Speaker 1: I have been waiting a very long time for this. After years of complaining that mid five pickups are getting too big and too expensive. And six years after seeing this vehicle previewed back in 2015 at the Detroit auto show, the compact 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is final here. Now is this sport adventure vehicle to use Hyundai's Maree worth the weight? Well, I reckon the driver's seats the best place to find [00:00:30] out.
Speaker 1: Now, the reason Hyundai's own reservation site doesn't use the words, pickup or truck to describe the Santa Cruz is, but cause to quote my colleague and dirt driving expert, Amy Hall, it's not a truck then again, duh. Yeah, it is the Santa Cruz is based on the same platform and underpinnings as the Hyundai Tucson it's even got a similar grill and headlamp design up front. That means a car like uni body construction rather than [00:01:00] body on frame and front wheel drive a standard with optional all-wheel drive. The whole vibe reminds me more of a compact answer to Honda's Ridge line. While the look is more high tech Subaru Baja revival than small F-150. And that's actually very okay with me. It's crossover roots also mean that the driving character should be more approachable for drivers, not used to the a NCRA of body on frame and you get all the same tech that you'll find in Hyundai's excellent line of SUVs from Android auto and apple [00:01:30] CarPlay on the standard eight inch infotainment to a solid tweet of driver, a tech that features Hyundai highway driving assist on the top spec model. Here we've even got an upgrade to the larger 10.25 inch center screen. We with a similarly sized digital instrument cluster.
Speaker 1: Now Santa Cruz is more compact than pretty much every other truck on the market, which is good for parking and driving in narrow lanes and tight urban situations. But that doesn't mean [00:02:00] it some kind of micro truck. It measures 195.7 inches from bumper to bumper, 118.3 of which is the wheel base. That means this little truck is only about an inch shorter than Hyundai's big boy Palisade with a wheel base. That's four inches longer. That's crazy. And with a ground clearance of 8.6 inches, it's got the most clearance of any of Hyundai's crossover base vehicles. It's not a huge lift, but I reckon it'll get you pretty much anywhere that a Subaru Crosstrack or Outback will go.
Speaker 1: [00:02:30] And now for the moment you've all been waiting for now, the biggest different between the Santa Cruz and its SUV siblings is this the four foot bed. Now four feet doesn't make for a huge bed. You're not gonna get a flat sheet of drywall back here or anything, but I think that there is plenty of footprint for your average home Depot run for garden supplies, [00:03:00] hobbyists level hauling, heck you could probably get some mountain bikes back here. If you hang the forks over the tailgate. Now there is also plenty of tie downs and organization back here and check this out. There's also an under floor storage area, kind of like the one on the Honda Ridge line and like that it's also waterproof. So you could use it as a cooler if you want it to. During tailgating though, it's nowhere near the size of the one on the larger Honda.
Speaker 1: We've also got a factory option, hard Tono cover, and that's gonna give you between two [00:03:30] levels of security. If you need to lock things up back here. Now, since the last time we hung out with the Santa Cruz and that weird white boy of a studio Hyundai has updated the capacities for towing and hauling. Now you can haul between 1,568 pounds for the heaviest limited all wheel drive or around, uh, 1900 pounds for the lightest se with front wheel drive towing is still stated at 3,500 pounds for front wheel drive models and 5,000 pounds for all wheel drive models like this one here, but [00:04:00] only if you're using a brake trailer without brakes, you're looking at around a 1,650 pound max. Now buyers have a choice of two engine options. There's a naturally aspirated 2.5 liter, four cylinder making 191 horsepower and 181 pound feet of torque. But what we've got today is a turbocharged version of that. At block, it makes 281 horsepower and 311 pound feet of torque. Either way you go, you're looking at an HPE automatic transmission. Unladen [00:04:30] like we are today. I'd venture to call this car nimble agile. It's actually very fun to drive. And it's interesting. I keep saying car, this is the most car-like pickup I've ever driven. There actually been a couple of times today where I've forgotten, there's a bed back there and that's a really good thing.
Speaker 1: Now you might think that non turbo is the way to go for fuel economy, but at 19 city, 27 highway and 22 miles per gallon combined this turbocharged model with all wheel drive is within [00:05:00] a mile per gallon of two of the most efficient version of this vehicle. The front wheel drive naturally aspirated one. So is there any reason not to go turbo? Well, of course your mileage will vary and I reckon that over 300 pound feet of tort, you're back in call, just tempting you. It's probably a little bit easier to stray from the EPAs estimates. Plus there's also the matter of price. The a se model starts at 25,175 bucks, including destination charges or around 26,675 with all [00:05:30] wheel drive to get the turbocharged engine, you'll have to step up at least to the $36,865 fel premium with all wheel drive. That's a $10,000 premium. And to be fair, that also gets you upgrades to the infotainment hardware, high tech safety features and a host of creature comforts and quality of life improvements. But it's still a fairly large pill to swallow at the top of the line. There's the limited all-wheel drive model, just cresting 40 K. Now we've got full pricing, packaging information [00:06:00] and detailed spec breakouts over on the roadshow.com. So you can check that out there.
Speaker 1: Now, fourth, I haven't even mentioned the biggest elephant in the room. This vehicle's primary competitor Fords, new Maverick, which is slightly bigger, slightly less expensive of the start and come standard with a hybrid power train. Then again, I don't really have to go into great detail because we've already got a whole separate video where we put these two vehicles side by side and see how they line up. You'll find it linked over on the road. show.com.
