Palisade vs. Telluride vs. Atlas vs. Ascent

[HouCuseChickie]

I was hoping I'd like the new Ford Bronco or Bronco sport, but 1. Assuming the leaked pictures are real, I don't like any of them. The 4-door looks too Jeepish, the 2 door looks too much like a pumped up Bronco II, and the Sport looks like a modern version of the original Escape body. 2. I am at the point where I want to replace my current vehicle now and can't really wait until any of them are available to the public. It's a 2012, it's high mileage, I've put a lot of $ into repairs over the last year and still having issues that those repairs didn't fully fix...which doesn't cut it when you risk breaking down during your 30 mile heavy traffic commute. 3. My whole idea of trying to save my current vehicle for my daughter is probably stupid, since it's going to be highly unreliable by that point and possibly a bit too much for her as a new driver.

I'm going car shopping this weekend and the Hyundai Palisade, Kia Telluride, VW Atlas and Subaru Ascent are the top contenders. Anyone have any strong feelings for or against any of these?

I have yet to drive them, so I'm just going on visuals and car expert reviews/safety tests. From that, I prefer the Hyundai for the interior appearance, the Kia for the exterior appearance, the VW for the 3rd row space and cargo capacity, and the Subie for the standard AWD. I live in a warm climate, so AWD isn't really a must. I'd probably only truly need it once every couple of years if we take a road trip to go skiing.

Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[artvandelay]

I was hoping I'd like the new Ford Bronco or Bronco sport, but 1. Assuming the leaked pictures are real, I don't like any of them. The 4-door looks too Jeepish, the 2 door looks too much like a pumped up Bronco II, and the Sport looks like a modern version of the original Escape body. 2. I am at the point where I want to replace my current vehicle now and can't really wait until any of them are available to the public. It's a 2012, it's high mileage, I've put a lot of $ into repairs over the last year and still having issues that those repairs didn't fully fix...which doesn't cut it when you risk breaking down during your 30 mile heavy traffic commute. 3. My whole idea of trying to save my current vehicle for my daughter is probably stupid, since it's going to be highly unreliable by that point and possibly a bit too much for her as a new driver.

I'm going car shopping this weekend and the Hyundai Palisade, Kia Telluride, VW Atlas and Subaru Ascent are the top contenders. Anyone have any strong feelings for or against any of these?

I have yet to drive them, so I'm just going on visuals and car expert reviews/safety tests. From that, I prefer the Hyundai for the interior appearance, the Kia for the exterior appearance, the VW for the 3rd row space and cargo capacity, and the Subie for the standard AWD. I live in a warm climate, so AWD isn't really a must. I'd probably only truly need it once every couple of years if we take a road trip to go skiing.

Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

I like the Pallisade. Very comfortable inside. The safety features on the Subaru are great. I have an Outback and the eyesight system is awesome.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I like the Pallisade. Very comfortable inside. The safety features on the Subaru are great. I have an Outback and the eyesight system is awesome.

The Palisade is a strong contender. The safety features were one of my pros and cons for the Ascent. It all sounds great, but I saw several reviews saying the vehicle constantly has alerts going off. I'm sure there's a way to disable things you're not using or that become a distraction. Still, I have flashbacks to a Jeep we rented that kept trying to drive us off the road in Badlands NP. Lane assist couldn't understand all of the twists and turns.

 

[Jahona]

I purchased a new 2020 Hyundai Sante Fe Ultimate at the end of last year so I will say I have a slight bias.

I test drove the Telluride, Pallisade, and the Explorer among 12+ other vehicles. Of those the Ford wasn't competitive in pricing for features, which isn't a surprise.
The Kia and Telluride share the same platform. They drove just about exactly the same. So in the end it comes down to looks and some minor feature differences. Personally I wish I could get the exterior of the Telluride paired with the interior of the Palisade.

The 3.8l naturally aspirated V6 paired with a non CVT 8 speed automatic. 291HP with 262 pound feet of torque is ample for a vehicle this large. It's not going to win a drag race but it does have enough power to get up and go. 0-60 in about 7 seconds. No turbo and no CVT should make this a fairly reliable engine.

Interior wise the Telluride looks closer to my 2020 Sante Fe styling that matches the general Kia and Hyundai interior. The tablet like infotainment system is a love it or hate it design, one that I grew to like better than the in dash screens of previous generations. The Telluride keeps the traditional shift selection and analog gauges. The front cup holders are a bit more usable in the Telluride.
The Interior on the Palisade is a brand new design for Hyundai going forward. They just rolled out this interior on the new Sonata so I expect it to continue to the other models down the road. To me this Interior has a more modern and clean aesthetic to it. The top trim model features a fully digital gauge cluster that seems to flow into the widescreen infotainment system. The only knock on the Palisade, and this is a trend that likely won't go away, is the drive selection is push buttons vs. a good solid stick.

Other than look differences they both offer probably the best safety feature set around. Best active lane keep assist in their class, novel blind spot view cameras, a good infotainment interface and lots ports to charge devices.

Personally if I had to choose between the two. I would go with the Palisade. I like the Telluride exterior but living behind the wheel of the Palisade was a more enjoyable experience in my opinion.

Now as for the Atlas and the Ascent. I convinced my mom to purchase a Subaru outback a few years ago. It's a decent vehicle, way under powered but everything else works fine. The eye sight tech used to be ground breaking but I feel the Hyundai, at least in lane keep assist, surpasses it. More recently Subaru has been having reliablility issues as they've grown in scale over the past few years.
For the Atlas, VW never really appealed to me. I didn't test drive it while researching so I can't really comment to it.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I purchased a new 2020 Hyundai Sante Fe Ultimate at the end of last year so I will say I have a slight bias.

I test drove the Telluride, Pallisade, and the Explorer among 12+ other vehicles. Of those the Ford wasn't competitive in pricing for features, which isn't a surprise.
The Kia and Telluride share the same platform. They drove just about exactly the same. So in the end it comes down to looks and some minor feature differences. Personally I wish I could get the exterior of the Telluride paired with the interior of the Palisade.

The 3.8l naturally aspirated V6 paired with a non CVT 8 speed automatic. 291HP with 262 pound feet of torque is ample for a vehicle this large. It's not going to win a drag race but it does have enough power to get up and go. 0-60 in about 7 seconds. No turbo and no CVT should make this a fairly reliable engine.

Interior wise the Telluride looks closer to my 2020 Sante Fe styling that matches the general Kia and Hyundai interior. The tablet like infotainment system is a love it or hate it design, one that I grew to like better than the in dash screens of previous generations. The Telluride keeps the traditional shift selection and analog gauges. The front cup holders are a bit more usable in the Telluride.
The Interior on the Palisade is a brand new design for Hyundai going forward. They just rolled out this interior on the new Sonata so I expect it to continue to the other models down the road. To me this Interior has a more modern and clean aesthetic to it. The top trim model features a fully digital gauge cluster that seems to flow into the widescreen infotainment system. The only knock on the Palisade, and this is a trend that likely won't go away, is the drive selection is push buttons vs. a good solid stick.

Other than look differences they both offer probably the best safety feature set around. Best active lane keep assist in their class, novel blind spot view cameras, a good infotainment interface and lots ports to charge devices.

Personally if I had to choose between the two. I would go with the Palisade. I like the Telluride exterior but living behind the wheel of the Palisade was a more enjoyable experience in my opinion.

Now as for the Atlas and the Ascent. I convinced my mom to purchase a Subaru outback a few years ago. It's a decent vehicle, way under powered but everything else works fine. The eye sight tech used to be ground breaking but I feel the Hyundai, at least in lane keep assist, surpasses it. More recently Subaru has been having reliablility issues as they've grown in scale over the past few years.
For the Atlas, VW never really appealed to me. I didn't test drive it while researching so I can't really comment to it.

Yes Suburu is having windshield issues.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I purchased a new 2020 Hyundai Sante Fe Ultimate at the end of last year so I will say I have a slight bias.

I test drove the Telluride, Pallisade, and the Explorer among 12+ other vehicles. Of those the Ford wasn't competitive in pricing for features, which isn't a surprise.
The Kia and Telluride share the same platform. They drove just about exactly the same. So in the end it comes down to looks and some minor feature differences. Personally I wish I could get the exterior of the Telluride paired with the interior of the Palisade.

The 3.8l naturally aspirated V6 paired with a non CVT 8 speed automatic. 291HP with 262 pound feet of torque is ample for a vehicle this large. It's not going to win a drag race but it does have enough power to get up and go. 0-60 in about 7 seconds. No turbo and no CVT should make this a fairly reliable engine.

Interior wise the Telluride looks closer to my 2020 Sante Fe styling that matches the general Kia and Hyundai interior. The tablet like infotainment system is a love it or hate it design, one that I grew to like better than the in dash screens of previous generations. The Telluride keeps the traditional shift selection and analog gauges. The front cup holders are a bit more usable in the Telluride.
The Interior on the Palisade is a brand new design for Hyundai going forward. They just rolled out this interior on the new Sonata so I expect it to continue to the other models down the road. To me this Interior has a more modern and clean aesthetic to it. The top trim model features a fully digital gauge cluster that seems to flow into the widescreen infotainment system. The only knock on the Palisade, and this is a trend that likely won't go away, is the drive selection is push buttons vs. a good solid stick.

Other than look differences they both offer probably the best safety feature set around. Best active lane keep assist in their class, novel blind spot view cameras, a good infotainment interface and lots ports to charge devices.

Personally if I had to choose between the two. I would go with the Palisade. I like the Telluride exterior but living behind the wheel of the Palisade was a more enjoyable experience in my opinion.

Now as for the Atlas and the Ascent. I convinced my mom to purchase a Subaru outback a few years ago. It's a decent vehicle, way under powered but everything else works fine. The eye sight tech used to be ground breaking but I feel the Hyundai, at least in lane keep assist, surpasses it. More recently Subaru has been having reliablility issues as they've grown in scale over the past few years.
For the Atlas, VW never really appealed to me. I didn't test drive it while researching so I can't really comment to it.

Thanks! I hadn't even considered the Ford. Having been in a truck based SUV for the last 8 years, when I thought Ford, I had a hard time considering anything beyond the Expedition...which I decided was much more vehicle than I wanted or needed. I have friends that have Explorers from a variety of years/versions and most love them, but it just never hit my list.

I went car shopping today and will share the outcome below. I was never able to drive the Telluride, but I did get to sit in one (that sounds even more pathetic seeing it typed out). Nearly all of the Kia dealers showed that they had at least one on the lot, but the nickname "SellURide" proved to be true. None of the ones I visited actually had any Tellurides for sale and the others I called didn't actually have any on their lots. The "mega" dealer I visited at the end sold Kia, and while they didn't have one for me to test drive, they did allow me to explore one that had already been claimed by another buyer. I just wasn't permitted to drive it since there was already $ and legal paperwork in the mix. I was still really mixed on the outside appearance in person (I still keep thinking it looks like a squashed Tahoe), but found the interior to be extremely comfortable, the third row was quite spacious, there was decent logic to the placement of things in the dash and console areas, and the cargo capacity felt suitable. I was offered a spot on the wait list, but was also told that Kia has been cashing in on the demand and typically supplying them with higher trim models. I like some bells and whistles, but I really don't need them all. My other issue was color. I hate to sound girly and superficial, but I don't like any of the colors. Blues and greens are usually my go-to colors and I'm not a fan of their rainforest. I'd like it to be either more olive or more emerald.

I also tested the Palisade, since there is no shortage of those. Unlike the Telluride, I liked the appearance in person. A creepy sales guy didn't help, but I found the seating and controls to feel somewhere between awkward and uncomfortable. I must have played with the seat for a good 3 minutes and I could never find a sweet spot in position. My husband says that I like to sit like "a total grandma," but I could never maneuver the driver's seat into that position for me...which I achieved in just a few seconds on the Telluride. It handled nicely on the road, had decent pickup when I nailed the gas and punched it hard to change lanes (simulating rush hour), but I just couldn't get past the seat feeling and what to me felt like awkward controls. Yes, those drive selection buttons you mentioned vs the stick were part of my dislike of the vehicle. I did like the cubby beneath that area that was perfect for a purse, but I would gladly give that up for a more traditional stick. Hyundai does offer a blue (a very dark...looks like black from some angles...blue), but this dealer didn't have any.

I never did get to try the Ascent, but it was also my 4th place vehicle. I'm sure it would have been a nice vehicle, but we had already been out there for 6 hours and I was feeling like I'd found "the one."

 

[HouCuseChickie]

As you can see above, I tested the Palisade, sat in a Telluride and never made it to the Subaru dealer. I really thought Hyundai or Kia would be the winner, but it wound up being Volkswagen. When we were in NM in Feb and I was flipping out over having a vehicle ill-suited for snow, I came across the Atlas and noticed that a lot of our local dealers still had a TON of 2019s on the lots. In fact, I failed - at one point, to set my location filter in AutoTrade, and noticed that a lot of dealers across the US have a bunch of 2019 VW Atlas models up for sale. After doing a little more digging, I also found that the 2019 has a better manufacturer's warranty than the 2020s. The 2020 has a 4 yr/50k mi bumper to bumper, while the 2019 has a 6 yr/72k mi bumper to bumper (lifetime powertrain through the dealer). I tested several 2019 trims along with a 2020. Now, I didn't buy something suited for snow (because 99.9% of the time I don't need it), but I do think I got a decent value. I got a 2019 SE with the Tech package for about $10k off of sticker since they are trying to get the remaining 2019s off of the lot. Not sure when they got it, but it had about 30 miles on it when I went for my test drive, so it hasn't been sitting there all year. I haven't gotten around to interior pics., but here's the exterior...along with the goofy 13 yr old that tagged along for input and comedy relief.

I appreciate the input. I'm still feeling some bizarre guilt over giving up my 8 yr old high mileage truck based Pathfinder, but I'm very happy with what I bought. I guess it's just proof that different people respond better to some designs vs. others. Truly appreciate all of the input and opinions!