A unibody truck to love?
2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup is terrific, but who will buy it?
PALO ALTO, California — After a day of driving the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz compact pickup from sweeping highways to twisting mountain roads, I knew two things:
The Santa Cruz is one of the best and most surprising new vehicles I’ve driven this year: Fun to drive, unique, attractive, comfortable and versatile.
I have no idea if it’ll be a sales hit or a flop.
I’m ambivalent because Hyundai is trying to rewrite history with the Santa Cruz, a four-door, five-passenger pickup that’s based on the same mechanical pieces as its popular Tucson SUV.
American buyers love pickups. They account for nearly 20% of total U.S. vehicles sales, and a disproportionate amount of the profit for the Detroit Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and the U.S. operations of Stellantis. Rugged little pickups were key players when Toyota and Nissan joined the list of America’s top brands.
There’s a catch, though. The millions of pickups those automakers produce and sell every year all have essentially the same kind of structure as the first pickups Ford, Chevy and Dodge rolled out more than a century ago.
But is it a ‘real truck’?
Without getting too deep in the weeds, that century-old structure is called body on frame and it’s particularly well-suited for carrying heavy loads and towing trailers. Most cars today have a different kind of chassis, called a unibody.
Depending on how they’re engineered, a unibody vehicle can be just as rugged as one with a frame, but automakers have struggled selling unibody pickups to U.S. residents, probably because the vehicles looked odd next to other pickups or can’t tow or carry as much weight as traditional pickups. Devoted truckers dismissed midsize pickups like the little Subaru Baja, and the unibody Honda Ridgeline is the worst-selling pickup by a wide margin.
Despite all that, this is a big year for unibody pickups. Hyundai and Ford, leading global automakers with deep engineering expertise, are both introducing new ones: the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick. Both are compacts.
By the end of the year, we’ll begin to see whether buyers are as smitten as I was after my day in the Santa Cruz.
What’s new with the Santa Cruz?
The 2022 Santa Cruz looks low, wide and dramatic. The nose has Hyundai’s bold black grille, which houses lights that are invisible until they turn on. The sides are noteworthy for a pair of creases forming a triangle behind the front wheel arches, where they join in a shoulder line that runs upward along the doors and rear fenders, wrapping around into the lip of the tailgate. The rear wall of the cab, also known as the C-pillar, angles back to the bed and rear wheel arches, for a sporty look different from other pickups.
The Santa Cruz is based on the same platform or architecture as the Tucson, but the pickup is 13.4 inches longer and 1.6 inches wider. The Santa Cruz’s wheelbase is 9.8 inches longer.
The Santa Cruz’s bed is 52.1 inches long at the floor, 48.4 inches at the top. The difference is unusual. The cabs of other pickups have vertical rear walls, so they’re the same length at the bottom and top.
The Santa Cruz’s bed is small, not long enough to hold a bike in a rack without dropping the tailgate.
How much?
The Santa Cruz just went on sale. Prices start at $23,990 for a frontwheel drive model with a 191-horsepower 2.5L engine and front-wheel drive. An eight-speed automatic transmission is standard on all models.
All-wheel drive Santa Cruzes with the same engine start at $25,490.
A turbocharged 2.5L that produces a beefy 281 hp is available in all-wheeldrive models. Prices start at $35,680.
I tested a loaded Santa Cruz Limited AWD that stickered at $39,915. All prices exclude destination charges.
Driving impressions
The Santa Cruz’s steering is precise and nicely weighted, considerably more direct than most pickups deliver. While it has a decent 8.6 inches of ground clearance, the Santa Cruz is not intended for serious off-roading. An overgrown two track through the woods or hard-packed sand at a beach or backyard are as wild as most owners are likely to get, and the little pickup seemed more than a match for those challenges.
The 2.5L turbo in my top of the line Santa Cruz delivered strong acceleration on the highway and zipping around hillside roads.
The handling was a revelation, probably the sportiest and most enjoyable Hyundai I’ve driven.
Good materials, poor controls
The interior is roomy, comfortable and trimmed in materials better than most midsize pickups offer. The center of the dashboard and top of doors are padded. The seats are comfortable and trimmed in perforated leather. Headroom is plentiful, even with the standard sunroof.
A 10.25-inch touch screen is standard in the Limited. Unfortunately that appealing feature in the top model isn’t available with wireless CarPlay or Android Auto, which you can only get with the 8-inch screen in lower models.
Those shortcomings notwithstanding, the 2022 Santa Cruz’s versatility, value and features should win it a look from shoppers considering small SUVs and sedans.