Overview

WHEN you think of off-roading, Hyundai – particularly its portfolio – is unlikely to be the first brand that comes to mind. Or the second… Or even the tenth…

However, the Korean brand isn’t a complete stranger to venturing off the beaten track, having most recently sold the body-on-frame 4x4 Terracan from 2001 to 2007 in Australia.

But now, Hyundai is giving it another go – in what seems to be a significantly expanded capacity – having introduced the off-road oriented XRT and XRT Pro sub brands.

The XRT badge is essentially the off-road equivalent of Hyundai’s N-Line vehicles, adding off-road styling to an otherwise road-focused model, while XRT Pro models add genuine off-road enhancements, with the first model to receive the latter treatment in the Australian market being the Palisade XRT Pro.

Priced from $79,900 plus on-road costs, the new XRT Pro variant sits above the entry-level Elite ($76,500 + ORC) and below the eight-seat Calligraphy model ($89,828 + ORC) within the Palisade range.

The new variant is expected to fetch around 10 per cent of the model’s Australian sales.

Classed in the sub-$80,000 large SUV segment, the Palisade XRT Pro shares the market with road-focused, family-ferrying rivals such as the Mazda CX-80 (from $56,100 + ORC), BYD Sealion 8 (from $56,990 + ORC), Skoda Kodiaq(from $49,990 + ORC), Jaecoo J8 (from $49,990 driveaway), and the Toyota Kluger (from $62,410 + ORC).

It also finds itself in competition with off-road and towing oriented, body-on-frame rivals like the Isuzu MU-X (from $49,900 + ORC), Toyota LandCruiser Prado (from $73,200 + ORC), GWM Tank 500 (from $65,990 d/a), and the Ford Everest (from $58,990 + ORC).

Local Hyundai executives say the Palisade XRT Pro – which uses a monocoque construction like the former group – is intended to sit between the two groups, offering added capability without sacrificing on-road comfort.

To help with this, the Palisade XRT Pro has received a locally developed steering and suspension tune, with work undertaken on its springs, dampers, and anti-roll bars.

The XRT Pro’s powertrain differs from its Palisade stablemates. While a turbocharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol still sits beneath its bonnet and it’s still all-wheel drive, it ditches both the hybrid system and the six-speed transmission, instead using an eight-speed automatic.

In this guise, it produces 207kW and 422Nm, while combined fuel economy is rated at 11.2L/100km.

While the lack of a hybrid system may seem like a downgrade, the XRT Pro’s braked towing capacity improves over the Elite and Calligraphy models by 200kg to 2200kg. Unbraked capacity remains unchanged at 750kg. A towbar is also fitted from the factory as standard.

The XRT Pro’s off-road focus is reflected in its exterior features, which include more rugged 18-inch alloy wheels (wrapped in Continental Cross Contact All terrain tyres) and front and rear bumper designs, blacked-out exterior details, front recovery hooks, and a front “horizon” light.

Inside, you’ll find further XRT cues including branding on the dashboard and seat headrests, a “mountain-inspired” pattern on the seats, and blacked-out control finishes.

There’s also seating for eight (the XRT Pro is not available in the seven-seat configuration), synthetic leather upholstery, a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen (compatible with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 14-speaker Bose sound system, a 10-way power adjustable driver’s seat (with two-way lumbar), an eight-way power-adjustable front passenger’s seat, heated and ventilated front seats, a wireless phone charger, configurable interior ambient lighting, front dual-zone climate control, and rear single-zone climate control.

The Palisade XRT Pro gets a suite of off-road features, including off-road drive modes (Mud, Sand, and Snow), an electronic limited-slip differential, dedicated off-roading displays in the infotainment screen and digital instrument cluster, an XRT button on the steering wheel to access these displays, and a ground view monitor display.

Compared with the regular Palisade models, the XRT Pro’s ground clearance is upped by 25mm to 212mm, its approach angle by 1.9 degrees to 20.5, its departure angle by 1.3 degrees to 22.4, and its ramp over angle by 2.8 degrees to 18.3.

Standard safety features on the Palisade XRT Pro include (but are not limited to) eight airbags, ISOFIX child restraint anchors for the second and third row outboard seats, top tether child restraint anchors in the second and third rows, smart cruise control, navigation-based smart cruise control, forward collision avoidance assist, a blind spot view monitor, blind spot collision avoidance, driver attention warning and leading vehicle departure alert, highway driving assist, intelligent speed limit assist, lane keeping assist, lane following assist, rear parking collision avoidance, rear cross-traffic avoidance assist, high beam assist, rear occupant alert, remote smart parking assist, safe exit assist, and surround view monitoring.

Tested in 2025, the second generation Hyundai Palisade holds a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

When it comes to boot space, it has 317 litres of storage with all three rows up, 729 litres with the second row folded, and 2098 litres with all three rows folded.

The Palisade XRT Pro also comes with a full-size spare wheel mounted underneath the rear of the vehicle.

Hyundai offers a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty on top of its standard five-year new car warranty (provided all services are completed at an authorised Hyundai dealership) for the Palisade and 12 months of roadside assist which is extended for another 12 months with each scheduled service at a Hyundai dealer.

The Palisade XRT Pro is offered with a seven-year servicing program, with intervals arriving every 12 months or 10,000km, with prices for each service ranging from $408 to $754, with a total cost of $3752 over the seven-year period.

But is the outdoorsy member of the Palisade family cosplaying capability? Or does it carry real off-road credentials? We tested it both on and off-road at its Sydney launch event to find out.

Driving Impressions

The XRT Pro’s aesthetic additions – primarily its wheels, bumpers, and side skirts – are very effective in visually setting the new Palisade variant apart from its stablemates, adding a rugged edge to its contemporary look.

Step inside and you’ll find a familiar environment for those who have interacted with a second-generation Palisade previously, featuring rounded surfaces (the interior has been inspired by premium furniture according to Hyundai’s website), solid charging and storage amenities, and a selection of intuitive physical controls.

While the HVAC controls are touch-sensitive rather than physical, depressible buttons, their layout makes them ultimately intuitive.

The immediate synthetic leather touchpoints – particularly the steering wheel and seats (which are also comfortable and supportive) – feel excellent, although some cabin plastics feel a bit lacklustre such as the scratchy plastic used in abundance on the centre console.

When it comes to screens, the infotainment display is super crisp, but some features – such as the ADAS settings – are buried within several sub menus. However, connecting an iPhone to Apple CarPlay is an absolute breeze.

In the second row, there’s space in abundance. You could park a bus between your knees and the seat in front while there’s also plenty of space for your feet beneath it. Headroom is also enormous here too.

A very small transmission hump splits the feet of the middle seat passenger but there’s still plenty of room for them as well.

Backseat passengers have access to a centre folding armrest with cupholders, a small storage tray beneath the front seat centre console armrest, USB-C charging ports on the sides of the front seats, and a ceiling-mounted air-conditioning control panel.

With the second-row bench pushed to its rearmost position the third-row space will likely be suitable for small children, but that’s about it. We also suspect the usability of the third-row middle seat will depend on one of your passengers being part 2B pencil.

However, you can create some more space by pushing the second row slightly forward, making the third row more usable while not reducing the second row’s room too much.

From the boot, two pull straps make folding the third row easy while buttons found on the left side of the luggage compartment fold the second row.

On the road, we experienced the Palisade XRT Pro on twisting backroads, on urban streets, and on carriageway roads in and around the Ku-ring-gai Chase national park.

While a slightly more powerful 3.5-litre V6 is offered overseas – and some rivals in the segment offer six-cylinder power – the non-hybrid four cylinder found in the XRT Pro is punchy and responsive enough to haul this big SUV. It’s not the most pleasant-sounding engine in the world, but it does the job.

On our 42.3km road loop, the Palisade XRT Pro returned 12.5 litres per 100km.

As for the rest of the driving experience, the XRT Pro delivers on what we’ve already come to expect from the second-generation Palisade.

When it comes to being a comfortable isolation machine, the Palisade XRT Pro still nails the brief. Save for when the engine is revving high, it’s supremely quiet while on the move and the ride is soft without being wallowy and still reveals just enough about the surface beneath you without being uncomfortable.

Make no mistake, this is a big car – and it feels it. But while the roads that we were driving on weren’t the highest speed or the most challenging, the Palisade XRT Pro exhibited reasonable body control, and felt predictable and easy to place.

Its steering isn’t brimming with feedback but it’s still relatively direct and appropriately weighted.

As for ADAS, only one of the systems is particularly intrusive and that is lane centring, which is arguably too aggressive, adhering to its course so rigidly to the point of feeling unnatural and somewhat unnecessary.

Aside from that, the rest of the safety systems largely leave you alone. Beeps and bongs are kept to a minimum apart from the speed limit change (which can be quite helpful). The 360-degere camera is also excellent and super high resolution.

The off-road exercise was held at the HART (Honda Australia Roadcraft Training) facility in St. Ives, where the Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro proved itself to be surprisingly capable when the going gets rough, handling the course with confidence despite not necessarily being a purpose built off roader.

There were a couple of hills on the course – one ascent and one descent – that had us holding our breath when we first encountered them. Yet the XRT Pro handled both with ease.

We tested two of the dedicated XRT Pro screens during the off-road exercise. One displays things like pitch, roll, tyre pressures and turning angles which proved novel rather than particularly useful for these purposes.

What was really handy was the ground view camera, which gave us a really good idea of where the wheels were relative to obstacles that were immediately in front of us.

Again, the XRT Pro is unlikely to rival the capabilities of a true body-on-frame off-roader. But the course we completed was much more difficult than anything it will likely encounter in the real world in customer hands, and for a vehicle built for the school run it does a very respectable job.

Ultimately, the XRT Pro takes what was already good about the current-generation Palisade and enhances it with rugged appeal. It delivers on Hyundai’s promise of a middle-ground vehicle that’s comfortable on-road yet surprisingly capable off-road, with its aesthetic additions adding a welcome plus.

However, something that may hold the Palisade XRT Pro back is its towing capacity. Pitching it as a vehicle for the weekend while sharing a segment with models that can tow some 1300kg more puts it at disadvantage.

But if on-road comfort, cool looks, and enough capability when the going gets tough are your primary priorities, the XRT Pro is worth a look.

Furthermore, at only $3400 more than the base model and at nearly $10,000 less than the Calligraphy, the XRT Pro could represent something of a value sweet spot within the line-up for many buyers.

However, whether that’s enough to entice customers out of similar rivals (many of which are cheaper) in a segment this competitive remains to be seen.