Hyundai's Santa Cruz is getting ever-closer to making, finally, its big debut. The new truck even appears on the company's Canadian website, but you can't see its price yet. The U.S. website doesn’t yet provide any more on that front, but that will change momentarily since the company has just announced pricing for the American market.
While we don't have official Canadian pricing, the U.S. announcement gives us an idea of where the vehicle will fit in its class. And that allows us to make some guesstimates. We dusted off and polished up our math skills to try to figure out Canadian pricing for the model.
In the U.S., Hyundai has priced its new model at $25,175 USD. That's more than the Maverick recently unveiled by Ford and given a starting price of $21,490 USD. Here in Canada, MSRP for that model is set at $25,900.
Of particular interest is that the Santa Cruz is being priced lower than the Honda Ridgeline – significantly lower, in fact: the Ridgeline's base price in the U.S. is $36,490. Of course, we'll have to see when we compare the models and the product offerings. Given such a difference in starting price, it's quite possible the Honda truck is more fully equipped than will be the Hyundai. Time will tell, but what seems clear is that the Santa Cruz, in base configuration, will be more comparable to the Ford Maverick.
We're also going to avoid comparing prices and equipment for each of the variants, because there are always differences between the Canadian and American offerings. However, we do note that the most powerful and well-equipped version of the Santa Cruz is priced at $40,455 in the U.S.
As we wait for official Canadian pricing, we can speculate further by comparing the U.S. version’s pricing with other Hyundai products. The U.S. price for the base version of the Santa Fe SUV, for example, is $27,200, while here, it's $31,399, or $4,200 more. Applying the same “conversion” rule, we end up with a possible Canadian price of $29,375 for the Santa Cruz.
So it's quite possible that we'll end up with something at $29,599 or $29,999, just to harmonize the way the offer is spread out at Hyundai. And if that is so, with a base price under $30,000, the Santa Cruz will be an attractive proposition for many buyers.
Stay tuned as we wait to find out if our math and deduction skills are on point or off the mark.
