2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz： Test Drive Review

Hey, my good friends, Sam Haymart with Test Driven TV. Today, we've got something pretty exciting to test drive. This is the all new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz. This is a fully loaded limited with the turbo engine, all wheel drive, of course. And so we're out here in the desert today and we're going to have some fun with it and see, well, what it's really like to live with. Before we get out on the test drive, let's talk about what we've got here. And first, I've got to tell you, I apologize. I didn't wash this thing up too much because I knew I'd be bringing it out here in the dirt and the mud today. So there you go. It looks perfectly used in the desert. What this is, is a 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz compact crossover pickup truck. And this is the fully loaded limited model with a 2.5 liter turbocharged engine and all wheel drive. As such, we are at $41,000 and some change. This is about the most you can spend on this truck. And essentially what this is, is a truck that's based on the Hyundai Tucson crossover SUV. You can look at it from across the parking lot and see the resemblance. Yet this has completely unique sheet metal from the front, the hood, the fenders and the sides. It's not just a Tucson with a bed on the back when it comes to how they put this thing together. It has a lot of unique detail. And right up front, you can see on the limited, this has a beautiful black chrome grill. I really love that detail. It makes it look expensive and you can see that down on the lower bumper as well. My only concern with this material is I wonder how it's going to look in a number of years with some pitting and road wear. Outside of that, it looks great today. And look at this. The daytime running light LED signature lights actually light up from behind that black chrome. Is that not cool? And look at the look of that, man. It's like some kind of a robot from a space movie. And the LED headlights, those aren't those. They're actually down in the lower bumper and they work quite well at night. It's worth noting. But they're down, they're separate bulbs. So they're not trying to be these cool things and also work well. They're just regular LED bulbs. Coming around the corner, you can see this has 20 inch wheels. That is standard on the limited. 18 inch wheels are standard on lower trim grades. And look at the detail on the fender lip molding. Isn't that cool? Just some nice, crisp detail to give this thing a little extra styling pop. Coming down the side, this has some generous lower cladding to protect this thing from being out in the brush like we are today. And I did want to point out here on the door, some of that origami creasing like we've seen in some of the other Hyundais like the Elantra that always gets my attention. It's just a little extra to give this thing some styling appeal. Looking at the rear three quarter view, we can see a few things that I want to point out. Obviously, this has a much sportier look than most trucks. It has a very angled C pillar here that dies nicely into a well proportioned rear hind quarter. On this particular truck, we've got the opening rear window and you can see a nice spoiler that sort of integrated above that rear glass. Along the top of the bed, you can see a lot of detail here, just like on the rest of the truck. Hyundai's been doing a lot of detail lately. Looking at the tailgate, you can see Santa Cruz stamped in there. And LED taillights, the way they're designed, really emphasize the height with their horizontal shape. Down in the lower bumper, more of that black chrome that's part of the limited package and some nice bumper steps down there as well to help us get up into the cargo box. Out here at the back, this has got a number of features that I wanted to talk about that are definitely worth noting. First of all, this has a dual position tailgate and that essentially allows you to pop this clip right here and rehang it up here. And then you have a tailgate that you can then rest plywood on or sheetrock, whatever 4x8 sheets you might buy, by simply laying those over the top of the fenders with some 2x6s. So you can actually use this truck to haul big sheets of material, even though it does have only about a four and a half foot bed. Either side of the bed, there are storage cubbies. You can open those up. This one actually has an AC outlet on the passenger side. Also here is very much like the Honda Ridgeline. This has a trunk in the back of the cargo area. It's waterproof. You can actually use it for an ice chest if you want to. You can hose it out. It's got drain plugs in there, gas struts to hold it open. And of course, it is lockable, very much like the Honda Ridgeline, just smaller because this is smaller. The composite bed, meaning that you don't have to buy a bed liner for it. It's already a bed liner in and of itself. Also notable here is the roll-up tonneau cover. This has an aluminum roll-up tonneau cover. It is lockable, very sturdy. This does come standard on the higher trim levels. So when you close it up and lock it, you've got a nice secure place to store your items. The interior of the Santa Cruz is a place that's going to look pretty familiar if you've ever sat behind the wheel of a contemporary Tucson. And that's because it's exactly the same. It's the same dash, for the most part, the same seats, door panels and everything else. And that's a good thing because this is beautiful. This is an interior that, honestly, in my opinion, is probably one of the most beautifully designed interiors in the midsize crossover SUV market. And now in the compact crossover pickup truck market. This is a dual cowl design with flowing lines and a lot of high quality materials, high quality switchgear. And these materials, these are soft touch materials in almost every direction that your hands may roam. It's definitely a step up and helps make this thing worth the extra four to ten thousand dollars you're going to pay over its main competitor, the Ford Maverick. Because we are in the limited, this does have leather seats and these are both heated and ventilated. Power operated, at least for the driver. It is a manual seat for the passenger. They're very comfortable. They're a firm seat, but they're very supportive. And having sat in these quite a long time on some road trips, they're great. Sitting here and looking forward, there is a leather covered steering wheel with paddle shifters for the eight speed transmission. And ahead of me is a large 12 plus inch digital instrument cluster. This is something that's definitely an above average feature. It's fully customizable. And when you set the drive modes, it really changes the look of it. You get different dials, you get different colors, and you can actually configure a lot of the information that you find there. Moving over here to the center stack, more of these flowing lines, a lot of piano black in here, which is a double edged sword. It looks really nice, but you got to really keep it clean because otherwise it looks dirty pretty easily. Center stack includes all your controls for the infotainment touchscreen, as well as climate control, HVAC. Down in the center console, a nice big cubby down there. Here, this has a wireless charger for my phone and it fits down there nicely and I can actually see it. So if something pops up on it and I just need to sort of know about that, I can see that out of the corner of my eye. And there are power plugs down there, USB and 12 volt and all of the other things that you need for connectivity. Down in the center, traditional gearshift lever. I love that much better than the twist dial the competitor offers and the controls for your drive modes and four wheel drive system and other things. Cup holders off to the side so that you can put big gas station cups there and they're not going to interfere with whatever you're doing. And then a bank of switches right behind that for the seats, the heating ventilation and the heated steering wheel. That is cool. When it comes to storage, we've got a nice size box down here that's a little bit larger than a square tissue box. Sitting in the back of the Santa Cruz, I am reminded of the fact that this is the compact pickup class. It's not exactly tight, but it's not exactly roomy. Now, first blush, it feels like when I sat in the Maverick recently, it was a little bit more spacious. And the other thing I'm noticing is that the seating position feels a little bit on the low side. You can see that my knees are perched up just a little bit, and I'm not feeling like I'm able to really fully enjoy all of the support that the seat gets because I'm just not touching all of it. That said, legroom is pretty decent. These seats are set for my height, about five nine with my boots on, and I've got about an inch in front of me. When it comes to amenities, I do have vents back here, something the Ford Maverick does not have. There are charging ports down in the bottom for USB, but not available back here, surprisingly, is a 12 volt port or an AC port such as on the Maverick. The other thing I do find missing here is a fold down armrest for the backseat, especially here on the top trim grade. But when it comes to versatility, you can fold these seats upward in a 60 40 split to give you some storage area underneath. This is a nice storage area. They did use part of it for the jack. That said, it does exist and it is there for versatility. This is an interior that impressed me quite a bit when I sat in it with the Tucson, and it definitely impresses me here. And between the two vehicles that you can choose in this class right now, this is no question best in class. This interior gets five out of five stars. When it comes to the infotainment system, because we're in the limited, this has the top of the line 12.3 inch screen and Bose audio system. Now, we've talked about this system in a number of other cars and here in this installation. One of the things that really gets my attention is the fact that we don't have hard controls for things like volume or tuning. There are controls here, touch sensitive controls and things like that, but it's always nicer to have a knob for tuning and especially for volume. There are switches over here on the steering wheel, but it's just easier when you don't have to hunt and peck around on touch buttons and things like that. Feature content is plentiful here. This has SiriusXM, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, but it is not wireless here. Oddly enough, wireless comes standard with the base models, but when you get up into the higher trims with this upscale system, you lose that. Odd, I think. But this does have excellent sound quality and the backup camera is a full surround view camera. That's actually a marketing term from Nissan, so sorry Nissan for using it. But it works very well, both going backwards and forwards. The last thing I need to sort of chew on here is the fact that this system does the same thing that all of Hyundai systems do, and it always homes to this useless home screen. Every time you start it up, it starts right here. So if you want to see your stations, you have to navigate to that every single time you get in the car. To me, this is a radio. OK, it's got lots of other stuff now these days, but at the end of the day, it's a radio. I want to see my stations. I want the thing to be where I left it when I get out of the car. I don't like having to go through two or three menu choices every time I get in the car just to see and tune my radio stations. It's hella annoying. So between that and the lack of controls here, those sort of knock down the score of this. This system gets four out of five stars. All right, my friends, now it's time to finally take the drive. We're out here in the desert where we started, and we're going to start with the rough stuff and see how this thing does on the road. On the trail now, this does have the all wheel drive. And the first thing I want to point out is that this actually, unlike the Ford Maverick, has a button down here on the console that allows you to lock the four wheel drive system. And that means you can tell this thing you want it to have all wheel drive instead of depending on the computer to engage it when it thinks it needs to. So if you're just going out someplace and you know you're going to want to have that at the beck and call, you can tell the computer system to lock it and have a 50-50 torque split. So as we're rolling along, a few things that are affecting our overall driving experience. This does have a fully independent suspension, a McPherson front suspension and a multi-link independent rear suspension. And because we do have the limited with the 20-inch wheels, we have shorter sidewalls than you would have if we had the bigger rubber on the 18-inch wheels. And so typically in off-roading, you want smaller wheels, not larger ones. But I will say that I'm pretty surprised at how decent the ride quality is so far out here in the desert. There's a lot of bumps and ruts and rocks on this road, and I'm finding that the chassis is pretty solid and well composed over this. The steering has a nice light feel, which makes it easy to maneuver out here. And even though this is a crossover based pickup truck, I'm not feeling all of the harshness and roughness coming through to my seat in this cabin like you might expect. And like I've experienced in some crossover SUVs, it just feels a little bit more solidly bolted together than most SUVs. So if you're somebody who's concerned about, oh, it's not a real truck, I really can't take it out in the rough stuff. What I'm finding out here is that this thing can take it plenty well. I haven't felt the suspension bottom out over any of these big moguls and rocks. And so far, the ground clearance here has been plenty, at least for this trail. But if you watch my reviews, you know, my favorite thing to do, even though it isn't hardcore off-roading, is to take it on the desert washboard road. Because even though this is a manicured road, it has this ribbed washboard surface that can make even the best of vehicles out there feel like a massive POS. And so I can really just sort of feel how well tuned the suspension is, how well bolted together it is. Do I have any rattling in the suspension? No. Do I have any kickback or rattling in the steering? No. Am I getting any rattling in the interior trim? Are these doors shaking and shuddering in their frames? No, none of it. I'm actually quite impressed at how well composed this thing feels out here on this surface. And that's saying a lot, because I've driven some Range Rovers and some high-end Jeeps that didn't feel quite as well sorted as this does. It's nice and quiet. It just doesn't seem to be losing its composure at all out here. It definitely doesn't feel like a POS. And going around some of these gravel curves, even with these wide street tires, the stability control seems to be tuned well to handle some of the pitch and yaw. It feels like it just wants to kick out a little bit, but it arrests it. You can feel it happening. It works pretty well. But, alas, 99.9% of all buyers who buy this truck are going to be driving it on the pavement, on the highway and around their neighborhoods. On the pavement, I think, is really where this truck shines the most. It does well off-road. It does well in the dirt. We expect that in a truck. But this is a vehicle that has a level of refinement. It feels like a step up. It feels like I'm driving in a more expensive luxury SUV. And yes, in its class, this is the more expensive choice. And the good news is it feels its price here. It's got a very quiet ride. Our rolling average is 70 miles an hour. It was 60.3 decibels with a high of 73. That's very good. And the handling, this has a pretty firm suspension, but it's not so firm that you go, ah, that's rough. It's got a nice balance of being supple and refined and comfortable around town. Even with these 20-inch tires, I found the rolling over speed bumps, potholes, the speed humps in my neighborhood that the suspension never crashes or makes loud noises. It's rarely jarring. And the steering, as I mentioned out on the trail, has a nice light weighting to it, unless you dial it up into sport mode, which does make the steering feel a little tighter and heavier. This just has a nice feel for living with it every day when you're out driving it around your neighborhood. And on the highway, a very nice, quiet ride, as I mentioned, low wind noise, very stable feel on the highway. This thing really just has one of the best chassis I've really ever experienced in a pickup truck. It literally is right up there with a Honda Ridgeline, which is the next class up in size as well as price when it comes to refinement and overall driving quality. So there's that. This chassis gets five out of five stars. Now it's time to talk about power. And if you watch my videos, you know the question I always like to ask is, how does it go? Nice little kick in the back and 60. And more than that in the wrong place. So this has got some good power and it sounds good and it works good. What's under the hood is the optional 2.5 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine. This has 281 horsepower and 311 pound feet of torque. And it puts power to all four wheels in this case through an eight speed wet dual clutch transmission, automatic and short. But it's a more sophisticated type of transmission than your typical automatic transmission. And one of the things this doesn't have is idle auto start stop. So as they come here to a stop sign. My piece isn't interrupted. I love that this car should get five stars alone just because it doesn't have that awful system. That said, this is a powertrain that I have found this week works exceptionally well. This transmission, even though Hyundai's DCT transmissions in the past I have found to be troublesome in the way that they're just they're rough and they're jinky and they hesitate and they're just unrefined. This new eight speed works very well. It almost feels like a traditional automatic transmission. The only the only key that it isn't is that you do get crisper shifts and it does tend to be a little bit more immediate in the way it works. And that's a good thing. The best part about it is when you put the hammer down, it delivers power like that. And I bet a police officer would deliver me a ticket like that. It's got paddle shifters. It's got sport mode, which makes these shifts even crisper. So this is a powertrain I'm pretty pleased with. I got to tell you, it's it's more power than what is available in the new Ford Maverick. It's chief competitor by about 31 horsepower, definitely more torque. And fuel economy, though, a little bit less than that. We are rated here at 19 city, 27 highway and 22 MPG combined. Now, in my week with it, I achieved 20, which is a little less than promised. And it is winter. No AC this particular week, but I have been dipping into this power just a little bit. So, you know, there's that. But this is a powertrain I'm pretty pleased with other than maybe the efficiency. This powertrain gets four and a half out of five stars. All right, my friends, that was a fun drive. Now it's time to talk about value. Very important. This is an all new segment, the compact crossover pickup truck segment, which right now here in North America, there are only two options, the Ford Maverick and this. Now, they aren't apples to apples, even though they're the same size, give or take a few inches. This is a vehicle that costs about four to ten thousand dollars more across the trim grade range. Ford Maverick tops out at around thirty eight thousand dollars. Here we're topping out at just under forty two. And the difference here is that that Hyundai built this thing to be a more premium choice. Ford went for the value play. And so what you get here is a vehicle that has a lot more features, a lot more quality content. There's just a lot more here. You get four to ten thousand dollars more truck compared to the Ford Maverick. It's not say the Ford Maverick is not a good truck. It's just meant to be a value play that has less features and it has less power. It has less towing capability and all those things. This is a vehicle that if you want the compact crossover pickup and you want to spend a little bit more, this is the excellent value. So when I look at the pricing here, we start out at about twenty four thousand dollars, which is just less than the Toyota Tacoma, the Ford Ranger and some of those. And we have a vehicle that you can spend topping out at about forty one thousand dollars here. That gets just under the bottom of the Honda Ridgeline, which, of course, is the midsize pickup truck. So I think we're at a great value quotient here. Warranty coverage, the best in the business. Ten years, one hundred thousand miles powertrain, five years, sixty thousand miles bumper to bumper. You can't beat that. We have quality that's exceptional and we've got pricing, which I think is very good when you consider all of the equipment and the quality and the content that you get for that. So I put value here at five stars when you put that in with everything we've already talked about. Four and a half stars for the review. Very, very good. I think Hyundai did a fabulous job here, so much so it also makes my buy it list. Yeah, if I were looking at a compact crossover pickup truck and wanting to spend a little bit more for getting a little bit more, this would be my choice. It's beautiful. I love it. Now, yes, I did put the Maverick on our buy it list and we are buying one, but that's because my choice was based on price. It wasn't based on which which is better. These are both very good trucks. I think the choice becomes which one do you like the looks of, which one really fits your lifestyle when it comes to what you want in the way of features. So in that way, they're apples to apples, but they're really apples and oranges. Anyway, if you like the video you just saw, please do see my latest one right there. Better yet, subscribe to my YouTube channel right down there. Either way, stay tuned.