2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz: official pix…

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After so many years (I think it’s been over 18 years now) of seeing spy shots, we finally get to see the real thing. The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup is finally here.
And I think it looks really cute. It also seems quite small. 
With a short bed and not much rear-seat legroom.
It is about 15 inches shorter than the Honda Ridgeline. And its bed length is 48.5 inches, instead of 63.5 inches for the larger Honda.
The base engine is Hyundai’s familiar 2.5 Liter engine with 190HP and the 2.5 Turbo with about 275HP is an option. As well as AWD. Towing is up to 5000 pounds with the more powerful engine.
Pricing is not available yet.
I think this looks cute and fun and is really a cool throwback to small pick-ups from decades ago. It’ll be interesting to see how popular it gets…

 

Conversation 18 comments

  1. This looks great! The in-bed trunk is cool. I wonder if it has any rear-seat flexibility tricks: Do the bottoms fold up? or do the backs fold down? If this is popular enough, do you think Subaru could bring back the Baja (hopefully better-looking)?

  2. Vince, the thing I like the most is the size, not too big.
    This size is for people that need a pick up truck to do errands and pick up plants, sheetrock on Home Depot once in a blue moon. At the same time to be gas efficient, good mileage.

    I wish Hyundai uses their 1.6 turbo instead of the boring 2.5 engine.

    This truck reminds me of the VW, Isuzu and other small trucks from the 80's.
    I love the Toyota Tacoma, a great truck but too big for me, specially when I test drove one, the hood was too big for me. Just my opinion.

    I can't wait and drive this truck.

    Tony F

  3. I like it a lot. We need smaller, capable trucklets.. not everything needs to be the size of a Ford F150… this needs to be priced right, meaning $25-$33K similar to the Tucson. Even better if they can go lower!

    Very cool graphics on the radio interface, like the amp tube digits.

  4. I am seriously considering this for my next vehicle and first "truck," if you can call it that, ever. Probably not in the first model year however. Seems Hyundai may have stolen the Ridgeline's in bed trunk though.

  5. Why would they change it to a 4-Door from the concept? Is there a 2-Door option with small fold down rear seats. Why make an unusable small rear seat area, when they could have made the pickup up longer and the front 2 doors bigger? It seems the missed the whole point of what people liked about the concept.

  6. Very clever of Subaru to make a truck that can fit just one mountain bike. When you and a buddy want to take a ride together you’ll each need to buy your own Santa Cruz.

  7. Y'all chill. This is a prototype according to Hyundai, there will be some changes to increase its utility. Let's see how Kia will counter.

  8. The bed seems completely useless. At least the Subaru Baja had a pass thru to the cab. Without that or a roll down window like the Explorer Sport Trac, they have just created a toy truck.

  9. Bulldawg, if it is one solid piece of glass (as shown in all the photos), where is it supposed to slide to? Other than down, of course.

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