2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz
The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz is a four-door compact pickup truck manufactured and marketed by Hyundai. The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz shines as an urban pickup with stylish looks, a comfortable ride and parking, and a bed size that’s perfect for small errands and big outdoor adventures. The Hyundai Santa Cruz is based on the Tucson crossover SUV and uses a unibody chassis design. Industry analysts expected the Santa Cruz to attract car or crossover buyers rather than people with a larger, traditional pickup truck.
Santa Cruz is marketed as a “sport adventure vehicle”, it is closely related to the fourth-generation Tucson, sharing the same project code, production site, and dashboard design. Hyundai Santa Cruz also features similar styling introduced on the fourth-generation Tucson, with its front end dominated by the grille with integrated daytime running lights. The Santa Cruz comes with a front-wheel drive suspension as its base and can be upgraded to HTRAC all-wheel drive.
The HTRAC system allows the rear wheels to receive up to fifty percent of the driving power via a center differential with a locking clutch. The Santa Cruz is equipped with a strut suspension for the front wheels and a multi-link independent suspension at the rear. The rear suspension is equipped with self-leveling shock absorbers to maintain the level of the truck even when there is weight in the bed or trailer on the hitch.
2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz : Interior
Inside, the Santa Cruz features an upscale interior with premium materials and comfortable front seats. The Santa Cruz boasts one of the nicest cabins among the compact and midsize pickup truck segments. It’s the first truck in its class to offer a fully digital gauge cluster, and we like that it has a traditional shifter on the center console instead of a rotary knob or push buttons. Additional practical trunk features include a pair of side storage bins with a household-style power outlet in the passenger side bin, LED lighting in the bed, and a variety of tie-down points.
Santa Cruz Base, SE, and SEL models come standard with an eight-inch infotainment touchscreen. The SEL can be equipped with a larger 10.3-inch screen, all three versions above come with it. Crisp graphics and smooth operation are pluses; However, we believe the company’s decision to omit any physical controls is a misstep. Hyundai’s digital features include wireless device charging, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and Hyundai’s Blue Link services provided free for three years. With Blue Link, owners can do things like lock and unlock doors remotely and start the Santa Cruz using an app, the internet, or Amazon Alexa. Inside, the Santa Cruz has the best sounds are achieved with the Bose premium audio setup, but it’s only available on the Limited trim.
2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz : Engine
The Hyundai Santa Cruz’s standard 191-horsepower four-cylinder engine is adequate but unrewarding. Nice enough for commuting and running errands, its limitations become evident during a high-speed merge or when fully loaded with passengers and gear. On the plus side, the eight-speed automatic transmission makes the most of the available power, offering smooth shifts and quickly finding the right gear when called upon. The available 281-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder delivers significantly improved acceleration and driver confidence, and transforms the truck’s personality for the better.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is equipped with the base engine and standard front-wheel drive, the Santa Cruz returns an EPA-estimated 22 mpg city and 26 mpg on the highway. Adding the all-wheel drive costs a measly 1 mpg in each metric, at 21 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway. The Hyundai is one of the most fuel-efficient compact pickup trucks currently available, with only the Ford Maverick Hybrid posting better numbers. Turbocharged Santa Cruz models, in which the AWD is standard get 19/27 mpg city/highway.
2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz : Safety
The Santa Cruz offers a range of driver-assist technologies, including standard driver attention warning and available adaptive cruise control. For more information on Santa Cruz crash test results, visit the websites of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Hyundai Santa Cruz safety features include Stop-and-go Adaptive Cruise Control, Blind Spot Monitoring, Forward Collision Warning, Blind Spot Camera, Lane Departure Warning, Traffic Alert rear transverse, front automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, and driver attention. monitoring, surround-view camera system, lane keep assist, rearview camera, lane centering assist, traffic sign recognition, automatic high beams, seat tear alert, and rain-sensing wipers.