{"id":35031,"date":"2025-09-25T15:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=35031"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:17:21","slug":"payne-off-and-on-road-trippin-in-the-hyundai-palisade-xrt-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/payne-off-and-on-road-trippin-in-the-hyundai-palisade-xrt-pro","title":{"rendered":"Payne: (Off and on) road trippin’ in the Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watkins Glen, New York<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The 2026 Hyundai Palisade has an off-road-focused XRT Pro model because, well, you never know when Google Maps will navigate you off-road.<\/p>\n

Heading east from Niagara Falls toward Watkins Glen International Raceway, Google sent me off Interstate 86 and onto a series of two-lane state roads \u2014 including dirt roads.<\/p>\n

Had I been driving a sports car, I would have cursed Google (how dare you dirty my sleek stallion!). But my Palisade XRT Pro was in its element.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The interior of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro features upscale design combined with good ergonomics.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

I punched the TERRAIN button on the dash, then selected SAND mode (MUD and SNOW are also on offer) and the Hyundai engaged all four Hankook all-terrain tires. I charged up the steep New York hills, leaving a rooster tail of dust behind me.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the fall colors!\u201d I exclaimed as the V-6 engine roared past trees painted orange, red and yellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook out for farm trucks coming over these brows!\u201d said my long-suffering wife riding shotgun.<\/p>\n

Family road trips can be fun. Americans love three-row haulers and off-road bruisers, and Hyundai has combined the two flavors \u2014 like Reese\u2019s peanut butter and jelly \u2014 to create a tasty recipe. With the Palisade XRT Pro, Hyundai follows in the footsteps of other models like the Ford Explorer (Timberline model), Chevy Traverse (Z71) and Honda Passport (TrailSport) \u2014 to marry its family hauler with the latest in off-road tech. It\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n
\n
The 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro is built for off-roading with all-terrain tires and off-road modes like SAND and MUD.<\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sitting atop my XRT Pro tester in Metro Detroit afternoon traffic, I marveled at how ga-ga we\u2019ve gone for the adventure craze. In front of me was a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. To the left of me a Toyota 4Runner TRD, and to the right of me a Traverse ZR1. All armed to the teeth with all-terrain tires, jacked chassis, plastic fenders and off-road modes to … pick up the kiddies from school.<\/p>\n

My weekend trip to the Glen (where I would be racing in an SCCA regional race), however, would show off the Palisade\u2019s full arsenal in its natural habitat: an 18-hour road trip through international borders, interstates, service stations \u2014 and yes, even dirt roads.<\/p>\n

The Palisade was separated at birth from the Hyundai Group\u2019s other three-row ute, the Kia Telluride. They share the same bones, interior amenities, and even off-road capacities (the Telluride\u2019s XRT Pro doppelganger is called the X-Pro). But let\u2019s face it, the Telluride has overshadowed Palisade with its upscale, Cadillac-like styling: vertical lights cues, tidy grille, scalloped flanks. Kia has even applied these attributes to the K4 sedan to make one of the most upscale mainstream compacts in the market.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro is built for off-roading with all-terrain tires and off-road modes like SAND and MUD.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

The Palisade, meanwhile, went its own way with a typically funky sci-fi Hyundai design. Sometimes it works (ooooh, that Elantra is pretty) and other times, ahem Palisade, it looks a bit butch.<\/p>\n

The XRT Pro model, however, allows Palisade to lean into macho design.<\/p>\n

Check out the cool stacked headlights and chunky wheels married to a wardrobe of Cast Iron Brown paint, black body cladding, one-inch suspension raise and a front grille that looked like it came off, well, my barbecue grill. Butch becomes XRT Pro.<\/p>\n