10 Biggest News Stories of the Month: Hyundai Palisade Pummels Mazda CX-5, Toyota Highlander

Before the 2020 Hyundai Palisade was named a nominee for Cars.com’s Best of 2020 award, it was named the winner in our 2020 3-Row SUV Challenge, a multicar comparison pitting top contenders from across the class against one another in a week of intensive head-to-head testing. So it comes as no surprise that our No. 1 finisher among three-row SUV rivals in turn would be the No. 1 model featured on our list of most popular news stories for the whole of the past month.

Related: 10 Biggest News Stories of 2019: Toyota RAV4 Rises Again, Kia Telluride Peaks

In our top story of December — our comprehensive report on the results of the 2020 3-Row SUV Challenge — the Palisade knocked out six other contenders, including cross-brand sibling the 2020 Kia Telluride, 2019 Volkswagen Atlas, 2020 Ford Explorer, 2020 Subaru Ascent, 2020 Chevrolet Traverse and 2020 Honda Pilot. The Palisade’s victory over the Telluride was hardly a landslide, however, with a scant five points separating their respective final tallies of 433 and 428.

Our judges’ final verdict on the Palisade lauded “premium materials, a pleasant driving experience and a smoking value to boot,” and noted that “if our Palisade had cost $10,000 more, it might still have come out on top.”

The Palisade dominated the month’s roster of most read stories, appearing again in the No. 4 position as part of our weekly roundup of the top expert reviews and videos published on Cars.com, and yet again at No. 5 in our explainer article breaking down exactly how the all-new-for-2020 SUV went about kicking everybody else’s ass in our comparison testing.

Try as they might have, the Mazda CX-5 and Toyota Highlander just couldn’t scale the heights of the Palisade. Following our monthly rundown on the best new-car deals for the month of December is our advice story on which model year — 2019 or 2020 — you should opt for if you’ve settled on purchasing a CX-5 (we recommend the 2020, but you’ll want to follow the link below to learn why). Meanwhile, the Highlander makes a pair of appearances in the top 10 this month: once at No. 4 as part of our review roundup and again at No. 8 courtesy of Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays’ comprehensive critique of the SUV’s 2020 redesign.

The Honda CR-V, Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel and Honda Ridgeline round out the other half of the list (aka the half that made the top half possible), so remember what Big Daddy Kane once said — “Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ ” — and keep readin’ to the end. Here are the top 10 news articles Cars.com readers couldn’t get enough of last month:

1. What’s the Best 3-Row SUV for 2020?

2. What’s the Best New-Car Deal for December 2019?

3. Mazda CX-5: Which Should You Buy, 2019 or 2020?

4. Top 5 Reviews and Videos of the Week: Mazda CX-30 Climbs Over Toyota Highlander, Hyundai Palisade

5. We Have a Winner: Why the 2020 Hyundai Palisade Is the Best 3-Row SUV

6. 2019-2020 Honda CR-V: Recall Alert

7. Best New-Car Deals for the Week After Christmas

8. 2020 Toyota Highlander Review: More in Some Ways, Not in Others

9. 2020 Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel: Real-World Fuel Economy

10. 2019 Honda Ridgeline: 4 Things We Like and 2 That Give Us Pause

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