Watch Out Toyota! 2026 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander

Only a handful of vehicles have ever made as big of a splash as the Hyundai Palisade and Toyota Grand Highlander when they first hit the market. These SUVs went from completely unknown nameplates to some of the best-selling 3-row SUVs in America in a few short years. But Hyundai is now entering its second generation of the Palisade and is promising more family-friendly and luxury features than ever before! So, who should be your choice in a 2026 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander battle?

Exterior Design

Getting right into the exteriors, you can tell right away that Hyundai and Toyota went for completely different design methods. While both are boxy and somewhat tough-looking, the Palisade’s front end is very in-your-face, whereas the Grand Highlander’s design looks more like an upsized RAV4. That trend continues into their rear ends as well, and one thing you might notice is that Hyundai uses body color lower moldings, compared to the Toyota’s rugged matte moldings.

Starting with the headlights, both models feature projector full-LED arrangements, with LED foglamps on the Grand Highlander. Only the Palisade includes fancy headlight and taillight animations, though.

Walking around the vehicles, you’ll find 20 or 21-inch wheels in the Toyota and Hyundai, respectively. That’s slightly under the 5% threshold required to score a point, and we’ll discuss ride quality later. 

Lengthwise, the Grand Highlander is huge for the segment, and although the Palisade grew about 2 inches this year, it still falls a little short of the GH. Of course, we will also be comparing all the interior space and dimensions later in the comparison to see how they stack up. 

Lengths: Grand Highlander: 201.4-inches | Palisade: 199.2-inches

In the back, the trend of premium full LED lighting continues, and they share towing ability up to 5,000 lbs. Palisade hides its wiper to keep it from being weathered as much over time.

Towing: Grand Highlander: 5,000 lbs. | Palisade: 5,000 lbs.

The mirrors on each crossover feature heating, power-folding and blind spot monitoring. Palisade adds the boujee touch of auto-dimming on both sides too.

And as far as the active safety features are concerned, all of them are featured here, even highway assist systems for convenience. 

Finally, it’s worth noting the loaded Palisade includes an integrated front/rear dashcam for peace of mind, and it has Smart Park, which can pull in and out of parking spots unmanned in tight parking situations.

That concludes the outside, so now let’s move on to the more important interiors.

Interior Design

So, walking up to the vehicles, both models have smart entry and remote start systems. But that’s where the similarities almost immediately end.

Seats are our first discussion point here, where you find a suede and leather combination seat in the Grand Highlander and a full Nappa leather seat in the Palisade. Nappa leather is one of the highest grades of leather, so the Hyundai has the advantage there, and it also gives owners many more adjustments from its power seats, including a recliner. Heating, ventilation, and memory functions are included on both models, but only Palisade includes massaging for the driver’s seat.

Let’s fully climb inside and talk about the overall cabin quality, which we will divide into solidity and material selection, since it’s broad. In both regards, you’ll notice an appreciable difference in favor of the Hyundai. When you press on pieces, there is less flex, and when you do things like slam the doors, the Palisade feels rock solid. For materials, the use of extra leatherette, wood-like trims, and the suede headliner elevates the cabin’s premium feel above the mostly basic plastic finishes in the Toyota.

Starting them up, you will be greeted by two fully digital 12.3-inch gauge clusters, and unlike many new cars on the market, both are integrated instead of tablet-style. They have customizable graphics, or you can just look at the advanced head-up displays instead. One Hyundai-exclusive is the blind spot camera system.

Even though these don’t have a luxury badge on the steering wheel, they still have leather wrapping, heating, manual-adjustment and rain-sensing wipers.

Storage and Technology

Now the next major subject to evaluate is interior storage, looking at both the center console and the multi-use cubbies elsewhere. Starting with the console, we performed the signature Car Confections donut test, and the GH fit the MAX number of donuts, 2 dozen. The Palisade clearly has less console space here. Forward of that, the tables turn though, with the Palisade including a huge open area for storing just about anything, in addition to the passenger storage shelves they both have. One last thing: Palisade includes a UV-sterilization tray in the console, which is cool for sanitizing devices after a long day at work.

In order to get all of that space, both are utilizing electronic shifters. When in reverse, they display 360-degree camera systems with good resolution. 

For the climate controls, we have 3-zone systems that, thankfully, still use controls with knobs and buttons.

Alrighty, that brings us to the audio systems, so let’s sample them. Here, the Palisade does a better job with its 3 extra speakers, although neither system will completely blow you away.

Palisade: 14-speaker Bose Surround Audio

Grand Highlander: 11-speaker JBL Premium Audio

Now moving on to the screens, just like a ton of cars on the market, both give you a 12.3-inch main screen. The main things you’ll be looking for are here, including wireless ACP and AA and built-in navigation.

Up above, both SUV’s include auto-dimming camera rearview mirrors with HomeLink garage door openers. Up top, there are large panoramic sunroofs, divided into 2 panels on the Palisade.

Rear Seats and Cargo

As we move to the back seats and cargo areas, there will be several things that favor the Hyundai and several the Toyota. Legroom is one of the things that favors the Palisade since it is now class-leading, and it has about an 8% advantage over the Grand Highlander. Headroom is under the 5% difference threshold to score a point.

Palisade: 43.0-inches of legroom | 40.0-inches of headroom

GH: Legroom: 39.5-inches | Headroom: 38.5-inches

Features-wise, they have tons to keep the whole fam happy. Both have climate vents, 2 USB ports, and a household outlet. The sun can be blocked with sunshades on the windows, and they have captain’s chairs that slide and recline, while also heating and ventilating your booty. That’s not all, though, since the Palisade has fancy full power rear seat abilities, including a relaxation mode. Your kids would be spoiled by that.

The space situation reverses when we move to the third rows. Legroom is larger in the Grand Highlander but it’s not enough of a difference to get a point. Neither is the headroom difference.

There are 3 seats with cupholders, vents and USB connections, plus the Hyundai once more is throwing in some real fancy features. It has a power sliding and reclining third row, and even seat heating.

Palisade: Legroom: 32.1-inches (normal configuration) | Headroom: 37.7-inches

GH: Legroom: 33.5-inches | Headroom: 37.2-inches

So how much stuff can you bring along with you? Moving to the cargo areas, we see the difference between above average in the segment and class leading. The Palisade is above average, but it still falls behind the Toyota in all 3 seating configurations. That is certainly a big deal for families who need the ultimate space.

Palisade: Behind 3^rd Row: 19.1-cu.ft | 2^nd Row: 46.3-cu.ft | MAX: 86.7 cu. ft.

GH: Behind 3^rd Row: 20.6-cu.ft | 2^nd Row: 57.9-cu.ft | MAX: 97.5-cu.ft

Amenities-wise, they have power outlets and spare tires, but only the Palisade has a power-folding third row.

But that’s it for the interiors, so now let’s take them out on the road and see how they stack up there!

Powertrains

For many people, the powertrain is a huge element of importance in this SUV segment. Some want to prioritize fuel economy, some power, and some simply want refinement. The Grand Highlander has 3 turbocharged or hybridized options, and for the all-new Palisade we have two choices. Those that prefer simplicity will be happy with the standard 3.5L naturally aspirated V6 in our Palisade today, and those wanting maximum performance and efficiency will like the Hybrid Max Grand Highlander.  This combines electric components with a 2.4L Turbo 4-cylinder to make 362 hp and 400 lb.ft of torque, which far outperforms the Palisade’s V6 in terms of power. It is also faster accelerating by a significant margin.

Palisade: 3.5L V-6: 287 hp | 260 lb.ft

GH: 2.4L Turbo-4 w/ front electric motor and rear e-axle: 362 hp | 400 lb ft of torque

It is worth noting that Palisade will be offering a powerful 2.5L Turbo hybrid system, like the Toyota, in the future, but that is not currently available at the time of this video. We look forward to comparing the two when it does become available later in 2025, and we wanted this video to be available to those shopping between them now.

 As far as the transmissions are concerned, we have 8 and 6-speed automatics in the Palisade and Grand Highlander, respectively. Both perform well with their engines, and power is put down via AWD. 

Test Drive and Fuel Economy

Let’s also talk about on-road manners. Both excel here with excellent ride quality that eats up all but the largest bumps – and especially so in the Palisade. It focuses on making an incredibly comfortable cabin even more than Grand Highlander, and while neither of them are super sporty, the Grand Highlander pays a bit more attention to mitigating body roll when driving on a back road.

Here at Car Confections, something we like to do is take sound level readings for all the models we test so that we can compare them. At 55 MPH, the all-new Palisade came in almost 1 dB quieter than the already very quiet Toyota. Sound level readings are not linear, and the average adult ear cannot register less than 1 dB difference, plus the Palisade’s test was conducted in California, so we won’t be awarding points here.

Palisade: 52.8 dB @ 55 MPH

GH: 53.5 dB @ 55 MPH

Finally, when it comes to fuel economy, this is where the Toyota’s hybrid system really shines. Even with way more power, it gets 7 MPG better combined, plus better city and highway MPG’s as well.

Once more, we do want to emphasize for those wanting maximum power and performance, Hyundai will be offering a hybrid Palisade in the future, but it is not available currently for those shopping.

Palisade AWD: 18/24/20 MPG

GH AWD: 26/27/27 MPG

Resale & Reliability

In our reviews and comparisons, we are also adding in reliability and resale information to give you a better picture of the overall value beyond just the original MSRP. 

Beginning with reliability, we developed the Combined Reliability Index, which takes into account several studies from trustworthy sources, and combines them in a way that gives a more realistic picture. In this respect, the Toyota pulls ahead as the top brand in the auto industry: It is rated 15 spots above industry average. Hyundai is just below average, 2 spots to be exact.

Related to that, Hyundai has the longer basic and powertrain warranty coverage, but Toyota has two years of complimentary maintenance, which Hyundai just discontinued for the 2026 model year.

GH: Warranty: Basic Warranty: 3yr/36k mi | Powertrain: 5yr/60k mi | Comp Main: 2 yrs

Palisade: Warranty: Basic Warranty: 5yr/60k mi | Powertrain: 10yr/100k mi | Comp Main: N/A

We also put Mason’s economics degree to work to develop a detailed Predicted Resale Value tool. After 5 years and 60,000 miles, Toyota has one of the highest values in the entire auto industry, at 64.5% expected retained value. The margin between it and Hyundai is significant, at 55.3% after 5 years.

Price Assessment

Now let’s break down the cost of these two and evaluate how much value each model is delivering. 

Our loaded Palisade Calligraphy has increased in price compared to the previous generation and is just slightly under $58,000 all in. The Grand Highlander, on the other hand, continues to set the ceiling for price in this segment. It’s about 3 grand more expensive, at over $60,000. 

Grand Highlander (Platinum Hybrid Max AWD): $58,775 | Options: +$0 | Destination: $1,450 | Total: $60,225

Palisade (Calligraphy AWD): $56,060 | Options: +$0 | Destination: $1,495 | Total: $57,555

There is a $2,670 price difference between these models as tested today.

2026 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Winner!

So, there you have it: the objective winner! Do you agree? Here are a couple of things to consider when picking each one, for you personally and then which one we’d put in each of our driveways:

Palisade: 

• More premium interior finishes
• Traditional V-6 engine
• Extra features throughout

Grand Highlander: 

• Greater predicted reliability and resale value
• More space
• Powertrain advantages (for now at least)

Now we want to know your opinions, so make sure to head to the comment section and let us know which one you would pick!

Thanks for joining us for another Car Confections Comparison! We’ll catch you next time as we sample the latest automotive delicacies!