2023 Honda Ridgeline vs 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz

Being a newbie in a given field means having to catch up to established leaders, but it can also bring a different perspective. Hyundai has never sold a pickup truck in the United States, and its first effort is unlike anything else on the market.

The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is the first truly compact pickup to be sold in the U.S. in over a decade, and unlike conventional body-on-frame pickups, it features car-like unibody construction. This packaging sacrifices some capability, but that’s beside the point. Hyundai didn’t design the Santa Cruz to compete directly with conventional trucks. It doesn’t even call the Santa Cruz a pickup; it prefers the term “sport adventure vehicle.”

While it may win over some truck buyers who want a pickup that’s easier to park, the new Santa Cruz will appeal mainly to new-car buyers who want to replace a sedan or crossover SUV with something a bit more rugged.

To figure out where the Santa Cruz fits into the current automotive landscape, we spent a day driving it around on roads in and around its namesake California city. The test units were in U.S. specification. In Canada, Hyundai also offers Preferred, Preferred with the Trend Package, and Ultimate trim levels. We sampled the U.S. equivalent of the range-topping Santa Cruz Ultimate model for this test drive.

Trucks are the most popular vehicles in North America. We buy them for work, for play, and, let’s be honest, for posing. We slam them down, we jack them up, and we make them loud and imposing. We brag about them, too: how much power they make, how much weight they tow, how far they go off-road, and how reliable they are. Trucks are our pride, our joy, and for some people, our substitution for therapy.

The 2023 Honda Ridgeline is one of several midsize trucks you can buy, but it bucks convention, making it an outlier. For people who need a truck to tackle modest tasks and don’t want to live with the compromises inherent in a traditional pickup, the 2023 Ridgeline is perfect. Just don’t expect to fit in with the crowd described above.