[BahamaTodd]

I thought I would share my thoughts on the situation.

If the Santa Cruz is still in the plans, it looks like they decided to do a normal introduction timeline where you might get a production teaser a few months before the actual unveiling. The vehicle was always at least 2-3 years away.

It would actually be pretty unusual for a company to announce something will be going into production development several years before it goes on sale.
Several issues if you do make an early announcement:

• It tells the competition what you are doing and gives them time to respond;
• You lock in buyer's design expectations which gives Hyundai less freedom to make changes to make the vehicle more suitable for production;
• Most importantly, people become impatient since they do they not realize that the average development cycle time can range anywhere from 3 to 7 years, which is a very long time.

We do know that Hyundai has been working on the design for at least 2 years now so unless there was a major change it should still be on track for production in about 2 years.

For comparison, the previous generation Camaro also went through a similar situation. The Camaro concept was unveiled in January 2006 to much fanfare. The production version did not go on sale until the 2010 model year. Here is a car which took already existing powertrains and platform, and still took 4 years between concept and production.

 

[Jay_LHD3]

I agree.

The only difference with the Camaro, and I bought a 2010 model, was that we had Scott Settlemire (aka Fbodfather) keeping the community online and offline in the know... for at least what we were allowed to know. His love for the Camaro assured the faithful that the car was in good hands. Most agree if it wasn't for him pushing GM to bring the Camaro back, from inside the company, they wouldn't had. Google Cheverolet Scott Settlemire to understand more.

With Hyundai it just went silent... I only hear crickets!

 

[BahamaTodd]

Uhhh... Keep the faith?

Don't worry, we'll soon see test mules and people will complain about some pre-production part not looking right... like the headlights... lol

 

[Jay_LHD3]

Sorry for getting side-tracked. Brain oversteer got away from me there!

 

[Santana]

Uhhh... Keep the faith?

Don't worry, we'll soon see test mules and people will complain about some pre-production part not looking right... like the headlights... lol

Fortunately in this case the Santa Cruz concept is quite simple for a concept which makes it easier for us to visualize what a production model could look like. All someone has to do to build reasonable expectations is to see what was done in the past from concept to production. So, it's that thought process we need to operate from, for those that haven't developed it.