Just wanted to share some experiences I had with test drives I had this past weekend with 3-row SUVs. Normally I go into leasing/buying a car with a pretty good idea of what I’m going to get. This time around, I really have no clue. All I know is we want an SUV with 3 row seating (preferably an SUV with captains chairs in the second row). It also needs to be priced reasonably well at around $400/month. In the end I know much of our decision will be based on lease deals when we’re ready to get one in November, but I’d like to have a list of our favorites by then. I apologize that it’s a bit long winded, but here it is:
2020 Hyundai Palisade
Outside: Nice looking, looks really large
Inside: Really nice interior on the the limited trim. Has every feature I could imagine I’d want. Asked to test drive the one with captains seats and it was really easy to get into the back. Really liked the cup holder area a lot. Has some additional storage under the cup holders/buttons. Even has a nice place to wireless charge a phone. Dual sunroofs are nice but I’d prefer a panoramic sunroof that goes all the way back. Not a huge amount of legroom on the 3rd row but sufficient for a couple people. USB charging ports everywhere. Media interface was really nice. Touch screen but also has buttons. I really liked that it had Apple carplay and Android auto. One thing I wished my Tesla had.
Drive: Seems a little underpowered for such a big car. Wasn’t expecting a ton of power, but was hoping it’d have a little more. Shifter seems like it would be a little hard to get used to. It uses buttons instead of a stick or steering wheel lever. I’m sure I’d figure it out quick, but its a little awkward at first. I like the safety features that push you back into the lane if you drift out and it has lane keep and adaptive cruise control which isn’t as good as my tesla but seems to work sufficiently well. Really liked the cameras all around the car and when you put it in drive you see what’s in front, also you can see a birds eye view.
Cost: Went into all the dealerships to just test drive and made it very clear. Pretty sure these still go for MSRP, so no point in talking price right now. The manager quickly came out to see what he could do to convince me to lease. I told him our BMW isn’t out of lease until November and he offered to “pay off” the first 3 months of the lease which I realize is just code for them pushing the payments into the rest of the lease. When I told him my current lease is 380/month, he asked if I would go for it if he could get me the same payments, but when I actually called him out on it and asked if he could really do that, he just said “we’ll see” and that’s when I walked. 
2020 Kia Telluride :
Outside: Almost identical to the Palisade but I liked the front of the Palisade a little more. The upgraded wheels on the fully upgraded SX were really nice though.
Inside: Again very similar to the Palisade on the Telluride SX vs Palisade. Palisade comes with more stuff standard, but if you’re going to get the high end of both, they’re both beautiful interiors. Hyundai and Kia are definitely starting to look more luxury. Big differences are the cup holder and wireless charging area of the Telluride is not as nice. Smaller cupholder area, wireless charging is sideways which makes no sense.
Drive: Like the Palisade, it seems a little underpowered, although I would say for some crazy reason it felt slightly more powerful even though they have identical motors. Might have just been in my head, but it seemed that way. This one has a standard shifter, so depending on your preference this could be better. Media interface looks identical and has identical features. Safety features and adaptive cruise control all seemed pretty much identical.
Cost: I liked how this dealership didn’t try to pressure me at all. They only had a couple of these in stock and they go pretty quickly which I guess is why it was parked up $10,000!!! Yes that’s right. I looked at the sticker and it showed MSRP and then something about $10,000 was written below and he explained that it was marked up that much. Pretty insane for a Kia, but I guess people will pay ridiculous amounts for these right now.
2019 Infiniti QX60:
Outside: Nice style, doesn’t seem as large as the Kia and Hyundai but inside still feels just as large. Style seems a bit dated. I’m not sure when was the last time they changed the look, but it doesn’t look super modern. I do like the overall look though.
Inside: Looked at the Luxe AWD trim and it was really nice. Again, like the outside, I would say the interior was slightly dated, but still very luxurious and nice. Reminds me a lot of my wife’s BMW X3. Our biggest concern was that unlike the Kia and Hyundai there was no option for captains seats. Only had the 8 seat configuration, though the seats slide around pretty nicely to give you room to get in the back. Media setup is a little outdated. No Android Auto sadly and the screen looked old and smaller than the other cars. No wireless charging, though they do seem to have usb ports all over the car which is nice.
Drive: Loved the drive. Way better than the Telluride and Palisade. Actually felt like I could accelerate well getting onto the freeway even though the car is so large. The ride felt super nice. Seats were comfortable and I just felt that it drove a lot like my wife’s X3 even though it’s quite a bit bigger. Has a standard shifter and had adaptive cruise control but don’t think it had lane keep. It does however have the feature where it pushes you back in the lane if you start drifting out of it, but it doesn’t feel as forceful as the Kia and Hyundai which made me a bit nervous.
Cost: Once again, didn’t feel any pressure to buy at this dealership. Sales person went in to get his card and came out with the manager which I thought would try to convince us to lease now. Actually she didn’t at all, she just came out to talk to us about driving the QX60 with 2 children in car seats. We thought we’d have two kids in rear facing car seats at the same time, but it seems we won’t, so not having captains seats won’t be as big of a problem as I thought. There have been some ridiculous lease deals on this car in the past for around $400/month and I’m really hoping by November those deals will be back.
2019? Subaru Ascent:
Outside: Looks decent. Never been a big fan of Suburu style but I can appreciate that it looks good for such a large car.
Inside: Wanted the features on the touring but my wife was really upset that the interior on the touring ONLY came in brown leather. I liked it but she really disliked it. The lower model didn’t have the front camera and some other really minor things. Also, the steering wheel didn’t seem as premium on the lower model. The white leather seats looked good though, so no complaints there. We were really hungry so decided to pass on the test drive, but the interior seemed to look reasonably premium and had a lot of features. Not sure how the media setup was or what kinds of features it has.
Drive: Again, didn’t drive it, but I do appreciate that even the base model Suburu now has eyesight. From my understanding this adds adaptive cruise control and lane keep. Would like to see how well it works compared to Autopilot on my Tesla.
Cost: Seems to be priced ok, but I’ve never seen any lease deals on it. Sales guy was really nice had didn’t pressure us at all.
Toyota Highlander: TBD
Honda Pilot: TBD
Nissan Pathfinder: TBD
Mazda CX-9: TBD
