Why the 2026 Hyundai Palisade Didn't Get America's Highest Safety Rating

Surprise Safety Leaders

With advances in automotive safety, no one brand can truly claim to build the absolute safest cars on the road. Case in point, Hyundai has raked in more IIHS Top Safety Pick+ awards than any other automaker this year, and we're not even including Kia and Genesis, which are also under the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG).

Does it mean Hyundais are safer than Volvos these days? Not necessarily, but it goes to show that safety shouldn't be selective of brand, as proven by HMG's products. More recently, two of the company's cars aced one of the toughest tests performed by the IIHS to date.

Another Hyundai Gets Top Marks

Hyundai is on a roll with its safety record. The redesigned Palisade just received an overall good rating from the agency. Its performance was good enough to merit a Top Safety Pick award, adding yet another IIHS trophy to Hyundai's cabinet.

But, hold on, isn't there a Top Safety Pick + award? Well, yes, but the Palisade just missed out on that. That doesn't make it an unsafe vehicle at all, but there are some points for improvement, should Hyundai want to make its flagship SUV even safer.

Almost There

Points were knocked down in the moderate overlap crash test with a rating of acceptable, while rear dummy kinematics were rated marginal. But for the rest of the tests, such as small overlap and side impact, the Palisade was rated good across the board. Overall injury measures were low for both front and rear passengers.

The IIHS even had praises for the Palisade's advanced driver assists. In all the situations that the agency threw at it, the SUV avoided the collision. More impressively, its driver assists still worked well in low-light and dark situations. That proved a challenge for some cars before, but the Palisade performed without a hitch.

Overall, a very safe vehicle, and one that people should consider when choosing a midsize crossover. Cars like the Palisade are often aimed at families, and delivering precious cargo in absolute safety is a must. We're pretty sure Hyundai is already working out a way to get that Top Safety Pick + award in the next round of testing. Getting that will be another feather in the cap for Hyundai, but the real winners here will be the consumer.

IIHS Doesn't Mess Around

The IIHS isn't a government agency, but it has become instrumental in making safer cars over the decades. They made offset frontal crash tests the norm and introduced tougher tests, such as the small overlap impact and passenger-side frontal crash tests. The agency has caught out several automakers through the years, but it was all for the improvement of occupant safety.

In recent years, the IIHS has been putting advanced driver-assist systems through their paces. It's not enough that cars have them these days; they actually have to work promptly and properly. It's all the more reason its findings are worth their weight in gold for both consumers and carmakers.

View the full article