The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is up against the Ford Maverick, and your needs should decide which one to buy, as they excel at different things.

The Hyundai Santa Cruz is Hyundai's first-ever unibody compact pickup truck and is going to compete against the Ford Maverick, which is also a brand-new pickup truck in the segment. Coming with all the qualities of a compact crossover SUV coupled with the versatility of a pickup truck does make the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz an excellent proposition for American pickup truck buyers. Build on the same platform as the Hyundai Tucson, it gets a few similar design elements as well.

Offered for a base MSRP of $24,140, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz can be had in four trim configurations. The truck comes in both FWD and AWD drivetrains, and the turbocharged motor makes sure that it can tow reasonably well. The ride and handling are not going to disappoint anyone, and the 4'3" bed is more than enough for the light to medium trucking duties, not to mention that the interior and exterior look excellent, too. Keeping all these in mind, here are 10 things you need to know before buying the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz.

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The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz can be had with two different engines, with the lower trims coming with a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated inline-4 motor producing 191 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque. However, the one that you should opt for is the punchy 2.5-liter turbocharged GDI inline-4 motor, producing 281 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque.

This comes mated to an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and can be had with either FWD or HTRAC AWD drivetrains. The acceleration with this turbocharged motor is magnificent, and the engine feels very refined. The torque curve is wide, and it is capable of hauling stuff with ease. It can tow a maximum of 5,000 lbs and does a 0-60 mph run in just 6.2 seconds as well.

The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz gets a strut front suspension, and the rear comes with multi-link independent suspension. There are coil springs and anti-roll bars on all four corners too. The suspension is tuned to the softer side, unlike the full-size trucks, which usually get stiffer suspension due to the archaic leaf spring setup.

Drive the truck slowly, and it absorbs everything with ease. Even when the speed increases, the ride quality remains composed for a pickup truck. The refinement level is top-notch, and there is no jerking and jumping with the dual-clutch transmission from the Santa Cruz. The body roll is under control, and the overall ride quality is superior to the Ridgeline and the Maverick.

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Get behind the wheel of the Santa Cruz and the car feels very similar to the Hyundai Tucson. The independent front and rear suspension coupled with sensible ground clearance help the car to be stable around corners. The body roll is on the lower side for a truck, and the wide tires fitted onto the 20" wheels grip the roads well.

Even if you push this truck around the winding roads, the Santa Crus rewards you with car-like driving dynamics with impressive grip level and great confidence from the precise electric power steering. The AWD variant also does a good job of tackling these roads. The off-road performance is similar to the rivals too, however, it is not meant for extreme off-road. The steering does feel a bit vague.

The cabin of the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is not going to disappoint anyone, as it is far from the truck-like interior that you normally see in the mid-size and full-size pickup trucks. The cabin comes fitted with soft-touch injection-molded plastic, fabric-like inserts, and leather inserts on the dashboard and door cards. There is leather upholstery for the higher trims too.

Other touchpoints, like the steering wheel, gear selector, and armrest also get fitted with soft leather. All the switchgear feels tactile, and the infotainment and digital gauge cluster feels like they are from a segment above. However, the rear seat area does get hard plastics on the door cards, and that does look and feel odd when compared to an otherwise perfect cabin.

There are multiple design cues taken from Hyundai Tucson, and it is not a bad thing. The front end gets the corporate front end with a waterfall-like grille with dark chrome elements, beautifully incorporated LED DRLs with LED headlights, and a massive air dam. There are multiple colors on offer as well, even though we prefer the lighter shade due to many dark exterior elements.

The 8" of ground clearance and the 20" wheels gel well with the overall form factor. However, we would have appreciated a better tire sidewall since it is a pickup truck. The lower trims solve this issue with the smaller 18" wheels. The blacked-out cladding and pillars and the LED taillight look ravishing. The Santa Cruz has a ute-like design too, which does look very different from the Maverick, it is shorter and has a shorter wheelbase than the Maverick as well.

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The black interior with leather upholstery offers a spacious traveling experience. The front seats are very supportive, with excellent under-thigh and lower back support. The armrest is wide and there are many storage cutouts too. The headroom and legroom for the front seat passengers are exceptional, and even the taller folks would have no issues regardin space.

The rear doors open reasonably wide and the rear seat turned out to be adequate, similar to the Maverick. However, the Honda Ridgeline offered better legroom. The 52" long bed of the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz has a tonneau cover that feels very sturdy. The bed is very usable and there is underfloor storage as well, which is reasonably wide and deep. The maximum payload is around 1700 lbs.

The 8" touchscreen infotainment system is identical to the one offered with the Tucson and is one of the most fluid infotainment systems out there. The display quality is easily the best of the segment, and there are no lags and stutters like the infotainment systems that are present in other brands. The only thing that we wished for is the inclusion of a few hard buttons and knobs, which could have made the interface easier.

The digital gauge cluster that is offered with the higher trims is super-sharp and bright, and it doesn't need a cowl to protect it from the bright sunlight. The optional 8-speaker Bose audio system is punchy and the optional 10.3" touchscreen infotainment system is even better too. Nevertheless, all the connectivity and entertainment features like Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, navigation, Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity, Bluetooth, and many more are standard for both the infotainment systems.

Like what you expect from a Hyundai, the 2022 Santa Cruz comes loaded with many safety and driver-assistance features. Even the base trim gets the driver-assistance features like forward-collision warning, automated emergency braking, lane-departure warning, and lane-keeping assist.

However, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alerts, and a few more features are optional extras. All the basic safety features like airbags, traction control, stability control, side-impact beams, reverse camera with parking sensors, and many more are standard too. With excellent build quality on offer, the truck got a 5-star rating in the NHTSA crash test and the 2022 top safety pick title in the small pickup truck segment.

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Being a compact pickup truck that weighs more than 4,000 lbs and comes with a powerful turbocharged motor mated to a dual-clutch automatic transmission, fuel efficiency is not as good as its SUV sibling, the Hyundai Tucson. However, 19 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on the highway are adequate numbers for the segment.

If you want better gas mileage, we would recommend you to opt for the regular naturally aspirated motor, as it offers 21 MPG in the city and 26 MPG on the highway. With a large 17.7-gallon fuel tank capacity, the truck could also do 460 miles on the highway on a full tank. In comparison, the turbocharged motor offers a lower combined range.

The braking performance offered by the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is very similar to that of the Hyundai Tucson, and the drivers are not going to complain about the braking performance. Coming with a 4-wheel disc brake setup with 12.8" rotors, the 2022 Santa Cruz could do 70-0 mph braking in 171 feet, which is better than the Ford Maverick.

The other braking features like ABS with EBD, brake assist, hill hold control, and electric parking brake make the braking experience more refined. The initial bite is excellent and so is the progression. The front-end dive is minimal, ABS kicks in when necessary, and the truck doesn't feel twitchy like the full-size pickups out there. The 8-speed automatic helps with aggressive engine braking as well.