Ever since Hyundai revealed the Santa Cruz concept back at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, there have been questions whether or not it would make it to production. The last we heard anything about the truck was last August where the home office finally gave the green light to go forward with the project. No time frame was given at the time. 

Speaking to Motor Trend, Hyundai Motor America's chief operating officer Brian Smith said Santa Cruz will likely arrive in 2020 or so. Smith also revealed that the model would be using the Tuscon's platform.

“We love it, we talk about it a lot,” said Smith.

It is unclear whether Hyundai is planning to change up the Santa Cruz's design or not.

Getting the Santa Cruz from concept to this point has been long and arduous. Then-CEO Dave Zuchowski pushed hard for this model to go into production after it got enough positive feedback. In 2016, Hyundai reportedly gave the ok for the project to go forward and Zuchowski said an official announcement was coming. The plan was to have the Santa Fe launched in 2018 as a 2019 model. But things fell apart only a year later as Zuchowski was shown the door due to falling sales. The champion for the Santa Cruz was lost and the model was up in the air.

Now, it seems things are back on track.

Source: Motor Trend

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Very cool as I liked the look of this concept, but I have to doubt it will ever really get built. They are watching Honda and the Ridgeline 2.0 according to Motor Trend and sales for the first 3 months of 2018 has the Honda Truck down 30% which does make one wonder about Unibody pickups. Also VW is testing the waters for a Unibody pickup and while they believe they could sell from 50-70K units a year, the Honda Ridgeline has sold 7005 through the end of March, that means a total of 28,020 trucks for the year and this is down 30% from last year.

I question them investing in a truck that has such low sales numbers. Currently the Honda Ridgeline average transaction price as of this week is $40,723. 

40,723 * 28,020 = $1,141,058,460.00

OK, can they R&D, tool up, build, support and do a truck for $500 million looking at sales of $1 billion?  Maybe........

Well, it's not going to look anything like that.  My bet is that Hyundai is just trying to beat VW to market. 

@dfelt, so much of the R&D is done already. 90% of the interior and mechanical bits are probably found on the Santa Fe.

Hyundai definitely needs to build this, I said that when the concept first came out.  I am sure it won't look like the concept but they need a pickup.  And I think a unibody design that has the same towing and weight hauling ability of a Santa Fe is fine, because for a lot of people that is all they need.  I also think there are people that may want a pick up (and possibly a lot of females) but don't want something so truck like and high off the ground or with a 10,000 lb tow rating since they will never tow.  

The current pick up trucks are almost the SUV equivalent of the 3-row SUV, well not everyone needs a 3-row or can afford it, so all these small SUVs exploded onto the market.  Small pickups can make a rise too, and I mean smaller than a Colorado or Tacoma.

Owners will have to put up with some negative vibes from people who think they know it all trolling them in public over their unibody truck.. 

Sometimes I think a better looking/executed Honda Element could do well these days.

 

Edited April 24, 20187 yr by frogger

I have seen only a few Ridgelines around here, and around here is F-Series country (with a lot of Silverados and Sierras too).  This unibody Hyundai will have a tough time convincing traditional truck buyers to actually want one, especially in the era of the CUV.  I also doubt that Hyundai's new unibody pickup will make inroads against the Colorado/Canyon, let alone the Tacoma.

I will ask the same question that also applies to the Ridgeline and its fairly low sales numbers: why would anyone buy a midsize or compact unibody pickup truck?!

While I think it's cool....it's coming to late.

By the time this thing finally rolls out, gas prices could be sky high again. Vw can find success with theirs because it's quirky, cool-but not going to be a huge seller. 

Though as said above 90% is already done-so they can adjust stuff on the fly.

Also question if folks will still be interested......

Gas prices are already sky high up here again

3 hours ago, frogger said:

Gas prices are already sky high up here again

Agreed, Last week Seattle was in the mid $2.20-$2.30 a gallon and the Anacortes oil refinery was shutdown as they were changing over from winter blends to summer blend gas. This week $3.09 a gallon. WTF, clearly an investigation into oil manipulation of refined gas needs to be done as you just do not have big jumps when the trading price is not changing that much.

Something Stinks and I smell Big Oil Manipulation!

I think I saw 2.69 here today. For whatever that's worth, lol. 

Was $2.65 for regular unleaded up off I-90 near the OH-PA line on Saturday when I filled up. 

12 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I think I saw 2.69 here today. For whatever that's worth, lol. 

Same here in SWFL.  And less than two weeks ago, it was $2.50 for regular.

$2.89- $2.93 here.  New Santa Fe has a trucky face, I can see that face on a pickup version of the Santa Fe.  Base model Ioniq has an MSRP of only $21k, seems like a good deal for 58 MPG.

10 hours ago, riviera74 said:

Same here in SWFL.  And less than two weeks ago, it was $2.50 for regular.

Yup, same here. It wasn't long ago that it was in the 2.50's for awhile.

Just filled up the SS and Escalade this morning $3.179 per gallon.

Premium? 

On 4/25/2018 at 10:03 AM, ccap41 said:

Premium? 

Definitely Premium.  Around here, premium is as high as $3.289 a gallon.

On 4/25/2018 at 7:03 AM, ccap41 said:

Premium? 

Nope, regular unleaded.

Premium

Diesel

I usually fuel up at Fred Meyers and they were $3.179 that morning and now $3.199 in the afternoon. Crazy, But I use the following site to check out prices.

http://www.washingtongasprices.com/GasPriceSearch.aspx

This site is focused on washington but uses the Gas buddy search engine.

That site is owned by gasbuddy. It's just one of their local urls they use for search engine optimization.

Yes, we are close to $3 for regular and well over $3 for premium.

Thank you, Chris Christy, you a$$hole!

I may be behind a bit, I thought he wasn't governor anymore.

15 minutes ago, ykX said:

Yes, we are close to $3 for regular and well over $3 for premium.

Thank you, Chris Christy, you a$$hole!

Phil Murphy is the Gov since Jan 2018. How is the current price the blame of Chris Christy?

Do not get me wrong as I think he is a criminal as well as a bad gov, but just wondering how the current gas price is his fault?

10 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Phil Murphy is the Gov since Jan 2018. How is the current price the blame of Chris Christy?

Do not get me wrong as I think he is a criminal as well as a bad gov, but just wondering how the current gas price is his fault?

Christy raised gas tax by 23 cent for a gallon.  So despite high taxes we at least used to have cheap gas.  Now not only we have one of the highest taxes in the US but also one of the highest gas prices as well.

Christy made a compromise with democrats that at least they will lower sales tax to compensate for a gas tax, and now our wonderful new governor wants to roll back the sales tax while of course keeping the gas tax hike in place.  Got to love politicians ...

9 hours ago, dfelt said:

Nope, regular unleaded.

Premium

Diesel

I usually fuel up at Fred Meyers and they were $3.179 that morning and now $3.199 in the afternoon. Crazy, But I use the following site to check out prices.

http://www.washingtongasprices.com/GasPriceSearch.aspx

This site is focused on washington but uses the Gas buddy search engine.

Holy sht that's pricey out there. 

When I went past a gas station today I saw regulat 2.79 and diesel 3.04. They didn't have premium on the sign. 

37 minutes ago, ykX said:

Christy raised gas tax by 23 cent for a gallon.  So despite high taxes we at least used to have cheap gas.  Now not only we have one of the highest taxes in the US but also one of the highest gas prices as well.

Christy made a compromise with democrats that at least they will lower sales tax to compensate for a gas tax, and now our wonderful new governor wants to roll back the sales tax while of course keeping the gas tax hike in place.  Got to love politicians ...

Taxes are going to explode here under Murphy. I'd not be surprised to see the property tax cap undone, also.
Moremoremoremoremore, always more.

Regular today is 2.63 here... picture it being 2.40 instead.

2 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Holy sht that's pricey out there. 

When I went past a gas station today I saw regulat 2.79 and diesel 3.04. They didn't have premium on the sign. 

Keep it in perspective, we DO NOT have a state Income tax and our property taxes are still some of the lowest in the country. Sales tax is 10% but so is California which also has a state income tax. Pay as you go state.

Hopefully we won't have to worry about California sullying the works for too much longer, they will be a rogue nation.

Edited April 27, 20187 yr by ocnblu

54 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

Hopefully we won't have to worry about California sullying the works for too much longer, they will be a rogue nation.

That will NEVER happen, the Feds rely on California for their budget way too much.

Top 15 states in order of federal tax collections.

Oh God- look at Jersey's numbers. Revenue per capita... why am I still here??

3 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Oh God- look at Jersey's numbers. Revenue per capita... why am I still here??

Just be glad your not in Mass or Minn those states gotta suck.

Jersey is worse than Mass- look again.

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

Jersey is worse than Mass- look again.

I understand the bigger over all number, but was looking at Mass bigger revenue per cap and % numbers which is bigger than Jersey. All still suck.

Where's lower, slower Delaware on the list?

7 hours ago, dfelt said:

I understand the bigger over all number, but was looking at Mass bigger revenue per cap and % numbers which is bigger than Jersey. All still suck.

MA per capita revenue is $12,011.
NJ per capita revenue is $12,564.
Yes; both suck but Jersey can brag it's #2 on this list. ?

Edited April 28, 20187 yr by balthazar

17 hours ago, balthazar said:

Oh God- look at Jersey's numbers. Revenue per capita... why am I still here??

There's a lot more wealth in NJ also. It comes from being the bedroom state for NYC and Philly.

Out in the middle of Pennsyltucky or even here in the smoldering ruins of former steel towns, there's not much revenue to collect on a dilapidated mobile home.

I would rather stick with a body-on-frame pickup truck, much more rugged.  The Tacomas are nice.  They just seem to go on and on and on.  The SR5 Access Cab 4X4 V6 comes nicely equipped.

40 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

I would rather stick with a body-on-frame pickup truck, much more rugged.  The Tacomas are nice.  They just seem to go on and on and on.  The SR5 Access Cab 4X4 V6 comes nicely equipped.

How easy would it be for Toyota to build a 4Runner EXT? 

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

How easy would it be for Toyota to build a 4Runner EXT? 

I imagine it would be relatively easy if they were into it.  I like the normal 4Runner, but the Limited looks so "tarted up", ugh.  The 4Runner in general sticks to a tried and true formula.

On 4/27/2018 at 8:31 PM, dfelt said:

That will NEVER happen, the Feds rely on California for their budget way too much.

Top 15 states in order of federal tax collections.

I wonder what the bottom 10 are...

50 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

I wonder what the bottom 10 are...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2018/04/06/states-highest-and-lowest-taxes-3-6/482944002/

On 4/28/2018 at 4:22 AM, balthazar said:

MA per capita revenue is $12,011.
NJ per capita revenue is $12,564.
Yes; both suck but Jersey can brag it's #2 on this list. ?

oops, yup overlooked that, totally sucks.

On 4/27/2018 at 7:31 PM, dfelt said:

That will NEVER happen, the Feds rely on California for their budget way too much.

Top 15 states in order of federal tax collections.

Yeah... sadly they have a massive economy out there. Aren't they in the top 10 in the world, just California? 

It is an interesting list.. I've lived in 3 of the top 15, and there are a 1/2 dozen others in there I'd consider living in (some w/ strong tech economies). 

Edited May 1, 20187 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar