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Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup with four doors, five seats, due around 2020

You could boil three years of coverage on the Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup to a question mark. The "crossover truck" debuted at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, then got swallowed in the executive turmoil at Hyundai Motor America. Reuters reported last year that the Santa Cruz would finally arrive by 2020 as part of the South Korean carmaker's push into SUVs. Motor Trend recently spoke to Brian Smith, the COO at HMA, and got a crucial detail on the eventual truck. Forget about the sleek, two-door concept from Detroit — the actual item will be a "four-door ... that seats five." The redesigned Hyundai Tucson is also due in 2020, the compact crossover providing the platform for the Santa Cruz. If connecting the dots is really this simple, it mean's we'll be getting Hyundai's version of the Honda Ridgeline, the only unibody compact pickup on sale in the U.S. at the moment. And that makes us wonder how the Santa Cruz will fare whenever it gets here. Anyone who wanted to put money down on something similar to the highly popular concept has been booted from the game. They've been replaced by those who can be lured by an alternative to the Ridgeline, but the questions are how many buyers is that, and will the production Santa Cruz be the right truck to close the deal? In 2016, then-CEO Dave Zuchowski said Hyundai research showed the possibility of moving at least 50,000 pickups a year, and other studies suggested 70,000 sales could be possible. Even at the low end, that suggests a remarkable pent-up demand for the kind of truck that's never succeeded in the U.S. The Ridgeline sold 34,749 units in 2017, and numbers are down nearly 30 percent down so far this year. Meanwhile, the body-on-frame (BOF) GMC Canyon sold 32,106 units last year, and it was merely piggybacking on the Chevrolet Colorado, which did 112,996 sales. Even the BOF Nissan Frontier, last refreshed during the Bronze Age, sold 74,360 models. What's more, by the time the Santa Cruz gets here, the new BOF Ford Ranger will revel in actual pent-up demand, and the really cool kids will still be cooing over their new BOF Jeep Wrangler pickup. Looking back at the Ridgeline space, we await word from Volkswagen on the fate of the Tanoak concept. Hyundai could choose to take a stand in the unibody pickup segment on price; the Ridgeline whips up its own headwinds by charging $8,000 more than a Canyon, $11,000 more than a Frontier. Still, a Tucson with a bed, that is two years away ...

2018 Hyundai Sonata Sport Quick Spin Review | Returning to the revolution

The 2018 Hyundai Sonata represents a course correction of the sort that just wasn't needed with the previous-generation model. Besides a few added features here and there, that car really didn't change much during the course of its lifetime, and frankly, it didn't need to. When something works, don't screw it up. It arrived at a time when Honda and Toyota were pretty much phoning it in, and boasted a revolutionary design that quite literally changed the way midsize family sedans look to this day. Toyota designer Ian Cartabiano told me that Sonata was one of the few cars over the years that made his fellow designers wake up a bit and realize the game was changing. Then, after staging a revolution, Hyundai played it safe. The Sonata introduced three years ago was conservative to the point of anonymity outside, while not really moving the needle on the vehicle dynamics front. If there was one, clear area where that revolutionary Sonata fell short -- and indeed virtually every Hyundai -- it was in the sophistication and poise it demonstrated out on the road. Well, after the cool reception to the model redesign, Hyundai got a wake up call of its own. This 2018 Hyundai Sonata gets a rather significant facelift, adopting the curvy trapezoidal grille found on more recently introduced models, and ditching its conservative anonymity for a more organic overall appearance certainly in keeping with its "Fluidic Sculpture" predecessor. The rear was also redone with more tapered, dare I say "aggressive" taillights and the license plate relocated to the bumper. Is the end result a great-looking car? Shoulder shrug, but it's sure better than before. Compare the 2018 Hyundai Sonata to its rivals using the Autoblog Compare Cars tool. 2018 Hyundai Sonata Sport View 5 Photos However, I knew the 2018 Sonata looked different. I was quite frankly not expecting it to drive different, because when you review cars long enough, you start to know what a particular brand's cars feel like behind the wheel. There'll be subtle changes over the years, but the language remains the same. Well, the Sonata has been hitting the Rosetta Stone. The change is immediately apparent. The on-center steering feel is crisp, the turn-in more immediate and effort is consistent. It just feels "right" now whereas before turning the Sonata was one of numb indifference.

11 Hyundai Genesis deliver a message to space

Hyundai is channeling a little of the style from 2001: A Space Odyssey in a heartwarming video about a young girl named Stephanie trying to get a very big message to her dad. Since he is an astronaut who orbits Earth in the International Space Station, her father isn't exactly an easy guy to get a hold of. Hyundai came to her aid with a cadre of 11 Genesis sedans driving in precise formation across a dry lakebed. In the end, the stunt also netted the automaker a Guinness World Record for the largest tire track image. It covered about 2.15 square miles and was visible to Stephanie's dad in orbit. Check out the video to see Stephanie's message and watch some precision driving from a group of Hyundais set to some classical music. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: Guinness World Records, HyundaiWorldwide via YouTube Auto News Marketing/Advertising Weird Car News Hyundai Videos Sedan guiness book of world records guiness world record