So far so great!
I moved to the country and needed something that could fit in my smallish garage but also 1) haul my garbage cans and 2) handle my dirt roads with grace and 3) occasionally tow a small trailer. The Santa Cruz was exactly the right fit - and without being a huge beast of a pickup that my wife would have trouble getting in and out of.
It's great at handling the size of job it's designed for yet unapologetic about being designed specifically for those lighter jobs, and it's proud to pitch that utility to those less interested in work and more interested in play. Unlike other small truck options out there (thin on the ground though they may be these days) the Santa Cruz doesn't try to satisfy truck people - it has no pretense about being anything other than a crossover married to a truck bed. And with good reason: not everybody who occasionally needs a truck bed actually needs or even wants a whole truck. This thing gets you enough truck to do light truck tasks and go tailgating (did I mention there's a cooler integrated into the bed?) without so much that it feels like it has to drag you into the testosterone-fest that modern truck design has become.
By going for a design that blends crossover aerodynamics with truck utility, Hyundai has boldly stepped into a niche formerly occupied in the US only by domestic cult classics like the El Camino and Ranchero or largely-unsuccessful (and oft forgotten) import experiments like Subaru's old Brat or their more recent Baja. Despite the risk, Hyundai has built on the lessons of those predecessors and combined their generally solid crafstmanship, excellent warranty, and newfound solid styling chops to make a genuinely cool compromise that really does feel like its own thing.
Personally I'm really happy with my purchase, and I really hope that they do well enough with this model once the initial hype dies down to keep the experiment going and improve on it over time - a success in this space is long-overdue, and could open up a whole range of different kinds of innovative vehicle designs that the US market has been lacking for decades.
Recommandé
Vérifié Propriétaire
