What makes Hyundai Santa Cruz named the Best Small Pick-Up Truck in Canada for 2022

What makes Hyundai Santa Cruz named the Best Small Pick-Up Truck in Canada for 2022

At the recent Canadian Car, Truck, and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz was voted Canada's Best Small Pick-Up Truck for 2022 by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.

 

They marked the Santa Cruz highly on build quality, safety features, vehicle dynamics, and performance.

 

Let's look at what makes the Santa Cruz a stand-out vehicle.

 

 

Styling

Styling

 

In recent years shoppers have had few options concerning pick-up trucks; there were full-size or mid-size. Now Hyundai has introduced a third option to the mix; a compact pick-up.

 

The Santa Cruz is built on the Tucson platform and using unibody construction; it seats five passengers in the cabin with a 1,4m load bed.

 

Hyundai calls the Santa Cruz an SAV (Sports Adventure Vehicle), and it comes in two variants. The Preferred starts at $40,655, and the more up-market Ultimate comes in at $46,955 before adding all the extras.

 

Cabin

Cabin

 

The interior is refined and very comfortable, with all the attributes of a mid-range SUV. The centre console covering all the normal vehicle functions such as navigation, radio, and air conditioning has no buttons or knobs; it works entirely on touch. 

 

Perhaps this will change in the future, as gloves will make it impossible to do the simplest things, such as turn down the volume on the radio. The glossy black panel will also show every grubby fingerprint, so owners had best keep wet wipes handy!

 

The vehicle seats five comfortably, and the driving position is excellent. The rear seats will carry three, and though leg and headroom are not abundant, it will be a comfortable ride. The rear seats also flip up to reveal handy storage bins. 

 

Powertrain

Powertrain

 

The Santa Cruz comes with only one power train, but the 2.5L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine coupled to an 8-speed automatic transmission produces a respectable 281hp and 311 lb/ft torque. 

 

This gives the Santa Cruz an impressive towing capacity of up to 5,000lb.

 

The vehicle also comes with three drive modes: Normal for everyday driving, Sport for the days you want to be boy-racer, and Smart, which optimizes the mode to your driving style.

 

Safety

 

The Santa Cruz has all the latest in safety tech. This includes lane assist, forward collision warning, and driver attention warnings. 

 

If you buy the Ultimate, you also get 360 surround cameras, safe exit assist, highway drive assist, pedestrian detection, and blind-spot assist. All this is displayed on the upgraded 10" digital driver display. 

 

Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

 

The Santa Cruz combines funky styling with pick-up versatility, but it's compact enough to make it easy to drive around town and park. When the wilderness calls, it'll take all the camping gear and off-road toys with ease while carrying passengers in a comfortable cabin.

 

This new and different vehicle will quickly build a cult following, so we invite you to come in and have a test drive in the all-new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz in Barrhaven.

 

 

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