new features.

Hyundai designers say that they were inspired by midcentury modern furniture, and the comparison is most obvious when you opt for the saddle brown interior. Besides the housing that contains the twin 12.3-inch screens, there's not a hard corner in sight. It makes the interior look like it's been crafted by hand — high praise.

Comfortable, effortless

If there was one theme consistent across my drive on the media launch and my long return trip home, it's that the Palisade is comfortable. Even though my tester was equipped with 21-inch wheels (larger wheels typically mean a worse ride), the Palisade remained composed over a variety of surfaces, from the manicured city streets of Walnut Creek in the East Bay to the hard-ridden asphalt of Interstate 5 in California's Central Valley. There weren't many roads that upset the Palisade's suspension tuning. 

The exception was some undulating roads that produced a bouncy motion that took the Palisade a couple of seconds to recover from. In all other circumstances, the ride was settled. But even though the suspension is tuned for comfort, the Palisade is quite stable when you need to hustle it around a mountain corner. The supportive seats mean you won't go slip-sliding around when you're navigating a set of switchbacks either.

Speaking of the seats, the range-topping Calligraphy has the adjustments you'd expect, plus four-way lumbar, side bolster width adjustment and an extendable leg cushion. It proved perfect for long-legged drivers who want extra support on lengthy drives. There's also a button that reclines the seat and extends the cushion so you can chill while you wait in the school pickup line. The driver's seat also has a massage function, which is a rarity in the non-luxury class.

Passengers in the second row also receive the first-class treatment. There aren't any legrests here, but they do get power adjustment. Add another tally to the "rare for non-luxury vehicles" list. There's even a single-touch "max relax" button that moves the seat all the way back and reclines it. Another button moves the seat forward and tilts it up to aid third-row entry and exit. And of course, the second-row seats are heated and ventilated starting at the midtier SEL Premium model.

And if that still wasn't enough, the third row is also power-adjustable. That means you can move your seat rearward and even recline if you want to increase passenger space at the minor expense of ultimate cargo capacity. Those seats are also heated, by the way. Rare for the non-luxury class? Try nonexistent. There's no other vehicle in this class that puts this kind of priority on third-row passengers, and I salute Hyundai for being so thoughtful.

Having power-adjustable seats in every row pays other benefits too. Dropping the third row from the cargo area automatically scoots the second-row seats forward (if needed), which is terrifically convenient. You can also rearrange the second- and third-row seats from the front touchscreen if you need to quickly reconfigure the cabin for ride-share duty. 

I found very few faults with the Palisade's interior. The biggest is the driving position. The steering wheel is mounted a little low on the dash, and if you have the leg extension raised, you create a fairly narrow gap between the seat and wheel to actually slide your leg into. And because the easy entry/exit feature moves the seatback forward, you actually scrunch up as you try to exit the car. I ended up turning it off and just leaving from a slightly reclined position. 

Slow going

The Palisade is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 — downsized from the previous model's 3.8-liter — which produces 287 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque. Those are nearly the same figures as the outgoing Palisade, which is why we expect the new version to essentially match the old one's 0-60 mph time of 7.6 seconds. 

That's roughly in line with the rest of the class, but the Palisade's sluggish reaction times from the transmission make it feel slower in everyday driving. The gearbox likes to upshift as soon as possible, and that means that in some scenarios, it won't give you the power you'd expect. On multiple occasions, I would turn left and press the accelerator after clearing the intersection, and nothing would happen at first. 

If you want to force a downshift — and in passing scenarios, you certainly will — you have to really dig into the pedal. Putting the driving mode into Sport hung onto lower gears for longer, but it's not the most pleasant mode for stop-and-go driving.

If you're considering a Palisade and are worried about the uninspiring powertrain, you might want to wait just a little while longer. A Palisade Hybrid is coming in November, pairing a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder with an electric motor. Total system output is projected at 329 horsepower and 339 lb-ft of torque. Not only do you get more oomph, but fuel economy should be much improved too. 

Every feature you can think of

In addition to all of those seating and heating/cooling options, you also get an in-car intercom (standard on every model), configurable ambient lighting, a dual-pane sunroof, a head-up display, a surround-view monitor, and two USB-C charging ports in every row. The UV-C sterilization compartment that debuted on the Santa Fe as a small cubby on the dashboard is now the entire underarm storage compartment. If you upgrade to the Calligraphy, you'll add front and rear exterior cameras that activate while driving or if motion is detected while parked. And yes, the Palisade now comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

The Palisade also boasts a suite of standard driving aids that include forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot warning, and front and rear parking sensors. It also debuts a new safe-exit warning system. Other Hyundais have a similar system, which alerts you to traffic approaching from the rear so you don't accidentally open the door into another car. But those merely trigger warning cues. The Palisade has new visual indicators on the rear doors — similar to blind-spot indicator lights — so you can identify vehicles without opening the door first. 

It isn't perfect, but the new Palisade delivers an elevated experience almost everywhere. Whether you're doing the day-to-day grind or going for a long haul, Hyundai's new three-row has you covered. The 2026 Palisade starts at $40,430 for the well-equipped front-drive SE model and maxes out around $60,000 for the all-wheel-drive Calligraphy. Hyundai isn't the budget brand it used to be, but it provides a lot of value in terms of features for the money. We think the 2026 Palisade will once again shake up the segment and prove to be a daunting challenger to many of its rivals.