If you were driving on the street and saw the new Hyundai Santa Cruz, you’d think it was a mid-size SUV just missing the back end. But nope, Hyundai has released their first version of a pick up truck. Let’s take a look.
Body and Style
The new Santa Cruz has a lot in common with the Tucson. In fact, they have the same body, but they just pulled out a make-shift truck bed on the Santa Cruz. The bed is definitely smaller than what you’ll find on most compact trucks like the Tacoma or the Colorado. It also sits lower to the ground.
But it does come standard with a soft tonneau cover, as well as sliding rail anchors, tie down points, and even underfloor storage that’s lockable and waterproof.
Trucks and other SUV’s can make great off-road vehicles. But don’t bet on the Santa Cruz for that just yet. Hyundai calls it a “sport adventure vehicle”, which to me reads as “you can take this on the road, but don’t be driving trails with it”. There’s less than 10″ of ground clearance, which is about the same as any other SUV crossover.
On top of that, the standard wheels are already 20″ which is quite large considering the overall size of the vehicle, and comes with all-season tires. Not exactly trail-riding tires. If you truly want to be able to take this off-road, you’ll need to dish out your money for a bigger lift kit and better wheels.
Engine and Power Train
Ok, so enough about how it looks. What can it do truck-wise? Truck aficionados out there will be asking about how much torque this thing gets, how much it can fit in the bed, and most especially how much it can tow.
The all-wheel drive version is stated at towing up to 5,000 pounds, while the front-wheel drive version lowers that to 3,000 pounds. If your trailer doesn’t have brakes, they don’t recommend towing over 1,500 pounds.
I’m not going to lie though, I think buyers of the Santa Cruz aren’t going to be the rough and rugged farmer or weekend warrior types that haul their fifth wheels to the mountains, or drive horse trailers around. This model is most likely for the mild couple campers that have a small pop up trailer, or the person that needs the occasional extra bed space.
The target audience here are going to be pavement pushers. In which case, the Santa Cruz will do just fine. It has a 2.5T engine, which produces 282 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque.
It also drives much more similar to a mid-size SUV than any truck. So maneuverability through traffic and especially parking should be easy for most.
Electronics and Interior
If you’re looking for driver-assistance systems, get the SEL model or higher. Here you get standard forward-collision braking, lane-keeping assist, lane-following assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and rear-seat occupancy alert.
On your dash, you’ll get a standard 8-inch touchscreen running the Hyundai BlueLink infotainment system. If you like having physical knobs, you won’t love all the touch-screens.
The seats and interior are pretty much an exact replica of the Tucson. Heated front seats are standard on the SEL and the front seats are decently comfy. But the backseat definitely lacks legroom.
If you don’t need all-wheel drive, stick with a Santa Cruz SEL to save a bunch of money .MSRP starts at $24,000.
