Didn’t they re-brand the Santa Fe XL as the Palisade?
Only in video. I’m curious though. I’ve sat and driven a GLS and never thought it was amazing. The upcoming Santa Fe seems to have more features than the GLS at a considerably less price. Assuming road noise and insulation is done well, is prestige the only thing holding back potential buyers?
Looks Lego “esque” to me. But more pertinently I doubt the OP and his wife are interested.
Does the 2024 Santa Fe XL or whatever that thing is called have second row integrated sun shades? Best feature of any car right there if you got kids. Window tint has nothing on rolling shades.
GLS with AMG Line package also looks so damn good. This Santa Fe is… less good. IMO of course.
It’s not available until 2024, so I doubt anyone has seen one live yet, unless they are a dealer.
I doubt NVH will match a Mercedes, and I doubt the interior finishes will be comparable, either. And I can’t imagine the service station experience being anywhere near as good as that at MB (although MB charges extra for that, too). You thought that the GLS was not amazing to drive, but maybe the Santa Fe will be even that much less amazing?
I’m not saying that the GLS is “worth” the additional expense, but I do imagine that there are some significant differences.
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There’s an intrinsic value to a brand like Mercedes versus Hyundai. Not knocking Hyundai by any means but the two are not interchangeable. I always consider BMW and Mercedes to be luxury market leaders and Hyundai,etc. to be followers. It’s great that they offer compelling features but many who have the means will choose the former over the ladder for a variety of reasons.
I don’t like BIG cars, period. If I did, I would get an 18 wheeler. That being said, Hyundai had poor reputation for reliability just 20 years ago. They have improved on quality since then, but the memory lingers. Also, a lot of their cars look like knockoffs, they will have a grill inspired by Mercedes, rear lights by BMW, front lights by Porsche, body shape by a third carmaker, not a good impression overall. With starting price under 40K Santa Fe might be a good bargain for someone who loves big cars and doesn’t care much about refined aesthetics of the car.
It has those and also second row ventilated seats in the top trim. It has massaging seats iirc. Reliability is not a big deal if you lease and I seriously doubt the germans do better in terms of reliability. Lol of course the GLS with AMG Line package looks good, no doubt. It’s just whether the GLS that’s almost 2x the cost is worth it.
I mean the driving dynamics in relation to their price. I have no doubt that the Santa Fe would be worse to drive than the GLS, but how much worse. Definitely going to try one when they come out
Is any new car truly worth double of any new car that’s half its price?
The EQS is 
Anything that’s double the price of a Mitsubishi Mirage
The days of punitive mainstream cars are coming to an end. Honda used to have terrible NVH, and Toyota just never seemed to have any interest in aesthetics at all.
Nowadays compare a $48k Kia to a similar priced Mercedes like a GLB, and the Kia hands down has better materials, better NVH, better features, literally better everything.
And while the quality delta has dwindled, the lease delta has gone way up. Back when an X3 leased for about the same as a CRV, it was a no-brainer to get the BMW. Nowadays a CX90 is 1/3rd the payment of a GLS, it not quite as obvious any more.
Ohmigod, I had no idea they still made one!!! Okay, so maybe some cars are worth double the price of a Mirage (and perhaps at least one Nissan).
Should’ve clarified that when I said “a” Mercedes, I meant “the” Mercedes in question (a GLS), since that was the specific comparison being made.
I have no doubt that a Toyota/Honda/Kia/Hyundai/Mazda/whatever (but not necessarily an Acura) would be better than anything from a German luxury brand that’s relatively close in price.
And it’s why I have little interest in anything Mercedes anymore (b/c anything they make in my price range simply isn’t all that compelling vs. lower priced, but still very nice, cars).
But I imagine that the S-Class (and GLS) are still pretty nice in comparison to most cars.
Even my service advisor says the A/GLA/GLB/CLA are not considered real Mercedes 
This might have been the case before, but honestly these days the Hyundai and Kia designs are pretty good when we’re comparing them to BMW lol. The fit and finish in the upper trims of Hyundai and Kia are pretty good and I do agree that in the past, the lease difference between a german and these cars was non existent. However, I don’t know what happened after the pandemic, but when I called around MB dealers for a GLE(I was coming right off a GLE), the lease quotes were almost twice what we were paying. I even had one guy tell me that MB is trying to be more premium, hence the prices. That’s all great, but if the car isn’t improved to signal a more premium stance, then raising the price doesn’t make the brand any more premium.
We have always had BMWs and are used to them but just drove a bunch of different SUVs for my wife including Hyundai/Kia and there is a significant difference between them and BMW/Mercedes…the H/K cabins look nice but just sitting in them and driving reveals they aren’t near the same quality as B/M…H/K is nice but just a grade below and especially noticeable if you are coming from a B/M.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me, Hyundai/Kia generally look terrible. They steal various elements from all different car makers and mash them together to create their own non-unique designs. As I said earlier, they are followers whereas MB/BMW are leaders of the industry. And, nothing beats German engineering as far as I’m concerned
Personal opinion here of course, but I’d rather have the car being benchmarked than the car that the “me too” automaker is trying to benchmark. Like yes a car can be qualified and quantified with certain targets. So interior legroom, road noise, slalom speeds, 0-60 times, tactile weight of the HVAC vents, blah blah blah can be defined by engineering and product planners. So eventually a car that has certain characteristics can be made that on paper gives the “me too” automaker a reason for potential buyers to say “hey this is as good as blah blah blah”
But the synergies and cohesion of that “me too” car always feels wrong. Like whoever was the benchmark has this way to make the entire vehicle feel like the car itself was the design. While the copycat was assembling lots of sub-pieces.
Anyway, I don’t expect many typical Mercedes buyers to go “well I guess a Hyundai is good enough so I’ll save a few thousand bucks and tool around in this Hyundai!” But what I do see Hyundai accomplishing is poaching people who were already expecting to spend $65k for a 7-passenger car and then wow them with a “wow this is almost a Mercedes!”
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I say it as someone who had a X5, GLE, XC90. I don’t own a Hyundai or Kia that competes with these cars, but when I saw them, with the current lease rates, I would definitely give them a look.
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