You can’t really go wrong with a pickup truck. They’re like the Swiss Army Knives of the automotive world. Wanna haul or pull some crap? There’s a bed and you can tow. Wanna carry people? There’s a number of cab configurations to suit your needs. Want one with luxury features that rival a BMW 7 Series or Genesis G90? You can drop six figures for a truck that’ll coddle you.
This isn’t to say that they’re all good. Take the Hyundai Santa Cruz, for example. It was first shown as a concept at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, and it took nearly a decade before the Santa Cruz went into production. The original concept was a cool-looking, Millennial-targeted extended cab crossover truck with a 190-horsepower turbodiesel engine that could get 30 mpg. What we got was a Tucson with a bed.
Don’t get me wrong, the Santa Cruz is a great looking little pickup, it’s just that the execution isn’t good. The bed has less usable space than the aforementioned Tucson does with its rear seats up, and carrying a bike means either removing one of the tires of the bike or having it hang over the tailgate. Its fuel economy isn’t as great as it could be, either. With the base engine the Santa Cruz gets 21 mpg city, 27 mpg highway and 23 mpg combined; you lose one mpg in the city and combined when you spring for the 281-hp turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive.
The Santa Cruz is less a pickup and more of a lifestyle vehicle masquerading as a pickup. In my opinion, that sadly might make it the worst pickup truck on the market right now and possible one of the worst ever made.
Now we ask you, Jalopnik reader. Aside from the obvious choice of the Tesla Cybertruck, what do you think is the worst pickup ever made? If there’s slim pickings out of the current offerings, you can go for something that’s not on sale anymore. Whatever it is, let us know in the comments.
