Looks like the Maverick is the only game in town until someone comes out with a competitor....
Santa Cruz discontinued due to low sales.
I think the title of that article is a bit misleading, as the sales of the Santa Cruz weren't the main reason for the cancellation, though I'm sure it was a factor. It definitely didn't compete with the Maverick, which has been a smash hit for Ford, but was selling well enough. Not far off what Honda shifts with the Ridgeline, really, at 30-40,000 per year.
From what I read, the reason is as much that Hyundai is preparing to release a body-on-frame mid-size truck and large SUV platform to compete with the Tacoma, and they don't want to compete with themselves with the launch of a whole new platform. The mid-size truck sector is selling very well, with ~25%+ YoY growth for the GM and Ford options, and the Tacoma still moving nearly 300,000 units. Only Nissan is struggling, despite the NA V6 in the Frontier being the darling of car nerds and YouTube comment sections.
Hyundai’s approach didn’t offer true practical solution and was priced higher than their own comparable SUV.
More style than substance and cost more. Hmmm….
I liked the style personally but, they priced it higher than any “cool” factor they thought it had.
There's nothing the Maverick can do that the Santa Cruz can't (bar the hybrid powertrain). They're both based on SUV platforms and deal with the same unibody limitations. The Santa Cruz tows more, hauls more, and has an almost identical bed size, plus a surprisingly useful 'brunk' in the bed like the Ridgeline.
Pricing is more complicated, as the Hyundai is optioned more heavily at the top end, but surprisingly close in price if you compare equivalent trims. This is especially true for real-world pricing over MSRP, as Ford dealers love tacking on a lot more extras than Hyundai based on our experience. We ended up taking advantage of brutal Hyundai depreciation and getting a fully loaded 8-month-old low-mile CPO for about $9k less than new, if I recall. That was cheaper than any equivalent age or mile Maverick, regardless of trim.
Having owned one and loved it as a perfect combo (for us) of weekday commuter and weekend hauler, I thought a lot about what Hyundai was doing wrong on the marketing side. The problem I see is that Hyundai did a bad job selling what the Santa Cruz was actually made for. They also massively screwed up by giving it a very similar front end to the Tucson, complete with those waterfall running lights, so it was associated with a cute and small SUV rather than a mini version of a tough truck. All their marketing sold it as a 'SAV' (Sport Activity Vehicle), designed for surfers and mountain bikers, while Ford sold the Maverick as a mini work truck. I think the sales numbers highlight which approach was more successful.
The other colossal mistake Hyundai made was putting their DCT as non-optional in the higher-spec model (which you needed if you wanted the higher tow capacity of 5000 lbs). Not for nothing, a lot of people were very leery of a reputedly delicate transmission in something intended to haul or otherwise be used hard.
If it was me, I would have leaned into the Stadium Super Truck styling of the Santa Cruz, built a mega small-volume loss-leader high-performace N version (like the Raptor for Ford) and marketed it as a bit of a Baja desert racer with lots of photos in the brochure of the expensive version catching air off of sand dunes.
Also had a chance to see
@Priller 's new Canyon...very nice! I'm getting a bit of truck envy already! My family is shocked to this day I bought a pickup...
Very happy with it so far, though I do miss a lot about the Hyundai. As a commuter and place to sit for long trips, the Hyundai was far nicer, and I especially miss the ventilated seats (have to get a Denali trim to get that with GMC) and how quiet the cabin was. Hyundai was also way faster and sneakily fun to drive...
I don't see Hyuandi as a truck kinda company - pulling up to a football tailgate event, or plunking a sled in the back for a run to the trails was out of it's league. Catering to the trans-lib suburban male who needs something for picking up antiques in the urban jungle proved to be a pretty small market.
Clearly there's more money in catering to despererately insecure and overcompensating air haulers who need to lift their empty half-tons in hopes you don't notice how microscopic their balls are as they head to their divorced dad support group.
