Photo: SB-Medien
Mercedes might have pulled the plug on its slow-selling X-Class pickup, but we may have "found" something even better to replace it. It's the Hyundai Santa Cruz, the first pickup from a Korean company with excellent reliability ratings.
Compact trucks are seen as throw-away tools, like the Reddit account you make just to post illegal stuff. Mercedes tried to dress up a Nissan Navara as premium goods, but the Hyundai Santa Cruz is fundamentally different.
It's more like a really cool-looking car or crossover that just happens to be a pickup truck as well. And you can tell this by just how short the bed is.
Although the camouflage is pretty thick, we can still make out some key features at the front. Namely, the Santa Cruz has got the double headlights of the Santa Fe and a 3D pattern for the grille, like the next-gen Tucson.
The back of the vehicle is completely obscured by the black tarp Hyundai usually uses, but we suspect it will look quite sporty for a pickup. The rising window line is a good indication of this.
Little is known about what kind of engines will power the Santa Cruz. Everybody is expecting the 2.4-liter 185 horsepower unit from the Santa Fe. We'd love to see a turbo engine on this one too, but Hyundai probably needs to keep costs way down.
Testing in Scandinavia doesn't mean the Santa Cruz is coming to Europe. While Hyundai could sell a few thousand of these, it's probably got more important things on its mind right now, like how to turn nearly every model into a hybrid.
“The Santa Cruz is for those who want all the traditional attributes of a compact utility vehicle but need the day-to-day versatility of an open bed. It’s the crossover that creates a whole new segment that successfully combines capability and utility to meet the unspoken needs of a new generation of buyers, especially millennials," says Hyundai.
It's more like a really cool-looking car or crossover that just happens to be a pickup truck as well. And you can tell this by just how short the bed is.
Although the camouflage is pretty thick, we can still make out some key features at the front. Namely, the Santa Cruz has got the double headlights of the Santa Fe and a 3D pattern for the grille, like the next-gen Tucson.
The back of the vehicle is completely obscured by the black tarp Hyundai usually uses, but we suspect it will look quite sporty for a pickup. The rising window line is a good indication of this.
Little is known about what kind of engines will power the Santa Cruz. Everybody is expecting the 2.4-liter 185 horsepower unit from the Santa Fe. We'd love to see a turbo engine on this one too, but Hyundai probably needs to keep costs way down.
Testing in Scandinavia doesn't mean the Santa Cruz is coming to Europe. While Hyundai could sell a few thousand of these, it's probably got more important things on its mind right now, like how to turn nearly every model into a hybrid.
“The Santa Cruz is for those who want all the traditional attributes of a compact utility vehicle but need the day-to-day versatility of an open bed. It’s the crossover that creates a whole new segment that successfully combines capability and utility to meet the unspoken needs of a new generation of buyers, especially millennials," says Hyundai.
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