10 Biggest News Stories of the Year: Hyundai Tucson, Honda CR-V Make Space as Hyundai Palisade Gains
From President Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff-based trade negotiation tactics’ impact on the automotive industry to the average price of a new car in the U.S. coming close to a staggering $50,000, and from the elimination of the sales-fueling federal tax credit on electrical vehicles to automakers’ next-best-thing pivot to hybrids, 2025 was a tumultuous year for car shoppers. Still, Cars.com readers remained primarily focused on their quotidian concerns — as evidenced by one of our most popular news stories of all of the past year, a ranking of new compact SUVs offering the most cargo room.
Related: How Cars.com Measures Cargo Space
Our editors evaluated cargo space specs in seven top compact SUV contenders using a standardized measurement methodology that eliminates discrepancies and inconsistencies from one brand to another. The 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid won handily with a total of 21.8 cubic feet of stowage space behind the back seat — 1.6 cubic feet better than the next best 2025 Honda CR-V hybrid, which measured 20.2 cubic feet. The remaining five ranked as follows: 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid (18.6 cubic feet), 2025 Nissan Rogue (18.5 cubic feet), 2025 Mazda CX-5 (17.6 cubic feet), 2025 Chevrolet Equinox (16.7 cubic feet) and 2025 Subaru Forester (16.5 cubic feet).
For the full details on the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid’s superior storage spaciousness — as well as measured areas where other cargo-room rivals shined, such as widest cargo area, tallest cargo area and most underfloor storage — follow the link below to the No. 3 news story on our countdown of most read articles of the year.
In other audience-dominating news, Cars.com reviewer Conner Golden’s comprehensive critique of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade also played big with readers — albeit the bearer of at least some bad tidings. Despite our collective adoration of the mid-size three-row SUV, the redesigned Palisade’s new 3.5-liter V-6 engine failed to address the sluggish acceleration of the outgoing model — a huge bummer, but not a deal-breaker. That’s because the Palisade (particularly the luxuriously appointed Calligraphy trim) remains beguilingly upscale and accommodating inside the cabin from the front seat all the way through the third row. The $58,000 as-tested price of the Calligraphy trim on which Golden based much of his review feels like a bargain these days (see reference to average $50K car price above), and the SUV’s range-topping trim nears the swag of Hyundai’s proper luxury label, Genesis.
As Golden summarizes in his review, the all-new Palisade “is roundly impressive and immediately a clear class standout, picking up and quickly charging ahead from where the prior generation left off.”
For our full take on the 2026 Palisade, follow the link below to the No. 5 article from 2025. Meanwhile, so popular was the Palisade last year that it occupies two spots on our annual list, appearing again in the eighth-place position with our full model preview story, which also covers forthcoming hybrid and off-road variants.
Beyond that, we’ve got headlines on the cheapest cars, cheapest EVs, cheapest SUVs, mid-size pickup trucks and much more — so don’t stop reading till the digits double. Here are the top 10 news stories Cars.com readers couldn’t get enough of in the past year:
1. Here Are the 10 Cheapest New Cars You Can Buy Right Now
2. Which Electric Cars Are Still Eligible for the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit?
3. Which Compact SUV Has the Most Cargo Room?
4. Here Are the 11 Cheapest Electric Vehicles You Can Buy
5. 2026 Hyundai Palisade Review: Growing Gains
6. What’s the Best Compact SUV for 2025?
7. What’s the Best Mid-Size Off-Road Truck for 2025?
8. 2026 Hyundai Palisade Goes Greener, Grittier With New Hybrid, Off-Road Models
9. Here Are the 10 Cheapest New SUVs You Can Buy Right Now
10. Cars.com’s Top EV Picks of 2026
Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
