If the Hyundai Santa Fe too mainstream for you, then perhaps you should wait for the Hyundai Palisade – the largest SUV in Hyundai’s line-up. Yes, Hyundai Sime Darby Motors (HSDM) has confirmed that it will be launching the Hyundai Palisade in Malaysia this year.

Like the Santa Fe (which competes against the Mazda CX-8), the Palisade is a 3-row seat SUV, but it comes either as a 7- or 8-seater, the former has individual 'captain seats' in the middle row.

Named after a series of coastal cliffs in California, the Hyundai Palisade is properly massive. Its length spans nearly 5 meters, whilst being nearly 2 meters wide. It has an equally massive 2.9-meter-long wheelbase.

Much like its stablemates, the Hyundai Palisade wears its Cascading Grille up front proudly, surrounded by cleverly-designed LED daytime running lights (DRLs) that seemingly flow into the LED headlights below. A more matured version of the Santa Fe, if you may.

Around the sides, the Palisade can be had with 18- to 20-inch alloy wheels. One interesting design element here is the imposing C-pillar, which adds character to the car's side profile. The Palisade also gets tastefully-designed chrome trims scattered throughout the exterior.

As for the rear-end, some may go as far as to say that the Palisade’s tail-end is no where near as eye-catching as the front. Its vertical LED tail lights get chrome trim, while the bottom half of the bumper is finished in grey, giving it some contrast.

Just like any other modern-day Hyundai, the interior is well-designed and feels properly upmarket. A 10.25-inch touchscreen display with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay takes care of infotainment duties, piping audio through a 12-speaker audio system.

The infotainment also adds a nifty Driver Talk  'intercom-like' feature for the driver to talk to the passengers in the third row. Audio speakers for the second and third row seats can also be muted independently from the front row, allowing the driver to listen to music while the passengers doze off.

Seeing how massive the Palisade is, Hyundai fitted its Driver Talk intercom system in the SUV, allowing drivers to speak clearly to those at the rear.

Hyundai offers two seating capacity with the Palisade: either as a 7- or an 8-seater. If the 7-seater option is selected, the second-row receives a pair of captain seats, making up a 2-2-3 seating configuration.

All three rows get their individual air-conditioning vent - which in our market, is a big selling point.

Depending on market, the Hyundai Palisade can be had with either a naturally-aspirated 3.8-litre V6 petrol engine that does 295 PS and 355 Nm, or a 3.5-litre V6 that outputs 227 PS and 336 Nm.

There's also a 2.2-litre turbo diesel with 200 PS and 440 Nm.

All three engines are paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission driving the front wheels. All-wheel drive is also available. 

The Hyundai Palisade is also properly safe, as it gets the Hyundai SmartSense ADAS suite, which includes features such as:

• Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist-Rear (BCA-R)
• Blind-Spot View Monitor (BVM)
• High Beam Assist (HBA)
• Lane Keeping Assist – Line/Road-Edge (LKA-L/R)
• Lane Following Assist (LFA)
• Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA)
• Rear Occupant Alert (ROA)
• Safe Exit Alert (SEA)
• Surround View Monitor (SVM)

Of course, the list of features will differ from market to market, and HSDM has yet to announce the specifications (or price) for the Malaysian specifications Hyundai Palisade.

When it goes on sale in Malaysia later this year, the Hyundai Palisade will be competing against the equally-massive Mazda CX-9.

Don’t expect the Hyundai Palisade to be cheap, as prices of the smaller Hyundai Santa Fe has already breached the RM 200k mark, despite local assembly (CKD in Kulim).

In Indonesia, the imported-from-Korea Palisade is priced from IDR 777 million (~RM 224k) to IDR 1.078 billion (~RM 311k).