I drove family SUVs from Honda and Hyundai. The Palisade is more luxurious, but the Pilot is more practical.
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
- I recently drove the Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade midsize, three-row family SUVs.
- The Palisade delivers a refined experience with top-notch tech content worthy of a luxury brand.
- The Pilot's smartly designed cabin, easy-to-use tech, and superb quality are great for families.
American consumers purchase more than 2 million midsize family SUVs every year.
It's a broad segment in which brands can take vastly different approaches.
I recently had the chance to drive two popular three-row midsize SUVs, the Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade, that found success by appealing to the needs of different families.
The Honda Pilot is a thoroughly practical family hauler with a smooth V6 engine, easy-to-use tech, and a thoughtfully designed cabin that provides loads of space for people and cargo.
The Hyundai Palisade, on the other hand, delivers effective daily transportation with a luxurious flair rarely found in a mass-market family SUV.
Here's a closer look at how the two stack up against one another.
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The base front-wheel-drive Pilot Sport starts at $39,900, while the entry-level, front-wheel-drive Palisade SE starts at $36,650.
My well-equipped, Alabama-built Pilot Elite AWD test car started at $52,780 with an as-tested price of $54,630, while my loaded Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy AWD starts at $52,100. With fees, the Ulsan, South Korea-built SUV's as-tested price is $53,650.
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The Pilot's blunted, truck-like front end looks great, but the Palisade's parametric jewel-style front grille takes the cake for me. It's a front facia that's both futuristic and elegant.
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
The Honda Pilot is one of the largest SUVs in its class. At 200 inches, my test car is about three and a half inches longer than the Hyundai Palisade.
It's also taller and wider than the Palisade.
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While many of their contemporaries have turned to small, turbocharged four-cylinder engines for motivation, the Pilot and Palisade are both powered by smooth, naturally aspirated V6s.
The Palisade's 3.8-liter V6 produces 291 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. It's paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission.
The Pilot is powered by a 3.5 liter, 285 horsepower V6 with 262 lb-ft of torque paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission.
To help save fuel, both engines are equipped with the universally loathed automatic stop-start system, while the Honda engine can also shut down three of its six cylinders when high power output isn't needed.
The EPA rates both vehicles for 19 mpg city and 21 mpg combined driving. However, the Pilot gets 25 mpg of fuel economy on the highway, one more than the Palisade.
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The Pilot and Palisade are both naturally front-wheel-drive crossover SUVs with all-wheel-drive available as an optional extra.
Honda's i-VTM4 and Hyundai's HTRAC systems both operate in front-wheel drive when cruising, sending power to the back only when it detects traction loss.
What sets Honda's system apart is that it can target how much power each of the rear wheels receives, such as distributing more power to the outside rear wheel in a corner to reduce understeer and improve controllability.
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Neither vehicle is particularly sporty to drive. The Pilot and Palisade lack the instant low-end torque of a turbocharged powerplant or an electric motor. The duo is also saddled with transmissions tuned for efficiency over outright performance.
Even though both models returned identical 0 to 60 mph runs of 6.9 seconds in Motor Trend's testing, the Palisade inched ahead of the Pilot in this department as it provided a more refined and pleasant driving experience.
The Palisade's drivetrain delivered power effortlessly, while it felt like the Pilot's engine and transmission combo had to strain a bit to get the vehicle going.
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
While both the Pilot and Palisade feature spacious, smartly designed cabins with high-quality materials and excellent ergonomics, they were executed in very different ways.
The Palisade's cabin is stylish and refined. It stands out for its quiet, isolating ride, design features like the airplane seat-style wing-out headrests, and creature comforts like the massaging ergo-motion driver seat.
The Pilot shines for its practicality and thoughtful touches, which help it excel at hauling people and their stuff. One such touch is the ingenious removable middle seat module, which can quickly transform the second-row captain's chairs into bench seats to accommodate extra passengers.
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The Pilot and Palisade have two of the roomiest passenger cabins in the segment.
The Palisade offers about an inch and a half more second-row legroom compared to the Pilot, but it trails the Pilot by an inch in third-row legroom.
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
The Pilot's standard seven-inch and optional nine-inch displays are verging on unacceptably small for a vehicle in this segment. Especially when compared to the Palisade's standard 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen.
Both systems are well-sorted, easy to use, and backed up by physical switches to help make use on the go a bit easier. However, I found the Hyundai system to be a bit more intuitive to use.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility come standard on both vehicles.
Both vehicles also come with an intercom system that allows the driver and rear cabin passengers to communicate through the SUVs' speakers.
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The Honda Pilot is ahead of the Palisade in overall cargo space, with up to 112.1 cubic feet of cargo space behind the first row versus 86.4 cubic feet for the Palisade.
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The Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade represent excellence in the genre but through very different means.
The Palisade's level of luxury and refinement is truly noteworthy. I wouldn't feel cheated if Hyundai slapped and Genesis badge on it and jacked up the price by $10,000.
On the other hand, the Pilot's quality and thoughtful execution are the mark of a brand with a quarter century of experience building minivans that can withstand years of grueling school runs and the destructiveness of a bored, curious child.
Given their vastly different personalities, the vehicle I'd choose depends purely on my family's changing needs.
With younger children, I'd choose the Pilot's roomy, easy-to-use, and durable cabin. But as they and I grow older, count me in on the Palisade's refined, isolating ride and heated massaging seats.
