Back in March, we reported on that Hyundai was putting the Santa Cruz Concept under the microscope to decide whether or not to make it into a production model. Now Motor Trend reports that a decision could be reached in November at the automaker's global product review.

“We feel pretty good about it,” said Dave Zuchowski , Hyundai Motor America CEO.

“Our intention at Detroit was to prove to Korea that we have to build [the Santa Cruz]. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and that has been fed back to Korea.”

How confident is Zuchowski getting a yes to the Santa Cruz? Basic engineering work on this model has already begun.

Source: Motor Trend

View full article

This will be an interesting CUV addition. Good for them and should get noticed by the other auto companies so they are updating and making changes.

I think they should have the Hyundai Santa Cruz go into production, it would be pretty wickid to see it in the line up!

The picture really does not do this vehicle justice.  I was reading an article out by the Detroit Free Press, and the side view was shown.  This combination truck/car kind of reminds me of the old El Camino put out by Chevy years ago.  Although, I must admit this Hyundai Santa Cruz sits up up and the aerodynamics look sharper!  Should be interesting, if research shows consumers showed a high enough interest for them to go through with this design and offer it to the public.

Concept looks nice, but would it translate well to a production model?  Anyways, I hope they go for it.

Choice is nice.  It's just hard to imagine something like this getting enough sales to be worth the trouble.