Hyundai Santa Cruz - Review, Specs, Pricing, Features, Videos and More

Hyundai doesn’t want you to use the T-word.

The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz might look like a truck. It will haul things like a truck, and tow like a truck, too. Smaller amounts than other trucks, in both cases, but haul and tow nonetheless. It’s not a truck though, according to the Korean automaker.

Instead, Hyundai insists on calling the Santa Cruz a Sport Adventure Vehicle, a… vehicle-with-bed to complement the excellent Tucson compact crossover. It’s a move we’ve seen elsewhere: Kia calls its latest minivan a Life Utility Vehicle, and BMW also uses SAV (“Sport Activity Vehicle” here) for its crossovers.

Is this more marketing-led madness? I spent two days criss-crossing southern Ontario in Hyundai’s latest to see if it’s truly a segment-buster—and more importantly, if it’s any good.

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These two baby pickup trucks aren’t comparable.

Yes, we mean it: the 2022 Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz both target two very different parts of the market. Yet it’s the comparison so many are clamoring for. The paucity of small pickups prior to these two, and their proximity in launch timing, has forced them together in our collective consciousness, like Armageddon and Deep Impact. Just instead of questionable-quality disaster films, we have two unibody trucklets.

The Maverick is for those who miss the times a work truck was just that, but decry the gargantuan proportions of modern half-tons. Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz is funkier, more a product of the modern, lifestyle-focused times. Make the comparison to the cult classic Subaru Baja, and even Hyundai spokespeople nod in agreement.

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“I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.” – Marty McFly.

In the mid 2000s, alternative pickup trucks were all the rage. Chevrolet had the Avalanche, Ford had the Explorer Sport Trac and even Hummer got in on the action with the H2 SUT. If you’re noticing a common thread with these vehicles, it’s that none of them are still being produced. It turns out, consumers at the time didn’t see the point in trucks that were more like body-on-frame SUVs.

Now though, there’s a new breed of alternative truck in town. Sleek and efficient featuring unibody construction, the refreshed 2022 Honda Ridgeline and all-new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz are leading the charge and creating quite the buzz. They both promise to be lifestyle vehicles for a generation raised by an SUV status quo, but which one should you spend your actual money on? Let’s find out.

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Back in 2006, in the span of two months, Hollywood released two movies centered on magicians: The Illusionist and The Prestige.

Sometimes these things happen; two parties will come to a similar on-paper conclusion to the same issue, completely separately. Ford and Hyundai know what I’m talking about: both revealed their compact pickups, the Maverick and Santa Cruz, within two months of each other, too.

Here’s the catch, though: just as both of those movies turned out to be quite different, so are these baby trucks. They target two niches of the same segment, and depending on your needs, one may be a smarter bet than the other.

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