2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz First Look Compact Truck
22Hyundai isn't fooling anyone, and to its credit, it isn't trying to. The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is a compact pickup truck, yes, but it isn't a truck for people who buy F-150s. It isn't even a truck for people who buy Tacomas. It's a truck for people who live in big cities and drive 45 minutes out of town to go hiking, mountain biking, surfing, or whatever on the weekend. How much truck do city people really need, and more importantly, how much truck do they really want to park? Hyundai's betting about this much.
You've seen this show before. Nearly 20 years ago, it was called the Subaru Baja, and Hyundai is betting that trucklet was ahead of its time. The concept is the same: convert a small SUV or wagon into a truck by replacing the cargo area with an open bed. In this case, Hyundai has grafted a bed onto the all-new Tucson SUV. It's more than just a bed, though, as Hyundai has wisely borrowed handy features from other brands. And it's not just Hyundai that thinks this is a good idea—the Ford Maverick compact pickup will follow it to the market by several months and Dodge is still toying with using the Dakota name in this space.
But let's start with the basic question: Does it truck? The bed is 4 feet long with the tailgate closed and just shy of 6 feet long with the tailgate down. That's a foot shorter in both measurements than the average four-door midsize pickup. Four feet isn't a lot, but it's enough to load in mountain bikes with the front tires hanging over the tailgate. It should be just long enough to strap down a dirt bike with the rear wheel on the tailgate (which can hold 500 pounds). Shortening the bed, though, makes the Santa Cruz more than 14 inches shorter in length than a Honda Ridgeline and that much easier to park in the city.
The bed is also 4 feet wide, designed specifically to be wide enough to carry home sheets of plywood from the big box store. That plywood rests on molded-in ledges above the wheelwells, and the tailgate can be adjusted to a half-open position level with the ledges to support the end of the plywood hanging out the back. There are also two molded-in pockets designed to lay two-by-six boards across the bed and cover them with a 4-foot square piece of plywood to make a two-level bed. The tailgate can be adjusted or removed without tools, is lockable, has a soft open and soft close feature, and can be opened with the key fob.
The bed does have its limit, though. Payload capacity is just 1,300 pounds, at least 200 pounds less than the average midsize pickup. Still, that's enough to carry a motorcycle, but maybe don't plan on re-creating a truck commercial where a tractor dumps a load of gravel in the bed.
That means your trailer tongue weight will have to be pretty light, as well, if you plan to tow anything. The good news is the tow rating ranges from 3,500 pounds up to 5,000 pounds, so you should be able to pull a utility trailer, an open toy hauler, or a small camper with no problem. Hyundai doesn't offer an integrated trailer brake controller, though, so you may want to spring for an aftermarket solution if you're going to do a lot of max. towing.