Maverick or Santa Cruz

[pjlawton]

My neighbors just bought his and her White Santa Cruz's. One has tow package one does not. Why they wanted two, who knows. They paid 2.5K ADM for for each of them. Back in the summer when I looked at one they were asking 10K ADM. To me Santa Cruz is not really a truck, just a car with a bed like the old El Caminos. It's okay but to me, my Maverick is a truck. Two things I do like with the Santa Cruz, hard roll-n-lock style bed cover and the little hidden storage area in the bed. But, I think I'll keep my Mav thank you very much. What do you think, Mav or Santa Cruz.

Sponsored

 

[06Warrior]

To each their own but I’ll take the Maverick over the SC. Just don’t care for the styling of SC.

 

[davidalexispr]

Seing the offroad capabilities of both I love the FX4 Mav, followed by the tuck feel of the Mav vs the Elantra feeling of the Santacruz, Maverick all the way.

 

[Clarkdonbran]

No hybrid no go.

 

[pxpaulx]

I've finally seen a santa cruz in person. I do like the look of it more than I thought I would, but agree it is not as functional as my Maverick. The bed had the rolling cover, and while nice, it looks like you get maybe 3 feet of open bed with it retracted? Not very functional - can barely fit a single mountain bike in there sideways. I prefer the matte canvas look of my hard rolling truxedo anyway. And it would've cost multiple thousands more so there is that too...

 

[JASmith]

Styling aside, they are both more or less twins of one another with the Maverick being a pickup based on the Escape platform and the Santa Cruz being a pickup based on the Tucson platform. Styling and the base powertrains are the most extreme differences.

No hybrid no go.

Yeah, Hyundai has said they will add a hybrid, but when? They already offer the 1.6T Hybrid in the Tucson on which the Santa Cruz is based, but it may not even be until a mid-cycle refresh. The 2.5 has similar power to the Maverick hybrid, but seems people are averaging around 24mpg mixed vs the Maverick hybrid's 36mpg mixed per fuelly. Only real benefit of the base engine in the Santa Cruz is that it gets 1500lbs more tow capacity than the Mav hybrid and optional AWD for $1500.

Until they offer the Santa Cruz SE or SEL in hybrid or with the turbocharged engine, I'm passing. The tonneu, sunroof, rear window port, and so forth that they bundle with the turbo makes the turbo engine too expensive for me. In Canada though you can get a AWD turbo without any frills in a base model but with the black chrome package for only $31K after conversion rate. So Hyundai is already making that trim in Alabama, but for some reasons only letting Canadians buy in that spec.

So for Canadians, I think the Mav AWD turbo and SC AWD turbo are in a much closer race.

 

[CASD57]

For my needs, and Driver experience, I went with a Santa Cruz and let two Maverick's go back to the Dealer .
I personally didn't like the interior of the Maverick's and I didn't care for the seats and the way the Steering felt very weighted(top heavy) and the 2.0 was noisy
I'm not saying the SC 2.5 is much quieter but it is..
The hood on the Maverick is pretty light weight and flexes a lot.. .. Yikes
But honestly I liked the Truck looks of the Maverick better and the hybrid...Excellent! knocking out of the Park Ford!!

Overall both needed to be built, We needed a small Truck again!! I'm a long time small truck lover...Toyota's...Chevy Luv....Etc..,

Driver experience.....
The Maverick is a Small Truck and drives like one...
The Santa Cruz is a Sport Truck and drives like a SUV...

 

[B_kiz]

My wife says they look like flipflops and I can't unsee it

 

[James L. Harrison]

My neighbors just bought his and her White Santa Cruz's. One has tow package one does not. Why they wanted two, who knows. They paid 2.5K ADM for for each of them. Back in the summer when I looked at one they were asking 10K ADM. To me Santa Cruz is not really a truck, just a car with a bed like the old El Caminos. It's okay but to me, my Maverick is a truck. Two things I do like with the Santa Cruz, hard roll-n-lock style bed cover and the little hidden storage area in the bed. But, I think I'll keep my Mav thank you very much. What do you think, Mav or Santa Cruz.

The Maverick looks like a truck to me; the Santa Cruz doesn't. So much so that it's a real turn-off for me. YMMV...

 

[pxpaulx]

On the subject of the tonneau - aftermarket SC support is abysmal - Ford's name appears to be the defining factor here, as you can pick from pretty much any option out there (soft and hard roll/fold, retracting, etc). Unless I'm missing something I see 7 options on tonneauworld.com, 6 of which are varying levels of soft-rolling covers with one hard folding. That would be disappointing.

So you're basically hard retractable OEM or bust when it comes to an SC tonneau, and that box to store it is HUGE in that bed.

 

[CASD57]

I

My wife says they look like flipflops and I can't unsee it

can't unsee this LOL

 

[SkeeterB]

Maverick all the way.

 

[Angry Hippo]

I shopped and compared both of these vehicles (but have not done a test drive).

Ultimately I decided on the Maverick. A few key considerations were:

Santa Cruz has whack color options. No red of any shade? White is the only half-way reasonable color they offer.

The 100% 'touch sensitive' controls. No way. Give me nobs and buttons, please.

Mav wins on bed size.

Looks on the Maverick are more truck like.

Most reviewers seemed to prefer the Maverick over the Santa Cruz for drive feel and light off road capability.

The Hyundai warranty was mighty enticing, though.

Ultimately I decided I could buy a Ford 'truck' or some weird foreign thing. I went with the truck.

I had a bad experience with an '05 Kia Sportage V6 AWD that would randomly go into limp mode and no one could ever fix. Been sour on the Kia/Hyundai brand ever since. (Counterpoint: The Sportage went 195,000+ miles on the original drive train and was still running when I sold it) My '06 Spectra is on 110,000 miles and has still never needed anything but tires, brakes, belts and fluids - Caveat: The cd player doesn't work, radio only these days... and the passenger side vanity mirror came unglued)

 

[Pickles]

My neighbors just bought his and her White Santa Cruz's. One has tow package one does not. Why they wanted two, who knows. They paid 2.5K ADM for for each of them. Back in the summer when I looked at one they were asking 10K ADM. To me Santa Cruz is not really a truck, just a car with a bed like the old El Caminos. It's okay but to me, my Maverick is a truck. Two things I do like with the Santa Cruz, hard roll-n-lock style bed cover and the little hidden storage area in the bed. But, I think I'll keep my Mav thank you very much. What do you think, Mav or Santa Cruz.

I actually hate the bed cover on the santa cruz. Its a 4.5 foot box… i cant spare to lose the front foot of it.

mav… naturally since im on this forum, for the following reasons:

1. Price: santa cruz in canada starts 12k higher than mav
2. Towing: i know santa cruz technically has a higher rating… but you cant get a 7 pin connector… so you can pull 5k but cant stop… seems unwise
3. I trust ford to make a truck more than hyundai
4. IMO maverick aesthetics = bueno. Santa cruz aesthetics = no bueno

 

[Crispy]

Here's the difference..., I wanted a small truck in January. I ordered a Maverick. I will probably not get it in 2022.

I went to my Hyundai dealer told him exactly what I wanted and had it in three weeks at MSRP.

Hyundai can deliver. Ford can't.

(Yes, my Maverick is still on order. Yes, I'll probably still get it for my son.)

Sponsored