Perfect? No,, but you get more than what you paid for
First, our other car is a new RX350 AWD for $12K more and we didn't need to have 2 crossovers in the family. That said. My wife and I reluctantly admit that the Santa Cruz drives better. A few safety and convenience features are superior by design and cost on the Lexus, as expected. For what you pay for Hyundai gives you a lot for the money.
The Ridgeline was my first choice before the Santa Cruz came out. The Honda offers more "utility" by virtue of it's more conventional size. Since I recognize that 90% of pick-up owners use a fraction of their trucks capabilities, I did not want to be that "91th%". So,, priorities for me... #1 from the drivers seat, "comfortness" and appeal, which includes "creature comforts" and gizmo tech.. #2 - of course I had to like the way it looked on the outside... #3 performance, or in this case capacity/ability. The Santa Cruz ticked all the right boxes. And while so many people said (correctly) that I could get a stripped 2WD F150 for the same price, I had to convince them that unless you use your F150 as a work truck, The Ford would have been a huge mistake if not a waste of money. Inferior drive an comfort,, a pain in the a$$ to park,, more fuel consumption without the performance gains,,, etc
After 3 Weeks of driving my white Limited, compared to the 3 previously mentioned vehicles, it's money well spent.
I'm different than most in that I keep my cars for at least 10 years, and they look half as old a that time. My point? I'm concerned that a turbo usually doesn't have the reputation for that kind of longevity,, the same can be said for the Hyundai's extremely complex dual clutch tranny. Check back here in 10 years for my update. ;)
Improvements? Yes,, overall 6" length increase,, 2" for the interior and 4" for the bed, and at least a manual height adjustment for the passenger front seat. That's all, It's pretty darn near perfect for me.
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