What's the 2020 Hyundai Palisade's Price? Look to the Japanese for Your Answer

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Hyundai blanketed the rollout of its new three-row Palisade with descriptive terms that positively oozed luxury and refinement. Hell, just the name of the thing should conjure up a swanky seaside image or two.

It’s clear the Korean automaker feels its eight-passenger crossover (successor to the Santa Fe XL, formerly just “Santa Fe”) stands on par with its foreign competitors, as its price reflects this newfound feeling of confidence.

There’s no choice of powertrains in this vehicle, so all 2020 Palisades will carry the same 3.8-liter V6 and eight-speed automatic when the model arrives at dealers. That arrival, by the way, is imminent. Once here, would-be owners will only need to concern themselves with content level and number of drive wheels.

Starting at $31,550 for a base front-wheel-drive SE, the Palisade demands a $1,045 destination fee. What other models appear with this starting price, you ask? Let’s see… The Honda Pilot LX FWD ($31,350, plus destination), the Toyota Highlander SE FWD ($31,680, plus destination), and the Nissan Pathfinder S FWD ($31,350, plus destination).

Hyundai must have employed the services of a shoehorn to squeeze itself into the middle of this closely-spaced pack. If you’re looking for a three-row unibody with a bargain basement starting price, look no further than Detroit. The Chevrolet Traverse L FWD carries a sticker of $29,930 before destination.

Even when you add all-wheel drive to the equation, the Palisade doesn’t budge from its crowded perch. An SE AWD will set you back $33,250, plus destination. Compare that to the pre-destination price of Honda’s cheapest AWD Pilot ($33,350), Toyota’s AWD Highlander LE ($35,190), and Nissan’s Pathfinder S AWD ($33,220). It seems Hyundai hopes that customers view its status as being above that of the Americans, just a hair above the value-packed Nissan brand, basically on par with Honda, and a quarter-step below everyone’s favorite purveyor of reliable runabouts.

With no fancy hybrid systems or uplevel engines in tow, a top-flight Palisade Limited AWD tips the financial scales at $46,400, plus destination.

As it prepares to enter a hotly contested (and potentially lucrative) battle, the Palisade hopes to win on the strength of its content, interior room, and design. Standard equipment includes automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, rear parking sensors, an 8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, and power folding second-row seats.

Let the games begin.

[Images: Hyundai]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • James Charles James Charles on Jun 13, 2019

    Well Hyundai and Kia will become priced with the more established players. Expect more of this from their other vehicles. Globally, Chinese vehicles will fill the void left by Hyundai and Kia. I suppose this is leaving FCA as the cheap (and often crappy quality) offering. Mitsubishi are another cheap producer, but I would invest in a Hyundai or Kia over a Chrysler or Mitsubishi any day.

  • Cdotson Cdotson on Jun 14, 2019

    The name should conjure swanky images? For me, the name only conjures faint memories of a cheesy Boomer-pop song with carnival tunes and a crowd soundtrack. Not what one would call aspirational.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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