After decades of waiting, America is finally getting some smaller truck options with the new 2022 Santa Cruz and the new 2022 Maverick from Ford.
In this video, we’re talking about the smallest of the trucks available in America, the all-new santa cruz.
Now, for the record, I’m air quoting the small part, not the truck part, because the santa cruz and the maverick are not exactly small trucks.
The other ornament in my yard is this chipper here, which I liken to a half-ton truck.
It’s quite heavy, 6 000 pounds, 10 times heavier than that new lightweight chipper, and it can accommodate logs up to about 14 inches in diameter because it’s powered by a 3.2 liter Cummins diesel engine, but it’s too big and heavy to get to a lot of places out here in the forest, so right tool for the right job.
If you need a half-ton truck to perform half-ton truck things, acquire a half-ton truck; if you want a realistic and pragmatic alternative to a mid-size crossover with truck-like traits in the United States, we have two possibilities.
This santa cruz and the new ford maverick seem a lot like the hyundai tucson up front, and that’s because they’re pretty similar.
The front grille isn’t precisely the same, but this has led daytime running lights standard in every model, with a little modification in the top end trims.
Full led headlights are available in the two top end trims of the Santa Cruz.
If you get the two lower end models, we get halogen headlights in the center of the lower portion of the bumper where we find a radar adaptive cruise control sensor.
This does have all of Hyundai’s latest active safety systems on it but one interesting touch is no fog lights below.
So how small is the smallest truck in America? Yes, this is a little four-door truck with a bed in the rear, but in terms of cars in North America, it’s a bit more mid-size than anything.
It’s 195.7 inches long, which makes it much longer than a two-row Jeep Grand Cherokee or Hyundai’s own Santa Fe.
This barrier is almost as long as the three-row palisade, but it is four inches shorter than the Ford Maverick.
The maverick may seem to be a broncos sport from the front, but it’s really longer on the outside than Ford’s own explorer.
Some of you may be comparing it to the honda ridgeline.
The ridgeline is 15 inches longer and wider than the Santa Cruz, making it easier to park.
It’s based on the Tucson, but it shares very little with it.
It’s about two inches wider than Hyundai’s compact crossover and about two and a half inches wider than the Maverick.
Moving to the back, we have some very distinctive partial led tail light modules.
This sort of arrow shaped section right here, however, is not the turn signal, which I think would have been a pretty cool touch.
Instead, it’s just these two blinking red blocks, as you’d expect in a pickup.
We also have a tailgate back here, which has an electronic latch and can be lowered in two stages.
You may move these little tethers to either make it entirely flat or completely flat.
Because of the breadth of the cargo bed at its widest point, the small tethers in this one are a bit tight there.
You could have it entirely flat like that or you could have it in a position about here where this will be level with the top of the wheel wells.
The difference between this and the maverick’s bed comes down to a few tenths of an inch this is one tenth of an inch wider between the wheels three tenths of an inch wider at the widest point and at the opening right back here by the tailgate so four by sheet goods will not fit between the wheel wells and that’s why we have this two-stage tailgate very similar to what we see in the ford maverick’s bed Hyundai gave me a Santa Cruz with a pretty great roller cover on it.
Unfortunately, it gets in the way of what I want to talk about next, which is the front of the cargo bed.
It’s not vertical, which means we get a little bit more room at floor level than we do right at the top of the tailgate.
It’s 52.1 inches long from the tailgate to the very front of the cargo bed at the bottom, but it’s 48.4 inches deep if we step up to here.
The reason we don’t have a vertical wall at the front of the cargo One of the nicest features of the Santa Cruz is the rolling cargo cover, which can handle my weight of roughly 200 pounds.
Hyundai claims that you can use it as an extra cargo load floor as well, so if you want to put cargo on top of this and in the bed at the same time, you can do both of those things at the same time this is also watertight as long as it’s not a deluge but there is one flaw it takes up about 12 inches of bed space even when fully retracted, part of that is due to this latch mechanism, which takes up about six inches this does centrally lock with the truck, The base engine in this is a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated engine that was borrowed from other Hyundai models and produces 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque through an eight-speed traditional automatic transmission.
You can get it with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and both versions get you 23 miles per gallon combined.
Instead of a traditional 8-speed automatic transmission on this side of the engine bay, we find an 8-speed wet clutch dual clutch transmission that gives you 22 miles per gallon when equipped with all-wheel drive, and you’ll want all-wheel drive if you want to tow 5 000 pounds, which is the maximum tow rating on this vehicle.
When Hyundai originally introduced the Santa Cruz at the beginning of the year, they put their foot in their mouth when they spoke about payload, so let’s clear that up.
Payload in the Santa Cruz will range from just over 1900 pounds to a low of 1411 pounds, with 1411 being if you have the limited trim all-wheel drive 2.5 liter turbocharged engine from the factory, as I do.
Remember that options and trim level will affect your total payload rating.
At the launch event, someone from Hyundai accidentally said that you could only put 660 pounds in the bed and then went on to say that you could only put 660 pounds in the bed and then went on to say that you could The first reason is because it is a little broader, so the aerodynamics are a little different, and the tires are also a little wider.
The next reason is the engine displacement itself, which produces more power and is a larger displacement engine, so we get about 3 mpg with this one versus the maverick with the 2-liter turbo and all-wheel drive.
An interesting twist that I did not expect with the santa cruz is that all models are going to come standard with a load-leveling rear suction.
Jumping inside, you’ll notice the similarities between this and the hyundai tucson on which it’s based.
The driver and front passenger seats are basically the same design tweaked just a little bit for the santa cruz.
We have the same multi-way adjustable function here seat bottom cushion does adjust her tilt which is a nice feature.
More rav4 more tucson more crv than we find in the average mid-sized truck in America like a colorado or a canyon or definitely at the toyota tacoma the tacoma actually has a little bit of an awkward seating position it’s a little bit of an outlier this is much more comfortable than those seating positions but also a little bit more reclined legroom in the hyundai tucson is Because the front seats are heated and ventilated, we have a plastic insert and a shiny imitation metallic insert right there on the back of the front seats.
I was worried that this would feel strange, but it doesn’t.
There’s moderate bolstering on the seat back cushions and very little down there on the seat bottom cushion, so larger folks shouldn’t have any problems in here.
The rest of the interior looks a lot like the tucson’s, but aside from some dashboard components, it doesn’t appear that many parts are directly shared because this vehicle is just a hair wider than the tucson.
Over on the doors, we have very similar styling to the tucson with fabric inserts right there.
Soft touch materials, a few hard plastics, definitely a more premium interior feel than we find in the ford maverick in the maverick even in the very top end trims all the plastics are very very hard that’s to improve durability and help reduce costs now we do find hard plastics here down there at the bottom of the door right there around that bottle holder on the dashboard there’s an interesting accent trim right there on the fabric insert on the dashboard there’s an interesting accent trim right there on the fabric This is the bigger 10-inch touchscreen system with touch buttons; the basic model comes with an eight-inch screen with standard apple carplay and android auto.
The main infotainment system does not support wireless carplay, but the smaller system does.
We have an engine start stop button right there, as well as controls for the dual zone automatic temperature control, USB input, USB charge only port, and a qi wireless charging pad on certain models.
Instead of the hunt and peck type shifter seen in other Hyundai cars, we have a relatively typical shifter right here in the center.
A driving mode toggle and a button to demand extra power to the rear axle, as well as a 360 degree camera option, can be found beneath the shifter.
electric parking brake with hill decline control There are two huge cup holders between the front seats, and below all of that is a button bank with the controls for the heated ventilated seats and the heated steering wheel, as well as a wide cushioned center armrest that unfolds to expose a modestly sized storage box.
Hyundai obviously wanted this dashboard to look very symmetrical, so we don’t have a hood or a binnacle for the instrument cluster on the driver’s side, instead we have a lcd that’s the same size as the infotainment system in this particular model.
Of course, the full lcd instrument cluster isn’t standard, but it’ll be found on the higher end trims.
This instrument cluster has four distinct themes to choose from.
The steering wheel looks very similar to the one found in the tucson sport grips on either side feature a metallicized plastic strip hard plastics on the inside in a different texture than the ones found elsewhere on the steering wheel three of them have dials and one has this very unusual cube look which is definitely not my preference let me know what you think about that look down there in the comment section the steering wheel looks very similar to the one found in the tucson sport grips up top leather wrapped in this trim The controls for the infotainment system are over here on the left phone button volume up track forward backward paddles on the back of the steering wheel and then the controls for the adaptive cruise control system and lane keeping assistance are over here on the right thanks to the two and a half liter turbo and all-wheel drive this model will be the fastest one zero to sixty thanks to the two and a half liter turbo and all-wheel drive this model will be the fastest one zero to sixty thanks to the two and a This one accomplished it in 5.8 seconds; if you buy the basic engine, it’ll take closer to eight and a half seconds, which is quite close to the typical base compact crossover in the United States.
When equipped with the two and a half liter turbo and all-wheel drive system, the curb weight of this is over four thousand pounds, which makes sense because it’s bigger than a Hyundai Santa Fe.
This is about the same size as a Hyundai Palisade, and that’s one of the reasons they put the more powerful engine in this rather than simply sticking with the 1.6 liter turbo in my braking test it took a long time to stop.
Keep in mind that this has 245 tires on it, so I anticipate it to stop faster than the Ford Maverick.
The Maverick is a touch lighter, but the tires on most versions are far narrower than those on the Santa Cruz.
In terms of handling, the larger tires also make the Santa Cruz feel more secure on the road.
I’m going to give this an a, but with a question mark since we’re talking about a sector of two cars here, this and the Ford Maverick.
There’s nothing else to compare it to besides the average compact crossover, and it does feel a lot like the Hyundai Tucson out on the road, albeit a slightly bigger, slightly longer, slightly heavier Tucson.
It also feels a little bit more car-like in its driving nature than the Ford Maverick.
Part of that is due to the santa cruz’s tire selection, but the rest is due to the suspension design.
If you order a front-wheel-drive Santa Cruz, you will still get a multi-link independent rear suspension, whereas if you order a front-wheel-drive Ford Maverick, you will only get that type of rear suspension if you choose all-wheel drive.
If you choose front-wheel drive, you will get a non-independent torsion beam rear suspension.
If you start driving both cars harder out on a less-than-ideal road surface, or even an average road surface like the one I’m on right now, you’ll notice a significant difference.
The maverick’s rear end will clatter on the pavement more than the Santa Cruz, indicating that it can handle off-camera scenarios.
hard road circumstances more gracefully than the Maverick on a harsher road, such as the gravel road I’m on right now.
Because of the load leveling nature of the dampers, the springs don’t have to be quite as firm as they would otherwise need to be in order to support the kind of payload that this vehicle is capable of, so in terms of ride quality, this feels a little bit more crossover-like and perhaps a little bit less truck.
Keep in mind that the maverick is less expensive, which is why some of the features in this vehicle, such as load leveling suspension, standard wireless carplay, and so on, aren’t available in the maverick’s base model.
It’s all very price driven.
Of course, if ride quality is a top priority for you, you’ll probably want to look at something like the Hyundai Santa Fe.
The ride will be softer and more compliant than the Santa Cruz.
Cabin noise is very similar to the tucson as you’d expect the cab here is actually a little bit smaller than the average compact crossover because there’s no cargo area behind the back seats so I recorded 71.5 decibels in here making this among the quietest if you want to compare this to a small crossover we see a very similar cabin noise score in the upper end versions of the ford now when it comes to fuel economy I’ve been averaging above the epa estimates now Slower starts and slower stops are smoother than with a dry clutch transmission like Hyundai’s older seven speed dct design, but first gear is also rather low so it has a very direct engagement feel so’s not going to be quite as smooth when starting off from a stop or in slow and go and stomping.
Keep in mind that transmissions like this will likely heat up faster than a traditional automatic transmission with the torque converter, which is why first gear is so low.
It’s trying to engage that gear as quickly as possible, and it’s completely engaged going maybe four or five miles per hour, but if you’re on a trail trying to go half a mile per hour, it can feel a little strange, especially if you’re trying to start with a trailer on a really steep incline.
When we look at our first competitor, the ford maverick, you can see why you might think the santa cruz is expensive because it starts at 19 995 ford was so aggressive with the pricing on the maverick that I believe pretty much everyone in the industry was shocked more shocking the hybrid system is standard in the santa cruz.
If you want to add all-wheel drive to your 2-liter turbo, you’ll have to pay a lot of money.
The maverick is also less expensive than the santa cruz at 34 865 because of some of the additional changes that come with it.
Basically any way you slice it, the maverick is going to be less expensive than the santa cruz and generally speaking more fuel efficient as well, but they’re not exactly the same kind of vehicle.
The maverick is a little bit smaller on the interior and a little bit longer, while the sand cruise is really the slightly shorter vehicle.
However, the main difference between these two vehicles is their objective.
The maverick appears to be a miniaturized truck for classic ford truck shoppers.
Its interior is definitely less premium than the santa cruz.
It’s a little bit more rough and ready, a little bit more rugged.
It has a little bit more of a focus on cargo practicality in the bed, and I really like the fact that it comes with a standard trailer brake controller if you get the tow package option.
The santa cruz is definitely larger than the tucson, which is important to remember because it has to be about the same size as a three row crossover to give you compact crossover like interior space and a usable truck bed in the back.
If you’re in an urban area, which is theoretically the target for a maverick or a santa cruz, you might actually find the crossover easier to park because it’s going to be shorter.
Parallel parking is going to be easier now obviously parallel parking in a santa cruz or a maverick is going to be an awful lot easier than parallel parking in a four-door f-150 but we’re talking about shades here obviously the maverick and the santa cruz are smaller than the average half-ton truck but they may not be quite as small as you’re thinking I would encourage you to actually see them in person if that’s a concern now if Remember that the santa cruz doesn’t have quite as large a back seat as the tucson in order to get a roughly four and a half foot bed in the back, or would you rather have your cargo on the inside where it’ll be a little bit more protected than it would be in the bed of a pickup truck, but it’ll also be a little bit more limited because if you wanted to get a plant from home depot that sticks out the top or you wanted to If I were shopping for a compact crossover like a rav4 or a crv or a tucson or a ford escape, I would put the santa cruz and the ford maverick on my shopping list because it offers a lot of the creature comforts and interior space that you’d find in that average compact crossover with arguably a more practical cargo area in the back but again, a cargo area with a twist for some it may not be more practical but I think the santa cruz does a little bit better than the ford maverick in terms of payload and towing ratings, and I like the vehicle’s format a little bit better, but the maverick is absolutely adorable and incredibly fuel efficient, which is one area where hyundai has really dropped the ball.
I really wish that they had brought this to market with the 1.6 liter turbocharged hybrid system that we do find current in the santa cruz.
Keep that in mind, and it appears that if you’re looking for a car in this segment, you’ll be able to find a santa cruz on dealer lots.
As for the maverick, not so much.
Let me know what you think about all of that in the comments section below, and what would you choose if you had to choose between a tucson, a santa cruz, or a ford maverick.
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