Pour One Out for the Hyundai Santa Cruz

"Anthony Miller" (ahmille4) 08/22/2016 at 20:00 • Filed to: None

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Image credit: Hyundai

If you’re a regular denizen of the internets like me and you occasionally read what attempts to pass for automotive news on the web, you may have heard about the Hyundai Santa Cruz. A half car, half truck, half MicroMachine conglomeration that for reasons that are beyond my understanding is supposedly considered “cool.” However, the Hyundai Santa Cruz is not cool, probably won’t ever be sold here, and will never deliver that sweet El Camino-y goodness people are looking for.

If you’re one of those people looking to fill the void left by your uncle’s “totally bangin’” Ford Ranchero, I am truly sorry, but it ain’t gonna happen and I am going to tell you why.

You see, you may have noticed that in order for a business to continue its existence, they have to do a little thing called turn a profit. Now, if you’re a car company, this can sometimes be difficult, particularly with all those brown, manual, diesel wagons that you’re throwing together on the old assembly line. Just to give you an idea about how slim that can be for some manufacturers, “old” General Motors (as in 2006 GM) was making across its entire model lineup, approximately $200 per vehicle. Per vehicle! To compare, Toyota made approximately $2,000 per vehicle at that time but both examples illustrate the point that selling cars can sometimes be a pretty tight business and that “old” General Motors was dumb.

But, but, but, but, but Hyundai is a totally DIFFERENT company and not nearly as wasteful as those giants GM and Toyota, says the man in the corner with the ponytail ready to plunk down his hard earned cash on a warmed over Subaru Baja.

Well my good sir! I have news for you! Hyundai is currently the fourth largest automobile manufacturer in the world, larger than Ford and even FIAT Chrysler. I can guarantee that they have the same issues with profits that all automakers struggle with. However, Hyundai has a bit of a reputation as an economy car maker and through their subsidiary Kia, they have a pretty good station in the basement of the auto market which probably has saved them some money through the years. I mean, you can’t continuously churn out vehicles like the Accent and expect not to make some money off of that. They probably cost whatever the bulk price of PVC is at this point. I mean, do they just stamp the Accent out? Also, what exactly are you Accent- ing? Wait, oh, sorry about that, where was I? AH, yes, Hyundai making money.

So, Mr. Ponytail, why should you care about all that cost-savings from stamping out Hyundai Accent s and Kia Rio s? Recently Hyundai decided to pursue the act of making money disappear by introducing the wildly successful Genesis Motors brand. Just kidding. Hyundai spun off their mildly successful full size sedans into their own brand because the crappiness of their own badge slowed sales down . This is important! The Hyundai badge might stand for cheap and reliable crap-cans but when they decided to move up-market, it didn’t work out too well. Making it in the luxury market is insanely expensive and if you want to guess where product development money is going to be headed for the next few years, it might not be a bad guess that the Genesis brand will be sucking up a healthy chunk of it.

But even more damning for our star-crossed car-truck are realistic sales numbers. Since the Santa Cruz will be competing against other actual trucks, lets take a look at some sales numbers shall we?

Between 2005 and 2015 small pickup sales averaged the following annual volumes. (Except the Baja, which was only produced between 2002 and 2006)

Toyota Tacoma - 148,113

Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon - 67,114

Nissan Frontier - 57,791

Honda Ridgeline - 23,411

Subaru Baja - 3,688

*All stats from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

By themselves these numbers are meaningless. However, by adding a little perspective to them, we can see just how delusional Hyundai is. A little help from a rather hopeful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! article can explain:

Internal studies suggest Hyundai could sell about 50,000 Santa Cruz pickups a year, and external studies put the figure as high as 70,000. The CEO said sales in that range “makes sense for us.”

Hyundai expects to sell 50,000 of their car based pickup ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) that has never actually seen the light of day OR been spotted testing and rumors are throwing dates like 2018 around. Sorry, let me put my serious face back on. The Honda Ridgeline, the only other unibody pickup design currently for sale has never sold more than 51,000 units in one year in its entire history. Subaru didn’t even sell 50,000 Bajas ever . So after all that bluster and all the journalists at the auto shows recovering from the vapors I am left to wonder. Did anyone actually really do the research on “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ”

Because, let us all be honest here, while the unwashed masses of Jalopnik may clamor for it, does the world really need another Subaru BRAT?

Wobbles the Mind > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 18:16

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I’ve been trying to figure out what is going on as well. How and where this will be built, what the price, power, and purpose will be, and so on. I will say that David Zuchowski is 100% correct in seeing how integral this vehicle will be for Hyundai (seriously, this will be an extremely important vehicle for the brand).

But something big is being projected in the industry since it looks as if by the time the Santa Cruz hits the market the US and Canada will also have:

A refreshed Tacoma, a refreshed Colorado, a refreshed Canyon, a refreshed Ridgeline, an all new Frontier, an all new Ranger, and an all new Jeep Pickup.

So seven midsize trucks from seven brands with a hell of a lot more cred, all brand new or significantly refreshed right when Hyundai releases the least truckable truck of the bunch. And with the chicken tax disappearing, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing luxury brands jumping into this midsize segment. Either way, there is something here and for the Korean executives to allow this through means there is something we don’t know about the future market that every automaker is already preparing for.

Hyundai does have one huge advantage though and that’s an easy position to push out a hybrid (maybe even a PHEV) small pickup with a throughly modern and urban attitude.

DynamicWeight > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 18:51

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The Ridgeline is nothing like the Santa Cruz. It costs as much as a truck, and it burns gas nearly like a full size truck. If the Santa Cruz was priced like a car, and got fuel economy like a car, people would more readily accept it’s limitations.

Jonee > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 19:28

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First of all, yes, the world does need another BRAT. Whether it thinks it does or not. But, I think there would be a hip market for the Santa Cruz. 50,000 seems pretty optimistic, but it would certainly find a niche because there’s nothing else like it. If they make it mod friendly, and cheap enough, it would have an audience.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 19:55

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It might be worth pointing out that such a beastie would not only be sold in the US but also into Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. So they’d comfortably sell more than 50,000 per annum.

Plus it won’t look like that...

I’d imagine it’ll have the same front end but down the back it’ll look like every other dual cab sport truck. Here’s the Renault Alaskan concept that is based on the Nissan which also serves as the basis for a new Mercedes-Benz...see anything familar with the Santa Cruz?

Dusty Ventures > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 19:58

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“does the world really need another Subaru BRAT?”

LongbowMkII > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 20:14

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What is this and what are you going on about?

My bird IS the word > Anthony Miller 08/22/2016 at 20:27

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Given that they probably won’t make this, It makes you wonder why they taunt enthusiasts (which are really the only people who care about pre production stuff)

Anthony Miller > LongbowMkII 08/23/2016 at 12:32

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I mean, did you read it? IF they make it, it’s not going to be profitable and just by doing some basic number crunching they probably will go off on some other new project.

Anthony Miller > DynamicWeight 08/23/2016 at 12:36

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And what exactly makes you think the Santa Cruz won’t? It’s going to be priced just like the rest of those I listed and will be competing against new offerings from Jeep and Ford, two manufacturers with WAY more history than Hyundai in that market.

And no, consumers won’t accept it’s limitations, when they can get a similarly priced and more capable “crossover” with a hatch rather than a bed.

Anthony Miller > Dusty Ventures 08/23/2016 at 12:36

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I mean, I loved them too but really?

DynamicWeight > Anthony Miller 08/23/2016 at 14:10

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But that’s what I’m saying. It shouldn’t be similarly priced. The picture you posted makes it look car sized. Even the Baja was as long as a wagon. If it came out and was 20k for a 2wd and 25k for a AWD, plus got 25-30mpg, it could be a competitor.

That was and continues to be the problem with the Ridgeline. It is priced, sized, and burns gas like a full size truck, or at least near enough as makes no difference. Plus it’s ugly. If the Santa Cruz is smaller, handles like a car, and has a nice little bed for sports equipment and other dirty items twenty something need to haul around, it could be really nice to own. I’ve personally moved on from this, but from 20-28 this is exactly what I wanted.

I don’t see why the Santa Cruz has to be priced the same as small trucks. It looks like it’s smaller than other cars. Shouldn’t it be comparable to a Tuscon? Reasonably equipped for 25k? Does it really cost that much to chop off the roof?

LongbowMkII > Anthony Miller 08/23/2016 at 14:46

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Nah. Once it went into the “herp derp, Jalops don’t buy cars.” Cliche it quickly became tl;dr.

Anyways this wasn’t a car-truck, this would have been a crossover-truck like the Ridgeline. Not even close to a fantasy ute that haunts our fevered dreams.

VW should bring back the caddy.

Anthony Miller > LongbowMkII 08/23/2016 at 16:37

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So you didn’t read it, because I never actually said Jalops don’t buy cars. Jalops buy plenty of cars, it just so happens this is a cool concept that jalops happened to like but I doubt will reach success.

My point was that this is not going to be a competitive vehicle because the market isn’t there for it.

Also, crossover/truck and car/truck is a meaningless difference, crossovers are meant to drive like cars any way so it is a moot point. Unibody and based on the Tuscon it is likely going to be even smaller than the Ridgeline and just as compromised.

Anthony Miller > DynamicWeight 08/23/2016 at 16:40

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That’s a really good point about the Ridgeline, but when Hyundai started talking about developing new engines for this I stated getting nervous. I suppose we will see, this is just my hot take after all. ¯\_()_/¯

DynamicWeight > Anthony Miller 08/23/2016 at 17:56

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Yeah, just my opinion too of course. I guess since I just bought a Tacoma out of frustration with lack of options for what I wanted, I get a little defensive when people poo poo having more options in the market. Now, I love my Tacoma, and I guess it was fine after all, and maybe even if I would have gotten exactly what I wanted I wouldn’t have liked it as much... but it was still frustrating not to have the options to go check out.

I would have really liked having the Santa Cruz as a cheaper option 5 years ago when I wasn’t making as much money as I am now. I think it would have really fit my lifestyle. I don’t know if there are enough people like me, but I think there may be. I certainly see a lot at the trail heads. And nearly every one of them is showing up in a small cross over or a body on frame truck. Smush the two together and you’ve got the Santa Cruz.

Edit: I reread what I wrote and now I think I sound like Tobias:

Anthony Miller > DynamicWeight 08/23/2016 at 18:26

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+1 for the Arrested Development reference.

Zohaibman72 > Anthony Miller 08/24/2016 at 21:36

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