D10| Saturday/Sunday, August 17 - 18, 2019 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
RUMBLE SEAT /DAN NEIL
cludes power folding third-row
seats; the Telluride’s folding third-
row is manual. Our test Palisade
Limited ($47,655) included self-lev-
eling rear suspension; if you want
your Kia to self-level you will need
to tick the option box.
But both or either can be op-
tioned with tack fit for a royal ele-
phant and still come in under $50K,
including seating for seven or eight;up to 20-inch wheels; multi-mode
all-wheel drive; a full suite of elec-
tronic driver aids and safety sys-
tems; and maximal connectedness,
including front and second-row
wireless chargers, seven USB out-
lets, Android Auto and Apple Car-
Play, Bluetooth for two devices, and
a big 10-inch touch screen to drive
most of the user experience.
Out tester’s consumer proposi-tion: large, shiny, spoiling (with
quilted Nappa leather seats and
door gussets? Behave! ), fully con-
nected, family friendly. But if you
can only remember two words,
make them “under fifty.”
Built in Ulsan, South Korea, the
Palisade wades into a river already
filled with hippos, including the
Honda Pilot, Subaru Ascent, Toy-
ota Highlander and Ford Explorer.
These are biggie midsize SUVs
that can squeeze a third row in the
back, whether or not it’s entirely
advisable to do so. Our tester’s
second-row captain’s chairs fea-
tured a one-touch fold feature that
made getting into and out of the
back pretty easy for my two 11-
year-old daughters, but they are
pretty bendy. Controls for the mid-
row seats were mounted in the
cargo-space bulkhead, within easy
reach while loading.
Having said that, I must ask
again, what the hell are consumers
thinking, buying three-row SUVs? If
you have that many kids—God love
ya—and kids’ car seats, you need a
minivan with sliding side doors.
These machines’ third rows are
vastly easier to get in and out of
than those of any swing-door SUVs.THISWILLBE a two’fer. The new
2020 Hyundai Palisade SUV is me-
chanically quite similar to its cor-
porate sibling, the Kia Telluride,
etcetera and vice versa. However,
since name-checking both would
become tedious, I’ll talk mostly
about the former and you can as-
sume regarding the latter.
But take a moment to appreciate
both names: Telluride, Palisade.
People complain about auto makers’
moving away from proper-noun
cognomens, to the point of insanity.
The BMW X5 xDrive 50i, for exam-
ple. The reason car makers shifted
to alphanumerics was because the
intellectual property with all the
good names had squatters on it. So
how is it that these two splendid-
sounding, emotionally transporting
words were just lying around to be
used by the Hyundai Motor Group?
And has anyone checked on the IP
status of other snow-capped, moun-
tain-y names, like Banff and Kicking
Horse? You’re welcome.
The Hyundai brand is positioned
a bit upmarket from the value-cen-
tered Kia, so the Palisade is a little
ritzier in terms of the trim walk
and equipment. For example, the
Hyundai’s top-shelf Limited trim in-
2020 Hyundai Palisade:
In the Lane of Luxury
HYUNDAIThey are safer for the kids (no
doors to swing out, to hit and be
hit by other cars, no fingers
slammed in doors); and more ver-
satile in cargo capacity. A minivan’s
mechanical envelope is also more
efficient, by virtue of lower aero
drag; and more stable, by virtue of
its lighter weight and lower center
of gravity compared with SUVs.
But noooo , parents don’t want to
drive minivans because—and I’m
paraphrasing the zeitgeist here—
they don’t want to look like some
no-fun suburban mom or dad. Holy
cats, people, you’re not fooling any-
one! We can see the car seats! Oy.
OK, yes, many consumers in the
Snow Belt want higher clearance
and all-wheel drive. But if the
snow is really that deep, won’t
school be closed anyway?
The other thought provoked by
the Palisade Limited: What even is a
luxury car, or luxury brand, when somuch high-end content is available
at mass-class prices? Example: The
Hyundai engineers packed this thing
with sound-deadening materials and
filed off many of the noise-generat-
ing corners (coefficient of drag is
0.33). The Palisade Limited’s cabin
noise levels compare with that of
the dreadnought German SUVs.
Got a long trip with the kids? The
Driver Talk intercom system in-
cludes a quiet mode, so that the au-
dio plays only in the front and not in
the rear. If only it worked the other
way around. That would be luxury.
The Palisade certainly has what
some would consider a premium
powertrain: an under-stressed 3.8-
liter, naturally aspirated V6, and
eight-speed automatic, instead of
some small-displacement, high-
strung turbo. With this engine op-
erating at its happy place, at
around 75 mph, our family drove
300 miles averaging 25.4 mpg,
which is right on the EPA estimates
and way better than many turbo-
fours would have delivered. But the
mounting inefficiencies and regula-
tory gaming of small-displacement
fours are topics for another day.
Among the surprise and delight
features: When you activate the
turn signals, side-mounted cameras
provide high-res video of the curb
sweeping by, viewable in the instru-
ment cluster. In looking at the dis-
play, one’s hands sort of naturally
track with the eyes. Now you’ll
never miss another curb.
The Palisade’s under-$50,000
proposition comes with some trade-
offs. The AWD system is not a
transfer case-equipped 4x4 type, so
no low range. There is only one
low-grip drive mode. Nor would one
praise its visual delicacy nor its
sporty continental driving manners.
But it is a mountain of value.What is a luxury car,
or a luxury brand,
when so much high-end
content is available
at mass-class prices?GEAR & GADGETS
The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.
RENT THIS, BUY THAT
Which
PowerTools
AreWorth
Owning?
Four handy friends
debate the value of
buying big machinesPRICED TO MOVE
Even with self-leveling suspension
and a suite of electronics, the
Palisade comes in under $50,000.AS THE OWNER of an old home,
Tom Lafera said learning which
tools to buy hasn’t necessarily been
by choice. “If pipes break at mid-
night, good luck getting a plumber
on the phone.” For that reason he
suggested owning a BernzOmatic
gas torch with built-in igniter
($55, homedepot.com) in case
you need to quickly weld copper
pipe—a skill he suggested you
can learn via YouTube. Yeah, sure.
Though still a rookie, I weighed in
with how owning a DeWalt 120-volt
compound miter saw ($799, ho-
medepot.com) has taught me to be a
better carpenter because I can take
on more home improvements thanks
to its robotic precision. “It makes
everything so much easier,” Tomagreed, compared with inexact hand
saws. For city dwellers, however, Jaf
said to get a Bosch circular saw
($119, lowes.com) instead. “They’re
tiny so they take up zero space.”
We could probably share our vari-
ous tools, but no one could fathom a
regular need for a leaf blower un-
til Scott Husta, a skilled crafts-
man who works in IT, jumped in
with how he bought one to evict
grit from his garage floor, sweep
grass clippings and unclog his roof
gutters—“and after I wash my truck
I air dry it with the blower.” Our
jaws went slack at Scott’s genius,
and our collective gaze shifted to
the driveway, where a gloss-polished
Chevy sat glowing. Time to head
back to True Value. —Michael FrankBuy
WHAT TOOLS do you truly need? I
recently posed this question to a few
handy friends at a backyard barbe-
cue. One pal, Jaf Farkas, a set
builder for films, advocated for the
“less-is-more” approach. Unless
you’re a general contractor, he said,
big pricey tools like table saws
chew into precious garage space.
Plus, since tech evolves rapidly,
it’s smarter to rent top-end, well-
maintained tools than worrying
about upkeep of aged ones you own.
He’s right. I recently marveled at
how much lighter the Hilte cordless
drill I rented for $25 at my local
True Value was versus a 3-year-old
DeWalt that recently quit on me.
Another pal, Tom Lafera, who’s
spent much of his life rehabbing
houses, chimed in to say he wouldn’t
dare buy a chain saw. Instead, he
rents the latest lightweight, electric
machines because gas-powered ones
“spew oil, are a bear to start and are
loud enough to make you go deaf,”
he said. Also: “The rental guy’s al-
ways giving you a sharp chain.”
And while owning a pneu-
matic nailer can take the elbow
tendinitis out of complex framing
or everyday carpentry, don’t buy
one unless you’re facing a big proj-
ect—like replacing a wraparound
porch ceiling, as Tom did recently.
When I needed one to finish off a
garden bench this spring, I rented. It
cost $29-a-day, while purchasing the
battery-juiced DeWalt Finish Nailer I
still lust after could run me $400.Rent
DEWALT
A CUT ABOVE True Value said it’s seen “significant uptick” in rentals of tools like table saws (left) and miter saws among millennials, who make up 50% of first-time home buyers.
2020 HYUNDAI PALISADE LIMITED
Base Price $44,700
Price, as Tested $47,655
Powertrain: Naturally aspirated
3.8-liter V6; eight-speed automatic;
multi-mode all-wheel drive with
brake-based torque vectoring and
front-biased all-wheel drive
Power/Torque 291at6,000
rpm/262 lb-ft at 5,200 rpm
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase
196.1/77.8/68.9/114.2 inches
Curb Weight 4,387 pounds
0-60 mph 7 seconds (est.)
EPA Fuel Economy 19/24/21 mpg,
city/highway/combined
Max Cargo Capacity 84.6/45.8/18.0
cubic feet (behind first/second/third
row seats)