2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited AWD

Let's start with the first surprise: When is the last time you heard someone say "Man…that's one fun to drive truck?"

Well…we heard that Hyundai's baby pickup was coming for years now. The question was: "OK…Hyundai's not known for pickups. What's it going to be like?"

And like most questions, there's often more than one answer, and with the Santa Clara, how you spec it out answers a lot of questions.

But let's go back to the obvious question: Is Hyundai's new Santa Cruz really a truck?

After all, the Santa Cruz is a front ( or all-wheel-drive ) unibody "trucklet" with a 4-foot, 3-inch bed. How "truck" is that?

The answer? It's all the truck that many of us need.

We got lucky and tested a top of the line AWD Limited.

That got us Hyundai's strong 2.5 liter, 281 HP turbo four with an 8-speed dual clutch automatic,

And what was that like? Pretty much like driving a luxury sport sedan that just happened to have a big open space in the back that could hold most of a 10-foot kayak.

The surprises? The quiet…the comfortable ride…the acceleration and the corner hugging handling. This is a daily-driver that's a joy to drive and park…and you can just hose out the bed after a weekend run down to the lawn and garden store.

More surprises? The styling. With no history of making pickups, kudos to Hyundai for not trying to design a "Mini-Mack Truck". Instead they give you the same aggressive creases and angles that you'll find in their newly-designed Tucson SUV.

And perhaps this is why Hyundai simply calls their new Santa Cruz a "Sports Adventure Vehicle". It's all about being able to just "throw and go"…and hose out after you're done.

But that's not to say that the Santa Cruz isn't able to do its fair share of the chores. Equip it right and with AWD it'll tow up to 5,000 lbs.

And since we're talking about hauling, all Santa Cruzes are four-doors with room for five. If there's just two or three of you, the rear seats can flip up separately, giving you room for bulky items…and all Santa Cruzes have a lockable storage area under that composite bed that can be used as a cooler if you like.

Option it up and enjoy a remote tailgate, LED lighting, 20" alloys and all kinds of bed dividers plus heated and ventilated leather, heated steering, Bose premium audio, and just about all of today's safety features.

While pricing hasn't been finalized yet, figure on high $30's or more for "the works". But if you don't need 291 HP, SE and SEL trims come standard with 191 HP and a conventional 8-speed automatic and start in the low to mid $20's. You'll probably average mid-to high 20's MPGs either way.

I may be wrong, but I predict that you'll start seeing more and more of these on the road…with more similar vehicles to follow from several other manufacturers.