New Hyundai Santa Fe & Palisade have just overtaken new Sorento in the soft SUV heavy tow sweepstakes. Kia must be so thrilled they went with the old towbar, just a few months back...  

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2021 Hyundai Santa Fe and new Palisade are doing the whole joined-at-the-hip media launch ballet today, and I’ve just been handed the specs, happily enough.  A few months back we learned new Sorento tows a maximum of 2000kg with a towball download limit of 200. At the time of the launch, Kia’s top product planning dude, Roland River,o told me this limit, which had originally been touted at 2.5 tonnes, was reigned in as a result of the towbar design. The platform and powertrains can handle towing 2500 kilos.  Confirmation of that came today, with the platform-shared new Santa Fe running with 2500 kilos on peak tow capacity, and 200 on the download. That’s 25 per cent more tow capacity than current Sorento.  Palisade, which is about 200mm longer, and has a 135mm longer wheelbase, as well as 70mm more track, and weighs about 100 kilos more, spec for spec - and which you’d think, therefore, made it a superior tow platform, offers a maximum of 2200 kilos, with 200 on the towball. The reason, I’m told: It’s a different platform.  Palisade is also available as an eight-seater - which is interesting if you have a large tribe to transport. (You have to specify a seven- or eight-seat model when you buy - it can’t be converted from eight to seven and back, on the fly, like a Kia Carnival. Seven-seat Palisades are twin buckets in row 2, and a three-wide bench in row three, and eight seaters get a three-seat bench in rows two and three.  Basically I just wanted to let you know all this, mainly about the towing, as soon as it was announced, because towing is such a serious consideration for so many of you, when it comes to selecting vehicles such as this.  I rate all three of these large SUVs - they’re good real-world tow platforms and decent daily drivers. (Without entering planet insanity, with its 3.5-tonne tow capacities and attendant crazy compromises.)   Sorento is essentially Santa Fe with different hair and makeup (both brands hate me saying that, but it’s true). Salient differences between the three being the tow capacities, the new eight-speed wet clutch DCT in the diesel Sorento and diesel Santa Fe. Eight-speed epicyclic auto in the Palisade V6 and Palisade diesel, as well as the Sorento and Santa Fe V6 variants.  V6 Palisade is a 3.8 GDI with slightly higher outputs than the 3.5 multipoint V6 in the Sorento and Santa Fe. The V6 petrols are all 2WD, while the diesels are all on-demand AWD. Diesel is the pick in all three, in my view - better economy, better low- and mid-rev performance and AWD for the win there. Plus, the new DCT in Sorento and Santa Fe is pretty sweet. It’s essentially the same transmission they’re about to slip into the i30 N DCT.  Full review on Palisade and new Santa Fe in coming weeks. Just wanted to share this with you as it breaks, lest you zig when you should’ve zagged on the showroom floor before Christmas.