2021 Toyota Sequoia vs 2020 Hyundai Palisade

When your job is to test drive cars, you start to see trends happening before your eyes. You mention something once, then again, and before you know it, it's unavoidable. The downside is I end up sounding like a broken record to a lot of shoppers. Car reviewers started seeing huge improvements from Kia and its parent company, Hyundai, years ago. Now, these Korean automakers are so good, they're genuine contenders in nearly every segment.

We saw this earlier this year with the 2020 Kia Telluride, which Cliff Atiyeh reviewed. Now we’re seeing it again with the all-new 2020 Hyundai Palisade. This is a spacious, comfortable, and versatile 3-row SUV, and one you should seriously consider against cornerstones of the family SUV market, like the Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot.

The Palisade has been a long time coming for Hyundai, which has been without a true contender in the segment. From 2008 to 2012, Hyundai offered the 3-row Veracruz, but that was more of a glorified 2-row SUV that had extra-small seats in the back for kids. More recently, Hyundai has offered the Santa Fe XL with three rows, but that was a stopgap car. This is a similar situation to Subaru, which offered the Tribeca for a number of years but didn't become a serious contender in the space until it debuted the Ascent. There are no half-measures in the family-hauler market.

This little history lesson serves to indicate the lengths to which automakers will go to stand out in the 3-row family SUV segment. The Palisade is already making headlines, but will it move the needle for Hyundai? Read on to find out, and to learn which trim of the Palisade CarGurus recommends.

Look around on the road today, and you are bound to see SUVs of all shapes and sizes. From three-row family haulers to subcompact runabouts. There is an SUV for nearly every need and every budget. The 2021 Toyota Sequoia might feel like it's from an earlier wave of the SUV craze, and that’s because it is. Born out of the 1990s SUV-excess-fest, the Sequoia has evolved into a niche vehicle for those who need serious space and truck-like capability.

The current generation of the Sequoia has been around for almost 15 years, and while Toyota has updated it in several ways, there’s no avoiding its age. Even with modern tech and safety features, this is still an aging beast. Can such a dated vehicle still be relevant in the modern car market? And is age really that important to buyers who are looking for tons of space and standard V8 power? Read on to find out.