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Amazon Review Deserves to be Shared Here

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38
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Location
Greensboro, NC, USA
#1
I hope the person who posted this on Amazon won't mind me sharing it. This is exceptionally detailed and makes a lot of interesting points.


SonarTech

3.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic value, but still missing some important "obvious" features...
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2019

I’ve had my Palisade for 4 months when I decided to write this review, and I just went over 5,000 miles.

Things I find exceptionally nice:

1) The price was right. For the included features, this car is a great value.
2) The seats are especially comfortable; better than the Volvo XC90 I owned previously.
3) The atomic air conditioning is fairly incredible. So far, anything under 68°F freezes me out in minutes. The Volvo took quite a while to get reasonable, even when set to max “Lo”.
4) The HUD display is fantastic. At least as good, if not better than the Volvo. More informative, better color and much brighter.
5) The responsiveness of the center console user interface is fantastic. Volvo was very slow and laggy, and this is quite speedy! It's on and ready to use the instant I start the car. The XC90 took 30 seconds before I could use it.
6) The HD radio Traffic+Weather+Radar seems way more useful than any of the garbage that Sirius XM provides which was never accurate. Still, I wish it made use of the LTE Bluelink connection for additional information- more on that later.
7) I really like being able to set climate temperature for remote start. I just wish it also allowed me to pre-condition the seats as well (heat or cool). You read that right - you can't turn the seat heaters on remotely. (????!!!)
8) Super comfortable inside and easy to drive - the 3rd row is usable by grown adults, too, and the AC is great!
9) I really like the Left and Right camera views when changing lanes. The camera image is superimposed over the speedometer or tachometer, depending on which way you're turning.
10) I really like the motorized third row seats. VERY handy. Not even the Volvo XC90 T8 had this.
11) The ride is better in the Palisade than in the Volvo T8 with Air Suspension. How is that even possible?!
12) 2nd row captain’s chairs are fantastic. Air conditioned second row seats are even more fantastic!
13) Highway Drive Assist works almost as well as the Volvo XC90 Pilot Assist. In some cases, it actually works better and is less annoying than the Volvo was. I didn’t expect that at all. It's a see-it-to-believe-it kind of thing.
14) The Windshield washer system works better than I expected. Volvo’s was nice, because the fluid came directly out of the washer blades, but the Palisade is nice because the fluid is evenly distributed across the whole windshield – without squirting 80% of the fluid over the top of the car and onto the vehicle driving behind you like every VW, Jeep and Audi I've ever seen.
15) Lots of USB charging ports in the car (but only 1 USB DATA port). EVERYONE gets a charging port located in the seat in front of them or near them in the back. Very thoughtful and convenient!

Here's where it gets ugly. Don't think for one second that I don't like the Palisade after reading this list - I really, really do (esp. when it costs half of what my Volvo XC90 T8 did), but there are some things on this list that Hyundai completely screwed-up, and I have no idea why. When it comes to asking Hyundai why these design choices were made, you'll only get crickets - they truly don't care - at least in my experience. And believe me - I have tried to shake ANY kind of reply out of them about some of these issues, and they have NEVER followed-up with me. Keep that in mind when buying Hyundai - You're probably on your own when it comes to Hyundai’s 1-star “customer service”.

1) Of all the things I’ve found that annoy me the most so far, it’s the lack of automatic folding & dimming mirrors – especially when these are available on the Kia Telluride. Honestly, if I had even considered that wasn’t an option on the Palisade (and I didn’t check), that probably would have been a deal breaker. Now, when I go to the car wash, I have to get out of my “luxury” car, walk around to the other side to push in the mirrors, drive through the car wash, then get back out on the other side to fold them back out. Also, getting blinded by the car behind you because Hyundai couldn't be bothered to put dimming side mirrors in was also a misfire in my opinion. I'd also like to share that the electronic wiring diagrams for the side mirrors DO show support for folding mirrors, on page SD878-1 – so Hyundai made a conscience decision to omit the feature on North American Palisades, even though the Kia Telluride DOES have the option. Again, no Palisade trim levels have this feature in North America. We “think” it was reserved for South Korean variants only, but we’re not sure, and since Hyundai won’t return any requests for assistance on anything to do with my car, they aren’t of any use.
2) Voice commands are very meh. No, actually, they are worthless when I think about it. It’s been 4 months now and I still don’t “want” to use them, which means they’re worthless. Also, no voice commands to search through my music – at all. I can’t set cabin temperature with a voice command, either. I can’t play a specific genre of music with a voice command. Actually, I can’t select a specific genre of music at all in the Palisade. Lots of ergo missteps here.
3) Text message handling is horrible. So terrible, in fact, that I won’t use it (and I think that’s probably what they were hoping for?) A new test message comes in. The Palisade shows a giant pop-up that requires user input to do something – either read it or don’t. You get 5 seconds to decide. Instead, it just gobbles up the entire display waiting for me to distract myself long enough to push READ / REPLY (which isn’t available while driving) or press the HOME button. I would just as well the car didn’t handle text messages at all because it can’t handle them well. The ergo factor of this feature is a completely awful “-1” because it’s actually painful to use.
4) Audio quality is mediocre. I can’t believe there’s no ‘advanced’ equalizer in this car, coming equipped with a Harmon/Kardon audio system. As a result, the mid-range audio is really lame, and the treble is really harsh. Want to hear fantastic audio? Go sit in that Volvo T8 and play some tunes on a Bower’s Wilkins audio system. The audio in the Palisade’s not even close to ‘terrible’, but there is definitely room for improvement. Also, the audio on the outside of the car with the Windows rolled up is nearly as loud and clear as it is inside the car. What in the heck is up with that? It does have hyper-active bass, so those of you that enjoy that kind of thing should enjoy that. Volume-wise, it’s lame. Not as much wattage as I expected, and there have been times where I “maxed-out” the volume to hear parts of music normally audible in my Volvo (i.e., Gustav Holst’s The Planets:Saturn).
5) Music handling: Support for different file types is fantastic. It even supports WMA pro which was VERY unusual and unique. However, not being able to play music by a particular genre is incredibly strange. I can’t tell the audio system to JUST play Classical music? I can’t even sort by Genre’s, even though the system reads the file ID tags (and displays the cover art from that very same tag). This is a software design issue – and it gets 8/10 rotten tomatoes. This is low-hanging fruit that they could easily fix if they wanted to with a simple software update. Also, the shuffle feature is crap. It will occasionally play the same song two-times in a row. And when it starts playing songs in a new folder, it often “randomly” selects a lot of songs from that same folder. Whatever logic they’re using for shuffle is garbage. They could fix that with a software update, but I doubt they will based on the other things they’ve screwed-up here.
6) 10 Minute Max Limit on remote start. This is about 10 minutes too short. 10 minutes is almost enough time to get the air conditioner cold – just in time for the car to shut off and start heating up again in hot climates.
7) No way to activate the air conditioned OR heated seat features with remote start. Bizarre oversight. They do, however, give you the option to activate the heated STEERING WHEEL, but not the seats? 10/10 rotten tomatoes for this brain-dead decision. What’s even stranger is that Hyundai gives you a way to turn off the QI Wireless charging feature in the Nav system – but not provide seat controls?!
8) The cellular-modem-based Locate My Car Bluelink feature only works “if you’re within 1 mile of the car.” I have no idea who or why anyone would think this was a good design choice. What do they care if you’re 1 mile or 100 miles away from your car? It should show you where the car is regardless of where it’s located. 10/10 rotten tomatoes. This is definitely a software design issue. The team or designer that made this design decision has obviously never been to Disney World. You know, the big 47 square mile amusement park in Florida that has 32,500 parking spaces in it. You can easily park your car more than a mile away from the park entrance. Not to mention it’ll take 25+ minutes to get to the car you remote started, only to have it cool the interior for 10 minutes and then re-heat for you by the time you get there. The lack of scenario planning for this car is astonishing. Let’s hope Hyundai never gets into the software design business…
9) The interior dome light buttons aren’t illuminated. You know, the buttons you’re usually trying to find IN THE DARK. However, the strangely placed “POI” navigation button is illuminated…
10) Auto Brake Hold state is not preserved in the user profile. This may be a software design issue.
11) Auto engine stop when not moving is not preserved in active the user profile. This may be a software design issue. A lot of people hate this feature. I use it about 50% of the time, depending on traffic. It can and does get extremely annoying in stop-and-go traffic.
12) Cannot apparently turn off the haptic vibration in the steering wheel (lane departure warning). This is a software design issue. As such, I find that I turn off the lane keeping assist feature because I can’t disable these annoying vibrations.
13) Cannot turn on the cameras (any of them) when parked. Are you kidding me? I have to put the car in gear JUST so I can turn on the cameras to see if I’m centered in my parking space??!??! 10/10 rotten tomatoes. This is a unnecessarily bad design decision and could probably be fixed with a software update. Hyundai shouldn’t turn off the ability to use the cameras JUST because the car’s in PARK mode – they have a dedicated button and should function anytime the car is “on” – in gear or not.
14) Cannot access rear camera view from Camera button while driving. You only get access to this precious feature when you put the car into reverse. What if I want to see how close the car is behind me? This is another bad design decision and could be fixed with a software update.
15) Cannot turn off the DRL’s. They aren’t required in the USA (but they are in Canada), and I’d like to be able to turn them off without affecting the other lights. Probably can’t easily be fixed.
16) No lock on the glovebox. Whatever. Way to save $2.00, Hyundai.
17) Only 1 USB data port. This sucks. What if I wanted to connect my phone for Android Auto and play music from a dedicated USB thumb drive? I can’t. Funny thing is, Android Auto used to have a 2 USB data port minimum requirement. I guess Hyundai found a way around that…
18) I can’t adjust the steering force for the power steering. I’m also surprised the steering wheel position isn’t motorized and stored as part of the user profile.
19) None of the radio presets are stored in the user profile, so everyone has to share the same navigation and radio presets. This was unnecessary and probably just lazy design.
20) Not sure what I think about the need to actually press a button on the door to make it unlock. Clearly the car detected I was there, since it turned the welcome light on for me, so why wouldn’t it just unlock automatically when I grabbed the door handle?
21) I should have the option to unlock ALL doors when I (1) Unlock the Driver door, (2) Unlock the rear hatch, (3) both. This whole double-tap thing is silly.
22) I really don’t like that I have to press a button to lock the car doors when the rear hatch closes. For example, if I return to the car to put something in the back, the rear hatch opens automatically. Very fancy. But when I finish and I close the rear hatch and leave to do more shopping, the rear hatch (or all doors) stays unlocked. Also, when I leave the car, then open the rear hatch to get something, I have to (A) either use the key fob to lock to car, or (B) return to the driver door to lock the car. There should be some way to lock the car from the rear hatch… like there is on the Volvo.
23) Hyundai advertises a “Walk-Away Lock” feature in the US Owner’s Manual, but for some unknown reason, Hyundai won’t enable that option on North American Palisades, and they won't tell you why they won't, either.
24) About that LTE-connectivity thing. You might be wondering what it’s for. No, your maps won’t automatically update like the dealer told me – you have to do that yourself twice a year using a thumb drive. No, you can’t do POI searches over the Internet. No, you can’t browse web pages, get Internet-based Weather, Stock Quotes or anything like that. It seems that all that LTE cellular connection is used for is to allow remote vehicle diagnostics, allow remote start, get vehicle position (as long as you’re within 1 mile of the car’s location), schedule service appointments (if supported by your dealership), and summon emergency services if needed. So, if you were looking for a “connected car”, this ain’t it. There’s no WiFi hotspots, no Internet, no software updates (because there’s no software or apps to update).
25) The 2020 Palisade has a propeller shaft design problem. So does the Kia Telluride. At speeds above 65 MPH, the car starts to vibrate. Not shake, but a noticeable vibration. It gets especially noticeable at 74 MPH for my car. This is starting to get some attention, and Hyundai has issues TSB 19-SS-003H issued October 2019 for the issue. Do an Internet search to make sure you understand this problem BEFORE you road-test a Palisade for potential purchase. Remember – you must go between 65 to 78 MPH to be noticeable. If your Palisade has this problem, make them fix it per the TSB!
26) The window/door seals let in a lot of road noise. For having laminated glass, it still sounds like the windows are rolled-down ¼ of an inch sometimes.
27) No way to disable the Seat Belt Minder annoyance or change its behavior. Some cars let you turn it off or make it less annoying. Hyundai makes it as annoying as possible with no option to change it.
 

Gene

Member
Messages
204
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44
Location
Glendale, AZ, USA
What I Drive
2018 Genesis G90 ultimate
#2
Of course for $20,000.00 more we could buy the top of the line Genesis GV80.
$35,000.00 Lincoln aviator or a mercedes
BUT yes these are interesting points
 
Messages
62
Reactions
13
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
What I Drive
2020 Palisade
#3
I've chatted with the person who wrote that a few times on one of the other forums. I feel like a lot of them are expectations that are either not represented in other vehicles either or things that are passed off as "design problems" because the author isn't aware of why they are the way they are.

Some design choices aren't design problems, just because the end user thinks they should be different.


I also find the stereo complaints hilarious. He's comparing the the Bowers and Wilkinson on the volvo, which is a $4k+ optional upgrade stereo and one of the best stereos that's available on a car under $100k on the market. It's not exactly a reasonable measuring stick.
 
OP
E
Messages
38
Reactions
7
Location
Greensboro, NC, USA
Thread Starter #4
I do think SonarTech's criticisms are over mostly minor or perceived flaws. Most of the negatives he cites are things I never noticed or involve features I don't use. But I admire his obsession with functionality at that level of detail. There should be more people like him on product development teams, challenging assumptions and calling BS before things get out of the design stage.
 

jasenj1

New Member
Messages
4
Reactions
1
Location
Virginia
What I Drive
2021 Hyundai Palisade SEL AWD
#5
None of the radio presets are stored in the user profile,
This is changed in the 2021s. My wife and I have profiles set up and the radio presets are per profile.
 

thejel

New Member
Messages
2
Reactions
0
Location
Hendersonville, TN, USA
What I Drive
2021 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy
#6
This is changed in the 2021s. My wife and I have profiles set up and the radio presets are per profile.
We have a 2021 Palisade Calligraphy that was purchased in May 2021 and it will not store radio presets by profile. It will only keep the latest presets - the same for both profiles.
 

JOJE

New Member
Messages
2
Reactions
0
Location
Houston, TX, USA
What I Drive
2022 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy A
#7
Agreed: on #1 this should be a prerequisite these days, #9 (I find I have to turn on my phone light to find the dome light button, that's just silly esp when the POI and other button is illuminated, what a common sense omission on the part of interior design and function team). But would like to add: no built in sunglass holder.
 
Messages
204
Reactions
44
Location
Glendale, AZ, USA
What I Drive
2018 Genesis G90 ultimate
#8
No built in sun glass holder on the 2023 either still has the mirror.
 

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