Anonymous

Reviewed a 2021 Hyundai Limited FWD on Apr 19, 2025

I purchased my 2021 Hyundai Palisade during the summer of 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the shortage of vehicles, it’s the first vehicle that I NEVER test drove before I purchased it. Fortunately, my youngest brother had one that was similar and he had given me raving reviews about it. So, I wasn’t too concerned about its handling or drivability. During my ownership of the Palisade, it drove and handled superbly well in all road conditions. It didn’t matter what the road conditions were, the Palisade was always well grounded and with good tires, not even heavily wet roads were able to throw it off course. I would travel once or twice a year to Colorado Springs, Co., to visit my daughter and her family and the trips were always smooth and comfortable. Driving the Palisade was an absolute pleasure to do. Now, for the reasons why I traded in the Palisade and purchased a 2025 Ram 1500 instead. The Limited model comes with a sunroof and little did I know but Hyundai uses plastic for the sunroof rail system that allows the sunroof to slide back and forth. Well, I wasn’t a big user of the sunroof and that apparently was my mistake. You see, this last fall, October, 2024, I believe, my sunroof rail system broke. Yes, it flat broke because as I was told, I didn’t use it enough. It was explained to me that since the parts are plastic and that there’s grease along the rail system, I needed to use the sunroof more frequently in order to keep those parts well lubricated by using the sunroof regularly. Since, I didn’t use the sunroof regularly, I may have used it 12 times in my 4 years of owning it, that’s what lead to the rail system being locked up and causing it to break. It makes sense but WOW is that crazy. I was also told that the repair would cost me over $7K!!! That wasn’t going to happen, so with my girlfriend’s help, we taped and sealed the sunroof using some gorilla tape and there were no leaks. It was during this same time that the sunroof broke, I was informed by the Hyundai dealer, following an oil change, that another PLASTIC part had broken. This time it was the PLASTIC oil filter housing unit. Apparently, it had possibly been broken when someone changed the oil filter during an oil change. I can’t prove that but it’s the most logical explanation. Since the sunroof wasn’t leaking and after I found a local mechanic shop to replace the oil filter housing unit, the Hyundai dealer wanted way too much money for the repair, I was content to go on and keep my Hyundai Palisade, which had 108K miles on it, and run off into the sunset with it. Well, not so quick, because I began to notice that there was a possible problem that was developing with the transmission. I never took to a mechanic or service center to be looked at but I believe that the transmission was beginning to slip. There were rare occasions, one or twice a week, where the transmission seemed to make a different sound around 20-30 mph. It wasn’t every day but I did notice it. Well, that was the last straw. There may not have been anything wrong with the transmission at all but I wasn’t going to keep it and find out. Therefore, I decided to trade it in and I purchased the 2025 Ram 1500 Crew Cab. My time with the Palisade was great and I enjoyed driving it but the reliability and quality of the vehicle was deeply impacted by plastic parts in the wrong locations. Those plastic parts and reliability issues are the direct reasons why I traded in the Palisade once I noticed the possible transmission issue. It was almost like the vehicle was built to last 100K miles, due to its own powertrain warranty and once that was done, so was the vehicle. It’s only due to the fun and pleasure of owning and driving the Palisade for the first problem free 100K miles that I’m even giving the vehicle 3 out of 5 stars. When I purchased the Palisade, I truly thought I had gotten a well equipped vehicle for a bargain. Unfortunately, in the long run, despite the Palisade being well equipped, it wasn’t reliable for the long term and thus, I probably won’t buy another Hyundai ever again. Now, Hyundai and Chevy are the two manufacturers that I will have to avoid. My 1991 Chevy 1500 had to have its transmission rebuilt at only 109K miles nearly 20 years ago and I haven’t purchased a Chevy or GMC vehicle since then. I like dependable and reliable vehicles that last without major repairs being needed around 100K miles. That’s not asking a lot and I don’t see why manufacturers don’t build vehicles that last at least until 150K miles before major repairs are needed, when owners are keeping up with routine maintenance, like myself.