
Indeed, forward of the bed, it looks very much like the Tucson, inside and out. That’s the same structure as the Hyundai Tucson, Santa Fe, Sonata, and several Kia models. Submitted as supporting evidence, consider the following: Hyundai used the N3 platform to build the Santa Cruz. The company prefers the term “Sport Adventure Vehicle.”

And yet it fits in a typical city parallel parking spot. It’s a vehicle that, depending on the trim, includes a tow-hitch, a tailgate, and a bed filled with tie-down straps. 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Review: Truck or Not? Despite the pickup bed, the Santa Cruz is shorter than a Hyundai PalisadeĬertainly, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is smaller than most modern trucks. Its short bed means it isn’t much use at a job site, but it might just be the perfect outdoor gear-hauler. And its size allows you to easily parallel park it in the city. In short: The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is a modern, more compact version of an El Camino that gets better gas mileage than popular pickups of today. That’s a far cry from the early ’90s regular cabs running around with a 6.75-foot bed and nearly a yard shorter footprint.īut now we have the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz - a pickup with four doors, five seats, and a 4.3-foot-long bed - which measures 16.3 feet from bow to stern. And trucks? Well, the popular Ford F-150 Super Crew body with the shortest available 5.5-foot bed is 19.3 feet long. Many of today’s small SUVs have three rows of seating. Compact cars now stretch to within an inch of midsize cars from 25 years ago. In the world of automobiles, everything is growing. The Santa Cruz is also a better adventure companion than you might think, and a way better commuter than any big heavy truck on the market.


The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a vehicle for those of us who need a car but want some of the utility a truck has to offer. It calls the 2022 Santa Cruz a ‘Sport Adventure Vehicle.’ Hyundai is the latest auto manufacturer to hop into the lucrative truck market, but it hasn’t built a typical truck.
