Skip the 2020. Check the oil on all of them, and check the recall parts on the 2023.

The launch year, and the purest oil-consumption file in either badge of this platform. 517 federal complaints, and roughly half the recent sample carries an engine tag. Owners measure the loss in quarts per thousand miles — "more than 2+ quarts per 1,000 miles", "3/4 of a quart of oil every 1,000 miles", "6qts in less than 3k miles of driving" — and the sentence underneath almost every one of them is that no warning light ever appeared. Then the endings, with mileages: catastrophic failure at 77,000 miles on a properly maintained car; "Cylinder 1 and 6 rod bearing failure, plus complete destruction of piston number 6"; an engine fire at 155,856 miles. One owner was quoted $12,000 for a replacement and refused warranty coverage. A mechanic who stripped one of these engines found the cause — oil control rings "totally plugged up", the engine "starved of oil" — and noted what is missing: "There's no knock sensors or anything." Five recalls sit on top, including a park-outside fire risk on the tow hitch harness. The consolation is narrow and worth knowing precisely: Hyundai extended the oil filter housing seal to 15 years and 180,000 miles, transferable. Catch that leak and you pay $519. Miss the consumption and the engine is yours.

Mechanically the quietest of the four — and the only year whose complaint count goes up. 382 federal complaints against the 2022's 295, and nearly double the 2023 Kia Telluride's 197. Almost none of it is mechanical. Roughly 55 of 89 recent filings carry a seat belt or airbag tag, and they are owners of two recalls covering every Palisade since 2020 reporting that no remedy exists: "Car has been at the dealership currently for a month with no parts for the seatbelts and no remedy at this time for the air bags." "I have had 4 appointments… Each time, I am told by the dealership that Hyundai hasn't sent [parts]." One owner was charged $135 for a rental that does not seat seven. Both remedies were, at the last federal update, anticipated in June 2026. On top of that sit a 2023-only brake booster recall, a park-outside fire recall on the stop-start oil pump controller, and rear shocks failing twice in four months. This is not a bad car — its engine file is a trace and its oil-consumption story simply has not had time to happen. It is a car you may not be able to get fully repaired, and that belongs in the price.

The lowest complaint count in the range, and every one of its problems has a document behind it. 295 federal complaints, the quietest of the four years, and the engine cluster is genuinely a minority rather than the majority it is on the 2020. What replaces it is more tractable. A coolant leak at the radiator becomes its own cluster, and Hyundai has a bulletin for 2020 to 2022 cars that "may exhibit a slight coolant leak at the radiator" instructing dealers to inspect and replace it. The self-levelling rear shocks start failing, and Hyundai covers them to 10 years and 120,000 miles with both shocks paid for on the first repair. Stalling on deceleration shows up in several near-identical filings and has two named candidates behind it — low oil, or a cooling fan that runs on and flattens the battery, which has its own bulletin. Oil consumption has not vanished ("almost 2 qts per 1,000 miles"), so the dipstick test is unchanged. Five recalls, including a 2022-only instrument cluster replacement and the last year of the tow-hitch fire campaign.

Fewer complaints than the 2020, the same engine, and a brake recall that is easy to miss. 413 federal complaints, and the engine cluster is still the largest thing in the file — but the mileages have moved up, which is exactly where a 2021 sits now. "Excessive oil consumption. The vehicle is burning nearly 4 quarts of oil between changes. This started at around 100,000 miles with no warning lights." One owner is eight to ten months and six oil changes into Hyundai's consumption protocol. Two things are genuinely new against the 2020. Recall 21V840 is 2021-only, covering contaminated brake fluid that makes the master cylinder seals swell and reduces braking performance — the letters went out in December 2021 and a car that has changed hands since may never have been brought in. And the transmission appears in its own right for the first time, with three separate failures including a replacement at 98,000 miles. Six recalls, the most of any Palisade year, including both wiper-motor campaigns — a defect the Kia Telluride does not have at all.