2022 Tucson Hybrid Blue AWD vs Santa Cruz SEL AWD
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I tried to get the MSRPs similar but obviously the Tucson slightly overshot. A naturally aspirated Tucson is also a great value, but I liked the hybrid powertrain better and had this put together for myself as I'm still on the fence between Tucson Hybrid, SC, and Maverick Hybrid. Another competitor within Hyundai would be the Santa Fe SE AWD at $30,915 MSRP (all prices after destination and including a tow hitch if available). Same powertrain that way, about the same weight, similar fuel economy at 22/25/24, but still only 2K lbs tow rating, and still a bit shorter at 188.4. You have to bump up to a Santa Fe turbo trim to match the base Santa Cruz 3500lbs tow rating.
I guess it shouldn't be surprising, but there's actually a decent amount of competition between Hyundai vehicles themselves since often they share interiors and features and powertrains and are just slightly different body shapes or sizes.
I guess it shouldn't be surprising, but there's actually a decent amount of competition between Hyundai vehicles themselves since often they share interiors and features and powertrains and are just slightly different body shapes or sizes.
Honestly, if you don't need the bed, the Tucson hybrid is a fantastic option. I just wish they had released it last year when we were looking for a new SUV. Likely wouldn't have gone near the Equinox. But last year's Tucson was just a little smaller than we wanted. And I DO so love the look of them. A driveway with a Tucson parked next to a Santa Cruz would be epic.
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Yeah, its copied and pasted from the trim comparison tool on the build configurator off Hyundai USA, I just put them in a spreadsheet since they only let you compare two trims of the same vehicle, and not two of their different vehicles side by side.
The naturally aspirated Santa Cruz SEL trim is lighter than a fully loaded Limited with the turbo, since the latter has a lot of extra features added on. For the Santa Cruz Limited, you'd want to compare to a Tucson Limited which build out to a similar price, and the Tucson Limited does get nicer wheels and grill than its Blue trim, and it includes some things the SC Limited doesn't get like pano sunroof and remote automatic parking with the keyfob and memory driver's seat:
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Roof rails are more important on the Tucson I would think, and longer too which helps. Aesthetically, I like it without since it looks sleeker. Solar glass is a bit of a bummer since adding it aftermarket can be expensive and risks water intrusion, not sure why that wasn't included or if its merely a documentation oversight as I don't know why they wouldn't just use the same windshields as they look the same.
BTW, here's a base Tucson and Santa Cruz side by side:
They might look the same, but remember, the SC is about 3 inches wider than the Tucson, so definitely not the same. Similar in appearance, as brand siblings should be, but they share zero body panels between them.
That Tucson pictured doesn't have the roof rails? Apparently the Hybrid Blue does as indicated on your list, but other lower levels Tucson don't (?).
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I'm not so sure that the "width without mirrors" is because everything is scaled up. The shoulder and hip room inside measurements being exact down to the fractional inch makes me think that maybe the SC is just wider because it has fender flares.
You can kind of see on the mirrors how much closer the edges of the fender are to the end of the mirror compared to the Tucson. If so, the windshields might be interchangeable. Usually manufacturers try to share as many parts as possible across vehicles whenever practical.
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Yup, sorry I should have said that's a base naturally aspirated.
Probably part of the reason a base Tucson SE is $24,950 and a Hybrid Blue is $29,050, its not all just powertrain difference. The Tucson SE (naturally aspirated) also has a regular shifter like the Santa Cruz instead of a push button. Its actually the closer apples to apples comparison to a Santa Cruz SE/SEL, I just compared to a hybrid blue since the hybrid is what I would pick. Its not just more efficient, but the hybrid is 226hp combined.
You can click "compare trims" on this link to see the regular Tucson in comparison: Build Your Own Hyundai | Hyundai USA
$ to $ a Tucson SEL AWD would be the closest match at $29,185 to a Santa Cruz SEL, and it has the roof rails again then on that trim, as seen below (wish they had painted those wheels black, yech):
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SC is actually wider -- from the ground up. The track is an inch greater.
Tucson: 63.8 / 64.1, Santa Cruz: 64.7 / 64.9
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That doesn't really mean anything though. The track is just distance between the center of the tires on each side. If they took a Tucson and kept the interior width identical, which it appears they have, and just made the fenders more flared out with wider tires further out accordingly as well, you've increased the width and track but haven't really changed all that much to the chassis overall.
For example, a Charger/Challenger Widebody is much wider, as the name implies, than a regular Charger/Challenger, but the interior dimensions and windscreen and everything are identical, the widebody just has bigger fender flares and a wider track by virtue of having more spaced out and wider tires.
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Yeah, so the Tucson Hybrid they decided was too much of a hassle to just assemble here in the US, and instead just imported from Korea. That's fine because they also make the Tucson in Korea. But the Santa Cruz is supposed to be a North America only model, so unless they start building hybrid Santa Cruz's in Korea too, seems like that probably isn't on the table.
That said, I could see them just deciding to ship over hybrid engines from Korea to just start installing here for both the Tucson and SC if either: 1) The hybrids become really big sellers either in the Tucson or in the Maverick or 2) The SCs just don't sell well, in which case they will have to change things up.
I'm thinking that before we see a hybrid, we might just see the N-line people were hoping for after all. Even if its just an appearance package, if it supplemented or replaced the SEL Premium trim adding N-badged cloth/pleather special seats that look a little fancier than base cloth and black chrome package and maybe an inch lower stance, but staying cheap by deleting the rear window port and sunroof (under the excuse of weight savings or whatever), I'd also jump on that!
Then again, with my luck Hyundai would do what they did with the Tucson, where the N-line version that looks cool is mated to the lowest power 191hp 2.5 instead of putting it on the faster 226hp HEV or 261hp PHEV version.
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Wikki has updated their page for Hyundai. Now includes SC: List of Hyundai vehicles - WikipediaYeah, so the Tucson Hybrid they decided was too much of a hassle to just assemble here in the US, and instead just imported from Korea. That's fine because they also make the Tucson in Korea. But the Santa Cruz is supposed to be a North America only model, so unless they start building hybrid Santa Cruz's in Korea too, seems like that probably isn't on the table.
That said, I could see them just deciding to ship over hybrid engines from Korea to just start installing here for both the Tucson and SC if either: 1) The hybrids become really big sellers either in the Tucson or in the Maverick or 2) The SCs just don't sell well, in which case they will have to change things up.
I'm thinking that before we see a hybrid, we might just see the N-line people were hoping for after all. Even if its just an appearance package, if it supplemented or replaced the SEL Premium trim adding N-badged cloth/pleather special seats that look a little fancier than base cloth and black chrome package and maybe an inch lower stance, but staying cheap by deleting the rear window port and sunroof (under the excuse of weight savings or whatever), I'd also jump on that!
Then again, with my luck Hyundai would do what they did with the Tucson, where the N-line version that looks cool is mated to the lowest power 191hp 2.5 instead of putting it on the faster 226hp HEV or 261hp PHEV version.
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I can confirm sadly that the the windshields are NOT interchangeable. Thanks to a rock on the turnpike I'm getting mine replaced and it's been a several week wait since this is a new part.
I really hope this happens as to me it's the perfect setup for the Santa Cruz. With much better gas mileage, improved power and most importantly more torque available much earlier in the RPM range. It would make a great package and if they put a price on it in the $34k-$35k range I bet they would sell a bunch of them. I just wish they used the 8spd transmission in their hybrid models instead of the 6spd.
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