2025 Hyundai Palisade1st gen facelift (2023–2025), final year

Updated 2026-08-28NHTSA counts read on this date — 235 complaints. They rise over time.

Five 2025 Hyundai Palisade Complaints Describe Rear Seats That Don’t Stop

On March 17, 2026, Hyundai recalled the 2026 Palisade and Palisade Hybrid in Limited and Calligraphy trim. NHTSA campaign 26V160000. The second and third row power seats may fail to detect a person, and the seat may keep moving after it makes contact. Hyundai’s stated consequence is that a person, especially a child, may become trapped, with a risk of injury or death.

That recall does not cover the 2025.

In the two weeks after it was filed, three complaints about 2025 Palisades described the same behavior. Two of the three are owners who went and tested it after reading about the recall, and say so; the third is someone it happened to. From March 31, one of the two who went looking (ODI 11728270):

“The third-row seats in my 2025 Hyundai Palisade are closing fully even when there are clear obstructions in the seat path. I tested this multiple times — including with case of water — and the seats did not stop, reverse, or provide any safety resistance.”

The one it happened to was in the seat at the time (ODI 11726991):

“While sitting in the third row and attempting to grab something, my husband accidentally pushed the fold buttons and seats began to close on me. It continued to close until my husband was able to push the button to reverse it. It did not register there was a person in the way and I could’ve been seriously injured if he was not there”

Two more arrived later — one in July from an owner who found the seat folding on its own after the sensor failed (ODI 11753100), and one in August describing a seat that adjusted and started to fold with a child in it (ODI 11759422).

That is five filings, and five filings is five filings. Two of the five are people who went looking after reading about a recall on a different model year. It is not a pattern the size of the brakes below, and no recall, bulletin or investigation covers the 2025 seats. What keeps it at the top of this page is that checking it takes under a minute and costs nothing.

One more thing about these filings, because you will run into it if you pull the record yourself. NHTSA’s record for one of them carries a fatality count. That is not a death in this owner’s car. It is the owner passing along a secondhand report of a death somewhere else — the filing says a death in Ohio and nothing more; one word is redacted and no model year is given. Nothing in this data says anyone died in a 2025 Palisade.

The basics

The 2025 is the last year of this Palisade. The 2026 is a different car on a different platform, which is why its recalls do not reach back here.

Mechanically, nothing changed — again. Hyundai’s 2025 price sheet lists every trim from the $37,200 SE to the $54,500 Calligraphy Night Edition with the same 3.8-liter V6 and the same eight-speed automatic. Six model years, one powertrain.

NHTSA’s database holds 235 records for the 2025 model year, two of which are its own test entries, so 233 are complaints. Hyundai sold 110,055 Palisades in calendar 2024 and 123,921 in 2025, and the 2025 model year sold across both, so the denominator is in the tens of thousands. I am not turning that into a rate. What the number is good for is comparison with the other model years in this series, counted the same way: 526 for the 2020, 423 for the 2021, 302 for the 2022, 390 for the 2023, 380 for the 2024, 235 here.

235 is the smallest total in the series, and this is also the youngest car in it. Being the youngest is part of why the total is small. There is no way to tell how much of it from the record — the 2024 car is only a year older and sits at 380.

NHTSA’s database only holds complaints. Nobody files to say the seat stopped.

Specs

Unchanged from the 2024, which was unchanged from the 2023.

How it was received

IIHS gave the 2025 Palisade a Top Safety Pick, with Good on both small overlap front tests, Good on the side test, and Good headlights on every trim. It rates Poor on the updated moderate overlap front test, as every Palisade from the 2022 on does. NHTSA gave both the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions five stars overall and four for rollover.

Nothing in a crash test speaks to a seat folding on someone who is sitting in it, or to a car that takes longer to stop on rough pavement.

What owners filed

Categories below are sorted by count and each complaint is counted once. They add up to 213. The remaining 22 are not all one-offs: four describe lane keeping assist pulling the car to one side — two of them out of the lane, one of those two into oncoming traffic — and two are NHTSA test records with the body text “TEST VOQ 20250916” rather than complaints at all.

Brakes — 84

The same failure the 2024 car has 204 of, and the 2023 has 75 of. Braking at low speed, the car crosses something uneven, the ABS activates, and the stop takes longer than it should. Counted here as every filing NHTSA tagged service brakes, including the ones it also tagged forward-collision avoidance; its own grouping separates those, which is why the year-by-year table shows a smaller number.

The ABS and an uneven surface both show up in 38 of the 84. Forty-seven say it happens at low speed or in a parking lot. Thirty describe a near miss or a collision. From September 2025 (ODI 11690210):

“When driving on uneven bumpy roads, I find my ABS gives a collision warning and engages the brakes. I’ve almost crashed once already and I don’t know what to do. Also when parking in tight spots, the ABS turns on due to collision warning and instantly activates the brakes, causing me to almost hit the cars in front or behind me.”

Seven of the 84 mention a class action lawsuit covering the 2023 through 2025 cars. That tells you owners are finding each other. It does not tell you anything a court has decided, and this page does not treat it as evidence of a defect.

There is no recall for this and no NHTSA investigation. I pulled all 4,177 records in NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation database, a hundred at a time, and searched them; two name the Palisade, and neither is about brakes.

Seat belts — 62

This is the biggest seat belt share of any year in this series — 62 out of 235, just ahead of the 2021 car’s 107 out of 423 — and almost all of it is paperwork. Same convention as the brakes above — every filing that names the belt, including the ones NHTSA also tagged airbags.

Twenty-six of the 62 name recall 25V607000 or Hyundai’s campaign number for it. Only six describe a belt coming undone. Fifty of the 62 arrived in 2026, after the recall was filed. On the 2021 car, where this category runs to 107 filings, the proportions are the other way around.

What that means for a buyer is straightforward: on this model year the seat belt filings are mostly people waiting on a repair, not people describing a failure. The failure is real and the 2022 page works through what the recall names versus what owners describe. Here, the open recall is the thing to check.

Rear shocks — 13

The lowest count in six model years — 60, 30, 20, 26, 20 and 13 from the 2020 to here. Clunking from the rear over bumps at low speed. TSB 22-SS-001H, which replaces the upper shock insulators, covers 2020–2021 cars only.

As on the 2024, NHTSA tagged some of these with both SUSPENSION and SERVICE BRAKES — six of the 13 here — so some of what is counted as suspension is the braking complaint above wearing a different label.

Sunroof — 11

Glass breaking on its own at speed, the same as every year in this series, at the lowest count of any of them. No recall and no bulletin covers it.

The rest is thin

Engine shutdown 7, airbags 7, driver assistance 6, windshields 5, screens and electrical 4, third-row seats 4, seats 3, transmission 3, oil consumption 1, steering 1, wiper motor 1, engine knock 1.

Three of the seat-fold filings at the top of this page say “third row” and land in that category; the other two do not and land in seats. One of the two writes it as “third-row,” with a hyphen, which is the whole reason it sits on the other side of the line. Both categories also hold a filing that has nothing to do with the seats moving, which is why neither one reads as five.

Oil consumption draws a single filing. On the 2020 car it drew 73. That is a five-year-old car against a one-year-old car, and it is the clearest reminder on this page that a low count on a young model year is not a finished count.

Recalls

Three, all searchable by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.

25V291000 — electric oil pump controller, reported May 2025, and 2025-only. An insufficient seal can let moisture reach the printed circuit board, causing an electrical short and a fire. Hyundai’s advice was to park outside and away from structures until the repair is done. Dealers replace the controller. Letters mailed June 11, 2025. Hyundai’s number 278.

25V607000 — seat belt buckles that may fail to latch, reported September 2025, covering 2020–2025 cars. Until the remedy is done, Hyundai says to buckle the belt with a quick, firm push and then tug on it to make sure it latched. Interim letters October 23, 2025; final remedy letters began June 2026 and run through December 2026. Hyundai’s number 283.

26V034000 — third-row side curtain airbags that may deploy improperly, reported January 2026, covering 2020–2025 cars. The vehicles do not comply with the federal ejection mitigation standard. Dealers install a protective film over the rear window and remove padding. Interim letters March 13, 2026; final remedy letters June through December 2026. Hyundai’s number 292.

Two of the three have final remedy letters running into December 2026, which is as much as the record says about how many cars still have them open.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

The power seat recall. It exists, it is recent, and it covers the model year after this one.

The brakes have 84 filings, no recall and no investigation, which is the same position they are in on the 2023 and the 2024.

Across all 235 records there are eight crashes, six injuries and one fire. The fire is in a crash — a car that struck a tree after the steering locked, then burned. As noted at the top, the one fatality figure in this data comes from a filing relaying a report of a death elsewhere, not a death in the filer’s car.

What the complaint curve says

Filings by year: 1 in 2024, 134 in 2025, and 100 so far in 2026.

There is not enough curve here to read. This car has been on sale for about two years, and 2026 is eight months old. What can be said is which categories are moving. The brakes arrived early — 80 of the 84 in 2025 — and the seat belts arrived late, 50 of the 62 in 2026, tracking the recall rather than the defect.

The wear-related categories have barely started. Oil consumption is at one filing. Rear shocks are at 13. On the 2020 car those two are the second and third largest things in the data, and they took years to get there.

If you’re looking at one

Ordered by what carries the most risk, not by count.

Ask the seller to run the power third-row seat through a full fold and unfold while you watch, and ask whether it stops when it meets resistance. Never test it with a person in the seat. Five filings on this model year describe the seat continuing to fold: two from owners who tested it deliberately with objects after reading about the 2026 recall, one where someone was sitting in it when the button was pressed by accident, one where the seat began folding on its own with a child in it, and one where a failed sensor let it close with nobody there. Hyundai’s 2026 recall for the same behavior names death as a possible outcome, and that recall does not cover this car.

Ask whether recall 25V607000 has been completed, and know the buckles carry a 15-year warranty. These are the seat belt buckles, and on this model year the recall is the single most likely open item — the final remedy letters run through December 2026. Separately, Hyundai’s warranty extension Z06 of April 2025 covers these buckles for 15 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, from the original in-service date, valid for subsequent owners. On a 2025 the calendar side runs to 2039 or 2040 depending on delivery.

Ask whether recall 25V291000 has been completed, and get the answer in writing. This is the electric oil pump controller, it is 2025-only, and it is a fire risk that Hyundai answered with advice to park outside.

Ask whether recall 26V034000 has been completed. Third-row side curtain airbags that may not meet the federal ejection-mitigation standard. Also running through December 2026.

On the test drive, find some rough pavement — not just smooth blacktop — and brake normally on it, with room ahead of you and nobody behind you. Thirty-eight of the 84 brake filings name both the ABS and an uneven surface. What owners report is the ABS activating, the pedal pushing back, and the stop taking longer than it should.

Pull the dipstick and ask for oil change records anyway. One oil filing on this year means almost nothing. The same engine drew 73 on the 2020, and this car has not reached the mileage where that shows up.

Numbers worth writing down

Sources

• Hyundai 2025 Palisade price sheet, effective June 12, 2025
• NHTSA complaint database — 235 filings for the 2025 Palisade, retrieved 2026-08-28
• Hyundai warranty extension Z06 — seat belt buckles, 2020–2025 Palisade, 15 years/150,000 miles, April 2025
• NHTSA preliminary evaluation PE24021 — inadvertent seat belt unlatch, 2020–2023 Palisade, 37 complaints at opening, August 2024; closed December 2025 per NHTSA’s investigations database
• NHTSA recall 26V160000, 2026 Palisade power rear seats, reported March 17, 2026
• NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation database, all 4,177 records retrieved 2026-08-28 — no investigation covers Palisade brakes or seats
• IIHS ratings, 2025 Hyundai Palisade
• GoodCarBadCar Hyundai Palisade sales figures

Built from public NHTSA filings and manufacturer documents. This is not a mechanical inspection and not advice about a specific car. Complaint databases collect complaints; they do not measure how often a part fails.