It must be SUV season or something, because it seems like every week another three-row behemoth is rolling in to our driveways ready to impress us with its luxury. Or maybe its utility. Or maybe its combination of luxury and utility?
Honestly, it’s hard to tell sometimes because the manufacturers seem to try and produce so many iterations of these formats to appeal to literally everyone.
So let’s break down a few of our recent samples, and see how they tackle the task of packing the whole family–and maybe a few friends–into the car for a trip somewhere in comfort.
Hyundai Palisade Hybrid Calligraphy
The first sample in the yard was the Hyundai Palisade, and it seemed like it would set a high bar in many categories. As it turns out, it did, by being a solid combination of modern features and feel, decent performance and good value.
Hyundai touts the “utility” part of the equation for the Palisade, and even brags that it can tow right on the front page of its web home.
While V6 Palisades equipped with the tow package can haul 5000 pounds, hybrids like our 2.5-liter example with its electric helper are only rated at 4000 pounds.
In our world, both of those are pretty shy of “race car” territory–you’re basically limited to a gutted Miata on an open aluminum trailer–but in the world of normal people who haul stuff like jet skis and mulch and maybe a small camper or some ATVs, Hyundai definitely seems to be aiming their utility nozzle right at them.
And that’s cool, but the Palisade is also a really nice place to spend time inside of on the road. It’s big–nearly 200 inches long with a 116.9-inch wheelbase–but it drives smaller than its size and has nice sightlines.
It’s also got a lot of luxury features for vehicle that starts around $56,000 and stickers out just over $60,000 like our test car. Stuff like massaging seats–very bougie but also quite nice after a long day at the track–one-touch power third row up, down and entry, and Hyundai’s very good corporate approach to buttons and tactile touch pads that are intuitive and usable.
I guess we’re kind of past the point where complaining about the form factor has any sort of traction. The large, three-row SUV is the modern equivalent of the station wagon, and if it seems bloated, that’s because it’s what the customer demands. Modern consumers want height, people and cargo capacity and road presence, and when everyone demands that they be able to see over the car in front of them, but cars also get taller and taller, well, you see where that leads.
But in that category, Hyundai seems to nail the combination of comfort, practicality and functionality while still doing it with a top-of-the-line model that’s priced well under most market competitors. It will transport four people over great distances (600-mile-plus range with the hybrid, which is way longer than we’d want to go with no bathroom break anyway) in extreme comfort.
Two more can travel in only slightly less comfort–you might not want to go to Seattle and back in the back row, unless you’re starting from Federal Way–for only a few thousand dollars more than the current national average news car price. It presses a lot of the right buttons. Actual, physical buttons. Thanks Hyundai, for that.
Chrysler Pacifica Pinnacle
Next up, an honest-to-goodness, old-school minivan. Back in the days before everyone had a three-row mega SUV, minivans were the order of the day, but they didn’t survive the coming of the utility behemoths. Now only a few remain, Like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Kia Carnival, which is doing its level best to look like an SUV with a sliding door.
Yeah, at some point minivans became very uncool, and that kind of killed off a very useful segment of the automotive landscape. But the descendant of the OG is still around in the form of the Chrysler Pacifica, and friends, and it feels a bit dated. (At about $60,000 for the one we drove, though, the price is certainly modern.)
The form factor is still solid. Minivans combine the best of large SUVs–three rows, tons of cargo and passenger space–with the added benefit of lower floors which provide easier ingress, egress and loading over a tall utility wagon.
But the Pacifica seems stuck in the early oughts, with low-quality feeling surfaces, a Stellantis corporate UI that’s pretty meh, and a price equivalent to the super loaded Hyundai Palisade’s which yields fewer features and way less quality feel.
The latest Pacifica would have been a great car in 2009, but it failed to evolve its feel and capabilities to keep up. The 287-horsepower V6 gives the top-of-the-line Pacifica a towing capacity of just 3600 pounds, which lags behind the V6 Hyundai, even though it leads the class in the minivan segment.
Overall, it feels a bit like this iteration of the Pacifica is just running out the clock, and no amount of suede throw pillows for the second row can save it. The third row is the least comfortable of any of the three-row vehicles we’ve had recently, which seems kind of inexcusable considering it’s also the easiest to access and minivans should have a good third row because that’s kind of their whole thing. But, alas ….
So it’s kind of a bummer to see a once great contender wear out its welcome. Perhaps Stellantis will give us the next great minivan soon. Until then, there’s always the Sienna.
Infiniti QX80 and QX60
The QX80 hits you instantly with some of the best seats in the category. Now, seats are a very personal thing and what I like may not be what you like, but we got reviews from a variety of butts and backs and these babies seem to nail it for a variety of shapes and sizes.
And that’s good because you’ll want to be sitting down when you hear the price.
Also surprising here was the sheer presence the QX80 had. I was not aware that these vehicles had achieved Big Baller status, but it’s the only loaner I’ve driven recently where normies actually stopped me to compliment it.
After realizing I wasn’t an NBA player (being 50+ and 5-foot-5 may have given that away) or an internationally recognized pop star (pretty much everything else about me probably tipped them off to that), they were still eager to gush over the QX80 and how “dope” it was. And, to be fair, it was pretty dope.
But it was not, dear reader, $112,000 dope.
In fact, the Infiniti QX80 was basically the functional and luxury equal of the Hyundai Palisade, it just happened to be essentially twice the price. Sure, the Hyundai didn’t have power-actuated running boards or, massaging second row seats or, well, those are pretty much the only premium features the Hyundai was lacking compared to the Infiniti. But the easy solution there is to just buy TWO Palisades then four people can still get massaged, except someone else has to drive.
So, yeah, awesome vehicle. The QX80 even boasts the highest tow capacity of this trio of three-rowers at 8500 pounds (it is, after all a very fancy Nissan Armada), although we can’t imagine who would spend north of $110,000 on this vehicle to tow with.
But if you did, you’d be treated to a fine ride is some of the best seats in the class and a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 cranking out 450 horsepower and 516 lb.-ft. of torque which moves the hulking beast pretty effortlessly.
Okay one major complaint about the QX80, particularly the Autograph Edition, and that’s the shiny trim on the steering wheel. This is only going to affect you at certain times of the day going certain directions, but the sun coming off the shiny steering wheel trim occasionally shoots a direct laser into your eyeballs. It’s not great, but even more than that it’s kind of inexcusable for a car this expensive. It just seems like an easy-to-solve problem that should have been caught and solved way earlier in the development process.
Inside you get a full range of power doodads to raise, lower and flop the second row and raise or lower the third row, which has class best legroom at 32 inches, although the floor is a bit high for rearmost passengers. But they can take solace in having heated seats while their legs are straight out, so that’s a plus.
Look, the QX80 is fine. Awesome even. It’s just nowhere near twice as awesome as the Palisade. It’s maybe like 102% as awesome as the Palisade, and that’s only because it can tow. As an everyday car, which is the only use that most vehicles in this class will ever see, the Palisade is every bit its equal, even if local youth don’t swoon when you pull up.
But rocking an Infiniti badge doesn’t have to cost six figures; the slightly smaller QX60 starts at $51,590. Yes, it’s also a fancy Nissan. Yes, ours–a Sport model–didn’t meet that figure, coming in just north of $65,000 by exactly 10 dollars.
It still offers three-row seating and, like a lot of the Infiniti products we have recently sampled, seem quieter and more refined than before. Maybe Infiniti’s people have realized that it was time to step up. Perhaps this is an effect of Genesis on the market. Either way, it’s another three-row luxury SUV that might be worth a peek.