Of all the models that have been retired lately, the Hyundai Santa Cruz may be our least favorite to see go. We've been singing this pickup's praises for a while now, naming it as one of the most underrated vehicles in any segment. It's fairly capable for its size, towing up to 5,000 pounds, and it's an easy truck to live with day to day.Introduced in 2021 for the 2022 model year, the Santa Cruz will be riding off into the sunset after the 2026 model year, with reports of a larger Hyundai pickup on the way. The Santa Cruz definitely had its fans, but, selling just 23,962 units in 2025, it clearly lacked the mainstream appeal it needed to stay in the game. So, what exactly did Hyundai do wrong? The Hyundai Santa Cruz Is A Very Easy Truck To Like Hyundai For its final model year, the Hyundai Santa Cruz is available with a naturally-aspirated Smartstream engine generating 191 horsepower, with a maximum towing capacity of 3,500 lbs., or you can turbocharge it with the Limited or XRT trim for 281 horses and 5,000 lbs of towing capacity.A naturally-aspirated 2026 Santa Cruz will average 24 miles per gallon in all-wheel drive, or 25 mpg in front-wheel drive. The turbocharged variants are AWD-only, averaging 20 mpg. According to the EPA, this puts your annual gasoline bill at anywhere from $2,400 to $3,000, assuming 15,000 miles a year, split 45/55 between highway and city driving.When it comes to the cabin, you expect a daily-driver pickup to compete with comparable SUVs these days, and the Santa Cruz does not disappoint in that regard. We especially like the XRT trim with its big 12.3-inch infotainment and instrument panel screens on a futuristic panoramic curved display. The seats are comfortable, and the layout feels intuitive, although adult passengers may feel a bit cramped in the second row.Performance is assisted by a towing mode in the turbo models, and you've got a cargo bed volume of 27 cubic feet, so it's a handy work truck, even if it's not the biggest thing on the market.We would even name the Santa Cruz one of the better-looking pickups on the road today, with its sleek, aerodynamic lines setting it apart from the more utilitarian-looking trucks coming from American automakers. So, with so much to like about this truck, what exactly did Hyundai do wrong? The Market Just Didn't Take To The Hyundai Santa Cruz Hyundai Going over the Hyundai Santa Cruz's sales numbers every year since it was introduced in late 2021, here's what we get.We've seen automakers thriving with smaller sales numbers than these, but, if Hyundai wanted this truck to go head-to-head with the Ford Maverick (155,051 sales in 2025), it definitely wasn't doing that. A facelift in 2024, for the 2025 model year, gave the truck a sleek new front-end, updated tech, and that flashy panoramic screen.This facelift was followed by the truck's worst sales year yet. We didn't attend the meeting where Hyundai made the call to scrap this truck, but we have to assume that the facelift's failure to boost sagging sales was at least mentioned as a factor in the decision. Whatever Hyundai's sales goals may have been for this truck, it clearly didn't meet them. Lessons Learned Hyundai To get an idea of what the Santa Cruz did wrong, we can take a look at what the Ford Maverick did right. First of all, the Maverick is a hybrid. Many American drivers remain hesitant to make the switch to electric (and Ford itself paid the price for that with the F-150 Lightning, which may not see another generation as an EV), but hybrids have proven very popular. Santa Cruz shares a platform with the Hyundai Tucson, which is available as a hybrid, so the decision not to bring a hybrid pickup to market is, well, befuddling.Second, we like the look of the Santa Cruz, but the typical American truck-buyer clearly does not. An entry-level Santa Cruz weighs in at roughly the same curb weight as an entry-level Maverick, both sitting around 3,700 lbs., but the Maverick's squared-off line work and strong corners echoes the design of its big brother, while the Santa Cruz brings to mind utility coupes like the El Camino, rather than hard-working pickups like the Toyota Tundra and the Ram 1500.Hyundai is reportedly taking another shot at the pickup segment, looking to bring a mid-size body-on-frame truck to market, and competing more directly with the Ford Ranger than with the Maverick. What Will A Hyundai Santa Cruz Cost You In 2026? Hyundai The 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz is available in five trims.If you're in the market for a brand-new pickup, we can happily recommend any one of these models. But, a used model might be the smarter way to get your hands on a Hyundai pickup. Checking with our own trending price tool, we find that entry-level pricing has barely fallen off from MSRP. But, you can save more than $10,000 on a used turbocharged model.Prices are nice and low right now, but, last we checked, values are slowly and steadily appreciating. With this being the last year to buy a new Santa Cruz, we expect prices to continue ticking upwards as the truck becomes scarcer. We were able to dig up the following listings via the CarBuzz marketplace. Note that these listings are only provided to give you an example of what's out there, as we have no idea what will be for sale in your area when you're ready to buy. A 58,873-mile 2022 Limited is selling for $18,999 in Florida. An 86,770-mile 2023 SEL is selling for $18,995 in Virginia. A 29,109-mile 2023 SEL is selling for $19,400 in Florida. A 41,472-mile 2023 SEL is selling for $19,800 in Texas. A 24,958-mile 2024 SEL is selling for $19,600 in Nevada. If you budget $20,000 for the purchase, you should be able to buy just about any version of the Hyundai Santa Cruz you want with low miles.The truck is fairly cheap to maintain, too, with RepairPal estimating an annual maintenance cost of just $468, with all the most expensive common tasks being diagnostics and inspections averaging $122 to $179. So this is a cheap truck that's cheap to own. You don't need to worry about the hidden costs with this one.Hyundai The Santa Cruz was an awkward fit for the market, but a great pickup. We've been hyping this truck up ever since it first hit the market, and we're probably going to keep hyping it up for years to come. The Santa Cruz is reliable, capable, efficient, and affordable, it's just not what the typical American truck-buyer is looking for.