Drastically underpowered nanny-state hell.
I wanted to like the Palisade. I was so psyched up when I bought it, given the upscale looks and the lengthy list of features for the price. It seemed like such a great deal. But then reality began to creep in, one disappointing discovery at a time. A lengthy highway road trip revealed super twitchy steering and either an underwhelming engine or terrible transmission--I'm still not sure which is the true culprit. The vehicle never feels like it's in the right gear, almost as though the transmission engineers did everything they could to keep it out of the engine's power band at all costs. The 6 cylinder engine is rated for 280-ish horsepower but it drives more like it has half that. Putting the vehicle's drive mode selector in "sport" mode is the only way to make driving this thing even remotely tolerable, but of course, that's one of several settings Hyundai's sanctimonious engineers have decreed *must* be applied every single time you get in the car. It's a bit like an airplane in that regard -- you have to turn on the vehicle, change the drive mode to sport, turn off the Auto Stop/Start, and turn on recirculation on the climate control before getting on your way. I could write a book on the design mistakes and problems with the infotainment setup but don't have the energy to rehash them all here. It feels like it was designed by teams of people assigned to different elements who never communicated with each other before their work was stitched together. So, it shouldn't be surprising that the myHyundai app you have to use for certain features like remote start is slow, buggy, and a pain to use. But none of these things can touch the crown jewel Hyundai engineers decided to shove down unsuspecting buyers' throats: an automatic lock "feature" that cannot be disabled. Yes, that's right. Hyundai knows better than the customer when it comes to controlling access to the vehicle. Sure, you might've pressed that unlock button on the keyfob to unlock your garaged Palisade so you can go retrieve your child's blankie that got left in the car, but if you don't get to the vehicle within 30 seconds, it's Lock City for you. Because Hyundai has decided you couldn't possibly want the car doors to remain unlocked after you've deliberately unlocked them, *especially* when the vehicle is safely parked in your own driveway. Nope. And because Hyundai knows this absolute, universal truth, it made absolutely certain there is no way to turn auto-lock off. It's hard-wired into the vehicle DNA. So get ready to put your things down in the snow when it's freezing outside so you can dig around in your coat to find the keyfob and unlock the vehicle (again) because it took you 33 seconds to get to the door handle on your way out of the house.