Kia created a genuine hit with their Telluride. It’s got the ruggedly upscale exterior that resonates with shoppers. The cabin successfully mimics more expensive vehicles. It’s also big enough to swallow the average American family and all their cargo with aplomb. But as Yoda would say, there is another. Basically, Hyundai developed a modern Mercury Mountaineer. Like the rebadged Ford of yesteryear, the Palisade is slightly more premium than its more mainstream counterpart. It’s outsold by the Telluride, but that is hardly cause for concern.
Everything about the Kia also applies to the Palisade. The only big difference between the two is the styling. Auto blogs and print publications preferred the Telluride’s looks. Hyundai doesn’t need to worry though, because their new three row is selling almost as well as its sibling. Most are sold within 20 days of arriving on the lot, according to Cox Automotive. And the sales data from November is even more encouraging. Hyundai’s sales are up 8.4% compared to last year. Additionally, incentive spending is down 3.9% and average transaction prices are up 9.4%. Hyundai will probably sell about 25,000 Palisades this year. Why the low number? Supply has been constrained and it debuted after the Kia. It’ll probably do much better next year.
The Palisade is the only all-new Hyundai that could be responsible for such increases. The Venue is too new and wouldn’t move the average transaction price needle given its low price. Overall, Hyundai’s entire crossover lineup is pulling its weight. The Santa Fe is up 42% from last year. And given the brand’s average November transaction price of $24,547, it probably helped out in that area too.
Hyundai Motor Company has seemingly entered a new era. They’re no longer delivering the lowest prices. Instead, the company is packing their vehicles with more content than their competitors without slashing their MSRPs. The upscale vibe of the Telluride and Palisade are just icing on the cake. And vehicles like the Kona and Veloster N deliver solid driving dynamics, an area where the Korean automaker previously came up short. All of this adds up to something of a stealth renaissance for the company.
Related Reading:
We Have a Winner: Why the 2020 Hyundai Palisade is the Best 3-Row SUV by Brian Wong, Cars.com
Curbside Newsstand: Kia’s Telluride Is Doing Quite Well, Average Transaction Price North of $40,000
Maybe it is just me but I find that front design hideous. This would rank right up there as a vehicle I couldn’t be seen in.
The Hyundai SUV design language works on the Venue because of the overall scale of it, but not so much on an actual big car.
It not just you, I find that front end ugly too, though I think it is as bad as the Telluride.
That’s the reason so many cars today have all of the glass in the car tinted (in violation of the law). Occupants don’t want to be seen in it.
It’s only illegal in cars, perfectly legal tinted glass is yet another “light truck” loophole
I hated it on the 2014 Cherokee and I still hate it on this adaptation. Fake decorative slit “headlights” above fake “driving lights” that are the actual headlights, ugh!
Oh lordy that’s shocking. The little roundish dual headlights with the giant grille make the whole thing look way out of scale to my eyes, like some sort of monster.
The Kia Telluride is actually good looking by comparison. (Here I am saying something nice about an SUV, yikes.)
Black hole sun
Won’t you come
And wash away the rain
It all started here.
And as it happens that photo is from a CC post from 2015:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1958-buick-special-anything-worth-doing-is-worth-doing-to-excess/
I recognized it immediately!
Hopefully, this move up market by H/K is accompanied by a cleanup of their dealerships.
I admit it’s been 3 years since I walked into a KIA store, but the salesman insisted I give him my Social Security number before he would give me a test drive. I walked out.
Last week I visited a Hyundai store to check out the Venue. The salesman insisted there was no such thing as a manual transmission Venue. He told me they only come with one powertrain. He also pointed out that since the Kona has a rebate while the Venue is too new to offer one, he could sell me a Kona for less than a Venue.
I have no idea who H/K is selling all these vehicles to, but it certainly isn’t me.
Slightly OT, but over the years I have found dealer sales experiences (probably outside of Mercedes and Lexus etc. dealers) to vary greatly. Big cities are uniformly the worst. They have a huge market without any way for much of a local reputation to develop, although it would seem that Yelp etc. these days would help. No sign of that happening though.
I’ll admit that some of my very occasional car shopping was early research or even just curiosity, but the sales persons had no way of knowing that. I look like some middle class middle aged white guy, not some rube or wacko.
In Northampton MA the Honda dealer is OK, but known to not give a deal and to use typical sales tactics if not to any extreme. For a test drive they ride along. Twenty miles north in Greenfield the dealer quickly quotes a substantially reduced price and then hands you the keys for a test drive. My sister and I had exactly the same experiences three years apart. Since this is not a big city area (although not low population small towns either) everyone knows the reputation of both dealers.
In SW Brooklyn the Honda dealer was OK. The Nissan dealer only blocks away offered the worst car shopping experience I ever had. Bizarrely bad. (I asked – different ownership.) The Nissan dealer a couple miles East sucked too. I didn’t stay long there when they quickly said they had no car to test drive.The Nissan dealer in Staten Island (across a bridge) was OK. The Honda dealer a couple miles East in Brooklyn was horrible in ten different ways.
I’m guessing that others shopping for non-luxury new cars have had equally varying experiences and maybe a similar big city vs smaller market experience as well.
I recently drove a Palisade for a week and came away very impressed with its overall design and features. I had the Ultimate model priced at $50,199 CDN base. It was loaded up with third row seating. Good on fuel and ideal for highway travel.
It is competitively priced, but in that price class the average person would likely swing toward a competitor’s model with more cache.
I have not been paying that close attention to these, however, I think around Tualatin I have seen more Palisades and Mountaineers than Tellurides.
Needs bigger chrome-ish fish lips!
The new big BMW SUV is about as bad. Walter Gropius is rolling over in his grave.
It’s gaudy and big.
That’s what (most) Americans want. It’s a winner!
A handful of potential Accent/Elantra/Sonata buyers might even be upsold one of these, something that won’t happen at GM or Ford (since there aren’t any small cars to draw people like that in the first place).
“(since there aren’t any small cars to draw people like that in the first place).”
Or their experiences with the recent Fiesta/Focus made them swear to never go to a Ford dealer again.
I actually prefer that the headlights in trucks and SUVs are starting to be mounted lower to reduce glare for non-SUVs.
I got a chance to go for a ride in the Telluride at SEMA last year and came away impressed. The driver actually jumped it a bit on their test course and I still have the hat! I think Kia/Hyundai have come a long way. I am still a little concerned about long-term reliability and durability of materials compared to the Hondas and Toyotas of not long ago. Lately Toyota and Honda have been going the Big 2.5 route and skimping on materials.
Funny side story – a friend works at a local Big 2.5 proving ground and they wanted to borrow (rent) a Telluride for evaluation but they couldn’t! They had to buy one as they are so hot right now.
I think most of these will make it to 100K with little problems. For many people that will be 10 years from now and they will likely trade or donate the car. But for those high milers expecting 200 or 300K will little or no problems (like Toyotas and Hondas of yore) I think they will be disappointed or dump the money pits.
Interestingly, Honda’s Chief Executive, at a recent gathering of suppliers, said that the company needs to improve quality, as a spate of recent recalls and other quality issues are not only hurting the company’s image, but also affecting the bottom line.
One of Honda’s goals is to reduce the complexity of vehicles, as well as the number of available variations, in order to improve overall quality.
As for Hyundai – a friend had a Sonata (forget the year) that he had bought brand-new after unloading a troublesome VW Passat. He recently traded the Sonata because “it had a lot of issues that needed to be fixed.” The total mileage was only 107,000 miles. I know that the car underwent a complete engine replacement along the way – which was paid for by Hyundai – because of a known defect.
But he traded it for another Sonata, so the experience must not have been that bad.
“But he traded it for another Sonata”
There is the secret – what other company would replace an engine at no cost at any point up to 100k miles? Everyone builds cars with design flaws – Ford’s dry clutch transmissions come to mind. At least Hyundai/Kia stand behind their products when it happens. And they just made a repeat sale after the customer’s former car had an engine failure.
“I actually prefer that the headlights in trucks and SUVs are starting to be mounted lower to reduce glare for non-SUVs.”
That is an annoyance I have with my F-150. Why on earth do they put the low beams on top and the highs on the bottom? The lows are so high up they barely light up the ground immediately in front of you, plus I know it is blinding to those in shorter cars.
I’m not one for government regulation, but they really need to enact new standards for lighting. And crack down on illegal (blinding) LED replacement bulbs as well. Even some brake lights are now blinding.
I’m not at all against lower headlights, but there has to be a better solution than adding the fake vestigial upper running lights where designers want the headlights to be.
This style reminds me of European cars in the 70s that got very unflattering alterations in order to meet us lighting laws.
So the Palisade is upmarket from the Telluride? I always regarded KIa as being the more premium brand, probably because their cars are better-looking than Hyundais. This gruesome beast does nothing to change that opinion.
I’ll take the Challenger photobombing it, thanks.
Nice looking vehicle, except for the ugly-ass grille.
Once again, a vehicle that could’ve worked, if not for the front end ruining it completely. (Seems to be a trend with modern cars I’ve noticed, the entire body style looks good for what it is and is well designed, then you get up front and your gag reflex triggers something fierce. Course, this is just me talking)
Déjà vu…… does anyone else see it?
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/attachments/img_9313-jpg.689205/
And when I see this on the road….
https://content.autotrader.com/content/dam/autotrader/articles/Cars/Hyundai/SantaFe/2020/2020-Hyundai-Santa-Fe-(7).jpg
I see this……
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cmaDzpBscf4/UWBHNFrq7pI/AAAAAAACfQY/2nnqrXFQTnA/s1600/DSC_0022.JPG
I feel like a Mopar fan is designing taillights for Hyundai / Kia, with a modern twist
Having owned one V8 Genesis, three US made Sorento’s and now both a Telluride SXP and a Korean made Niro EV I kinda think I’m just buying bulletproof dashboards. They’ve all been defect free and never a recall or a dealer issue.
And yes I’ve owned lots of other brands of new vehicles over the decades.
Though we’ve only kept these listed cars for on average 3 years max.
So who knows their future reliability or cost of ownership?
I own a limited Palisade and despite all the things said about it this is the best SUV I ever owned period hands down. Safety features galore which translates to lower insurance bill. Four different drive options enhance the power and gas mileage you desire. It’s the bomb to me.