Test Drive with Nik Miles – 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz

Join Nik Miles as he goes over the ins and outs of the new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz. Nik takes us on a test drive and tells us about all the newest upgrades, how the car feels while driving, and gives us an honest review of the vehicle.

After the video make sure to check out our amazing selection of Hyundai Santa Cruz at our dealership in Portland.

https://www.hyundaiofportland.com/new-vehicles/SantaCruz

I’m Nik Miles and we are at Dick Hannah’s Hyundai of Portland to take a look at this the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz. This is very special because it is a whole new category of vehicle, a sports adventure vehicle. Hyundai has created this for someone that loves adventure on the weekends but can live in an urban environment. Now this vehicle comes with a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty plus Hyundai’s maintenance, a whole warranty which allows you to get two years free maintenance. Now if you love to adventure, we’re going to put it on the road and show you how it drives, we’re going to take a look at the exterior styling, and the interior styling, and all the tech that comes with it. So, let’s not waste any more words talking about it. Let’s get to it.

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So, this has quite a compact footprint and that is perfect for urban life especially parking. You don’t want to be parking a big truck in the city. That makes life very difficult. 275 horsepower out of the 2.5-liter direct injection engine and that means you can actually put your foot down and it does rev quite high, but it also moves quite fast. That was 50 miles an hour in no time at all. Perfect for the adventurer too. The ride is very comfortable, and it has nimble steering as well.

Remember that there are a lot of elements that came out of the Tucson that went into this vehicle. It is supposed to be the entry-level sports adventure vehicle with a truck bed on the back for those people that need the utility of a truck bed but don’t really want to have the cumbersome truck handling. It rides very much like an SUV, a crossover, but has the capability of a truck. And that’s exactly what Hyundai were trying to create when they created this. Plus, there’s that reliability and all of the things that you get with Hyundai. The promise of a great drive, great technology, great reliability, great value for money, great styling. Those things come with this vehicle automatically.

And let’s talk about that, the technology. You get your standard 8-inch screen loaded with technology, and you get your remote start, you get all those things that come with the vehicle. So, you get a lot of safety stuff built in. You just look around this vehicle and you can see automatically looking at all of the nice gloss black, the HVAC controls, the really nice styled buttons inside, the volume buttons, the tuning buttons. I mean, these are highly styled things, the flash screen to the dash, those type of things. It looks actually not like an afterthought. It was very meticulously designed. You get your digital display in the middle of your gauges, those type of things.

And then you talk about things like your remote heating and ventilated seats, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, wireless. You also can get your phone as a key, your remote key starting system, Bose audio system. So, you get those type of extras with Hyundai which is really nice to have if you want those type of things. Standard eight-inch screen, it’s full color, it’s a touch screen so I can go through my options by touching them or there’s real buttons here that are easy to locate and very clear as well.

And then let’s talk about the interior. Nicely finished with aluminum style trim, gloss buttons, lots of steering wheel controls, easy to understand, lane departure on one side, your cruise control on the other. Those type of things are very simple to see and control. It’s fairly easy to understand if you’ve driven a car in the last 20 years. Everything’s intuitive. I love that about Hyundai and especially about the Santa Cruz with this vehicle.

Now the connective services as well that they provide you with are top-notch. Alot of standard features, and then you can option up with the things that are important to you and your family. So those are huge pluses when it comes to this vehicle as well.

Now, let’s talk about Forward Pedestrian Detection with Full Emergency Stop. Hyundai pioneered this technology and they’re supplying it as standard. Lane Keeping Assists, so you’re notified if you drift out of your lane. And then let’s talk about fuel economy. On the highway, 27 miles a gallon, in the city you can get around 21 miles a gallon. So, an average of 23 miles a gallon. That’s great for something of this size. That is competing with other vehicles in the mid-sized truck segment but is perfect for the person in the urban environment whether you can use this as everyday driver and a weekend adventure vehicle.

There are easily cleanable seats in the front and the back, and around 36 inches of space in the back of the vehicle so you have leg room enough to take adults wherever you want to go in the back. And, I will tell you if I’m looking for a vehicle for weekend adventures with my dogs or something to run around the city in the week this is the absolute perfect choice especially with that maintenance and that 10-year,100,000-mile warranty.

Now this looks very Hyundai on the outside, but when we talk about the half-size or the mid-sized truck segment it’s actually slightly smaller than all of the other mid-sized trucks. So, it’s easy to maneuver around the city and that was something really important for Hyundai when they designed this Santa Cruz.

It’s built in Montgomery, Alabama, but it was designed on the west coast so it looks very beach lifey. And true to Hyundai’s design elements you’ll see some things that are cool about this very similar to the Tucson and it actually is modeled after the Tucson at the front. You’ll see the embedded daytime running lights which are hidden inside the grille here, large silver Hyundai symbol right in the middle of the grille, lower air intakes, and this, of course, does have a gas turbo driven engine, a 2.5-liter, which is behind here so it does need the open air intakes to cool that engine. Nice grille, nice long hood, but slightly shorter than everything else that’s in the segment. These are the actual headlights here, embedded lower in the grille, coming around the side it has that monochromatic bumper look, lower pieces of valance here at the bottom. Around the wheel wells we have some very highly shaped cladding here, nice Hyundai wheels. Hyundai always really good at making their wheels look good on these vehicles.

Now, this is a mild off-roading vehicle. It does come in all-wheel drive so at the same time it does have some decent wheel clearance here, some travel ability for off-roading. Cladding at the bottom of the vehicle and the same shape that you’d expect from Hyundai, really nice body shape that gives you that angular feeling here. Looking at the door handles they are the same color as the cladding, so it gives you a sense of feeling that the vehicle does have some kind of contrast.

Coming to the back door you see that flick up of the line here, the flick up of the window moldings, and the arrow spoiler at the back at the top of the cabin. And this is where the bed begins. Now you do have a piece of cladding that travels all the way down and it has a molding pattern on the bed. The lights come in here and there is a little piece of design in the lights here that says designed in California right at the back here. Ongoing beach theme here. A step up which is part of the bumper molding so you can easily get into the bed and then there are two steps at the back here, two different levels.

Now it does have Santa Cruz across the back. I think that’s kind of cool. The HTRAC system all-wheel drive will tow 5,000 pounds if you want to tow something with this vehicle. And the Hyundai symbol here doubles as the trunk opening. Now there’s approximately 20 feet here, 20 square feet of bedding with the tailgate all the way up. And inside here is one of the very cool pieces and that is the hidden trunk bed. Now inside this trunk bed you’ll also find a drainage plug so you can use this for the fish you’ve caught, for your wet gear that you’ve just used to ski, or you’ve just used to go swimming with. That’ll drain out there or you can use it as a drinks cooler. And on each side of this too is a hidden compartment which you can actually use to store some stuff in if you’ve gone to the beach.

Now you can also get at the back here a piece of tonto cover that will fit into the back and you can use a pull rack to cover that as an aftermarket accessory that you can actually buy from the dealer. And that will give you the ability to seal this bed in so you can have a lockable bed here at the back. The bed also comes with cladding on it already, so it’s really hard to damage. This bed actually fits bikes in it if you leave it open, or the bikes will hang off of the back and you can buy an accessory from Hyundai that allows you to put the bikes in the back and doesn’t allow the tailgate to get scratched as well.

So there are three ways to contact Dick Hannah’s Hyundai of Portland. You can pick up the phone and just give them a call, you can also find them on the web, or come on down because if you feel like the brand new 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz could be sitting in your driveway, they’d love to have you test drive one. So, it’s sitting right here. Give them a call, come on down, or find them on the web.