Range Rover Too Expensive? Try a Top-Shelf Hyundai Palisade

Hyundai’s swanky three-row crossover provides a sleek, sophisticated feel for less than half the price of the iconic luxury SUV.

By Tyler Duffy

Published March 6, 2024

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We’re unabashed Range Rover fans here at Gear Patrol. The classic model created the luxury SUV phenomenon; the modern version delivers a nearly unparalleled merging of style and sophistication with legitimate off-road capability. (And, thankfully, you no longer need to refer to it as the “Land Rover Range Rover.”)

In short, the Range Rover is fantastic. But it’s also really freaking expensive.

Car prices have been rising in recent years, thanks to a wide variety of factors from inflation to supply chain disruption to massive investments in electric vehicles. The prices on high-margin luxury vehicles have risen more than most: the regular Range Rover now starts at an incredible $107,400, and that’s just the jumping-off point. If you level up to the Range Rover SV, you can easily spend more than double that.

But there is a way to capture the Range Rover vibe at a much more reasonable price point: the 2024 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy.

Yes, I said “Hyundai.”

The Hyundai Palisade looks and feels like a luxury SUV

The Palisade achieves what every $50,000 SUV aims to do: feel like a far more expensive one. Last year, Hyundai gave the Palisade a sleek facelift (to help distinguish it from its Kia Telluride cousin), taking the front end from “bulldog genetically engineered with the eyes of a spider” to “stately and distinctive.”

The top-of-the-line Calligraphy interior features a clean layout and comfortable Nappa leather seats. The Palisade has more physical buttons than the minimalist, screen-dependent Range Rover … but I’d argue that’s a feature, not a bug.

You don’t get all the customization choices with the Palisade that you can find on a Range Rover. But Hyundai is now offering the Calligraphy Night trim, for a more modern, dark-chrome-heavy look.

Hyundai Palisade front end — The Hyundai Palisade looks statelier and more distinctive since its latest refresh.

The Hyundai Palisade delivers a luxurious ride

The Palisade can’t match the Range Rover’s powertrain lineup of turbocharged inline-sixes, twin-turbo V8s and plug-in hybrids; a mediocre 3.8-liter naturally-aspirated V6 is the only option. The Palisade can’t match the Rangie’s air suspension and super-swanky dribing tech, either. But in everyday driving, the Palisade feels remarkably smooth and quiet. It’s reasonably quick and agile, as well.

Hyundai didn’t build the Palisade for going max attack on a California canyon road. It’s a vehicle for serene cruising. Indeed, one could say the same thing about the Range Rover, which can start to show its limitations when pushed hard.

The Palisade isn’t a corner-carver, but neither is the Range Rover.

Photo by Tyler Duffy

The Palisade isn’t a Range Rover off-road … but does that matter?

Land Rover made its name in off-roading. The brand famously doesn’t bother with a Trail Rated badge like Jeep … because all Land Rover vehicles are rated for trail use. But Range Rovers are seldom, if ever, used for off-roading. They’re costly to buy new, and even when second and third owners get ahold of them, they’re still costly to fix.

The Palisade isn’t a recreational off-roader; its 7.9-inch ground clearance isn’t optimal. But it still has a decent all-wheel-drive system and will do a solid job handling snow around a ski resort or the bumpy dirty road on the way to a cottage.

range rover parked in front of silo with mural — The Palisade will never be a *Range Rover*. But it can deliver more than half the vibe at less than half the price.

The Palisade’s value compared to the Range Rover is undeniable

The Hyundai Palisade starts at $36,650, and you can level up to the fancy Calligraphy trim for $50,350. That’s less than half the price of the barest, stripped-down Range Rover. Hell, it’s only about $2,000 more than the average price of a new car these days.

While the Hyundai Palisade isn’t a Range Rover, it will make you feel fancy and distinctive — which is the Range Rover’s raison d’être.

Hyundai Palisade

The Hyundai Palisade is the brand’s range-topping three-row midsize crossover. It’s a sibling of the Kia Telluride and leans slightly more sophisticated than adventurous.