2021 Hyundai Palisade Long-Term Update | Beats a big old SUV

Big SUVs are extremely popular choices for long-haul road trips, and for good reason. I fully understand the appeal; my family has owned several of them over the years, starting with a 1992 Nissan Patrol that we bought while living in Central America, moving to a Mitsubishi Montero, then a Lexus GX 460 before settling on the largest I’ve ever parked in my own driveway. My current vintage 1993 GMC Suburban is quite adept at racking up the miles, and it boasts plenty of virtues that make it a solid road tripper.

But when the option to use Autoblog’s long-term Hyundai Palisade for a weeklong trip to the beaches and sunny climes of South Carolina presented itself, I jumped at the chance. This wouldn't represent the first long trip our Palisade has been on, but it was my first taste of its usefulness. I could have taken my current-generation Lexus GX — much more modern than my GMC but still a traditional body-on-frame SUV — but I wanted to experience crossover life. The $64,000 question (okay, fine … maybe a few bucks less than that) on my mind: How much better is a modern crossover for long road trips than an old-school SUV?

For family road trip duty, the number one thing a ‘ute needs to be is spacious. As you’d expect, my 219.5-inch-long Suburban has quite a bit more total cargo space than the 196-inch-long Palisade. When compared to the Lexus GX, however, it’s pretty comparable. Equally as important, the Hyundai’s cargo area is easily accessible with a low entry point, well shaped and therefore easy to pack. Hyundai says there are 86.4 cubic feet of space with the second and third rows folded. We had four occupants, which means we were left with 45.8 cubes. We snuck some long items in between the middle captain’s chairs, extending the available space.

In the end, we packed it full of a week’s worth of clothes in a quartet of carry-on-size suitcases, four folding chairs, beach blankets and umbrellas, and a couple of coolers with space left to spare (barely) for a brace of neck pillows, blankets and all manner of electronic gear.