Nowhere is the Hyundai Santa Cruz’s shared Tucson lineage more obvious than in the cabin, with a waterfall-style center stack rendered in fingerprint-prone glossy black plastic. Except for needing slightly more space when parallel-parking, the Santa Cruz felt very similar to the Tucson – one of our favorite crossovers on the market right now – with accurate steering and a light-on-its-feet nimbleness heretofore unseen among pickups. Tidy proportions were yet another boon in our commute-imitating drive loop. A smooth, quiet ride is another byproduct of the robust platform, allowing the suspension to provide comfort without sacrificing body control or handling. Bumps do little to upset the chassis, which feels stiff, sturdy, and up to the task of those aforementioned capability numbers. The Santa Cruz isn’t a hot hatch, but it drives with more authority on a winding road than any other vehicle with a cargo box on the market. Still, we couldn’t help but appreciate the pickup’s excellent road manners, even over rough and uneven pavement. Performance is appropriate to the Santa Cruz’s mission as a commuter pickup, but the numbers had us expecting a little more sizzle (and excited for the prospect of an N or N-Line model). The same applies to the genteel automated transmission, which dispatches shifts well, but doesn’t throw much emotional heat. But in spite of an output that shames the sporty Veloster N, this trucklet never feels very frenetic, serving up power in easy-to-digest doses. A torque plateau between 1,700 and 4,000 rpm offers plenty of grunt for a right turn into traffic or a freeway merge. However, the Santa Cruz merely offers better-than-average performance. It all sounds like the perfect recipe for turbo-whistling, sideways-sliding, rally-style hilarity. Our Limited HTRAC tester came with all-wheel drive and a standard turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four, pushing a healthy 281 horsepower and 311 pound-feet through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. In this setting, the don’t-call-it-a-truck does very well. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to sample the Santa Cruz’s towing or payload numbers, spending our day behind the wheel using it as most consumers will – driving nearly unladen through narrow city lanes and wide-open highway traffic. To find out if the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is as slick as it looks on paper, we headed – where else – to the eponymous town in California to take it for a spin. The company says it’s able to tug a compact travel trailer with a 5,000-pound towing capacity, and its 660-pound bed rating is enough for about 30 bags of mulch, both well within the parameters of what most pickup customers haul around on a regular basis. While it's relatively thrifty, Hyundai also claims the Santa Cruz can really tow and haul. When it does, the Hyundai's 19 city/27 highway rating will have some very compelling competition. It’s also reasonably efficient, achieving at least 23 miles per gallon combined in EPA testing – getting that number in an currently available pickup would require sacrificing four-wheel drive or resorting to a pricey diesel engine, though the Maverick is coming soon and will offer up to 40 mpg. A vehicle's verdict is relative only to its own segment and not the new-vehicle market as a whole. Verdict updated following seven-day loan.
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