The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Is Proof That Even A Texan Can Enjoy A Small Truck
It’s easy to write off the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. It’s the company’s first-ever pickup for North America, but it’s not the kind of truck most Americans picture. Based on the Tucson, it’s a unibody design, considered “small” by U.S. standards, and comes standard with front-wheel drive. It’s a crossover with a truck bed, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But these days, maybe it should be.
As a fellow Texan, I find it amusing that we’re both fans of small trucks. I haven’t driven the refreshed Santa Cruz, but I drove one a couple of years ago and thought it was quite good for what it is. Let’s see what Alanis thinks…
Why This Car Exists
The Hyundai Santa Cruz initially appeared as a concept in 2015, and Hyundai called it a “crossover-truck” for “urban adventurer millennial lifestyles.” The production Santa Cruz debuted in 2021 for the 2022 model year. While the production model retained a similar shape to the concept, it featured a new design language that, in my opinion, removed one of the best features of the concept: coach doors!
The Santa Cruz is a reflection of the modern U.S. car market. It’s an affordable, outdoorsy compact vehicle designed with adventure aesthetics in mind, from its plastic cladding to its bright-red exposed recovery hooks. It offers an alternative to the $100,000 luxury pickups for a different audience. As American trucks continue to grow in size, the Santa Cruz fills an important niche.
In Texas, where I live, newly constructed 1,700-square-foot homes often come with a two-car garage, but many large modern trucks don’t fit. Consequently, I see these trucks parked in driveways and on the street, exposed to the elements. Full-size trucks are getting larger, and homes aren’t keeping up, which explains why people might opt for something smaller like the Santa Cruz. Practical adventure vehicles are also a growing trend in America, especially since the pandemic, when people sought ways to escape their homes and cities and connect with nature.
The Santa Cruz competes with other unibody adventure vehicles, like the Ford Bronco Sport and Honda Passport Trailsport, both of which I’ve taken off-road and enjoyed. I’ve observed a rise in outdoor-oriented vehicles and buyers this decade, even if those vehicles rarely leave paved roads. I’ve asked several automotive product planners if pandemic-induced adventure cravings influenced their decisions, and they’ve confirmed this.
The Santa Cruz feels similar.
2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT: The Basics
In America in 2025, the Santa Cruz is available in five trims: SE, SEL, SEL Activity, XRT, and Limited. The base SE trim starts at $28,750 and comes with a 191-horsepower, four-cylinder engine, an 8-speed automatic transmission, and a towing capacity of up to 3,500 pounds. Front-wheel drive is standard, and all-wheel drive is a $1,500 option.
The SE, SEL, and SEL Activity trims all have the 191-horsepower engine. The top two trims, XRT and Limited, get 281 horsepower and all-wheel drive as standard.
- Price: $28,750 base ($41,810 as tested)
- Engine: 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder turbo
- Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
- Drivetrain: All-wheel drive (AWD)
- Power: 281 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque
- Fuel Economy: 18 mpg city, 26 highway, and 21 combined
- Body Style: 5-seat unibody pickup
What It Looks Like
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is… cute. It might not be what truck buyers want to hear, but it’s true. It is a crossover with a bed cut out of the back, giving it a rounded and adorable shape. I’m not a fan of most black exterior cladding on cars, and the Santa Cruz has a lot of it. It’s meant to give it a sporty, adventurous feel, but I often think it looks cheap. Still, on a tiny truck like the Santa Cruz, it’s cute. I’m saying “cute” a lot, but that’s the real impression when I look at the car.
The red front recovery hooks add to the adventurous aesthetic. Even if you never use them for off-roading, you can still kick them to show off how sturdy they are.
What About The Inside?
The first thing I noticed inside the Santa Cruz was the steering wheel’s logo, a silver bar with four dots. It’s an “H” in Morse code, which Hyundai is using on more models. People apparently like taking pictures of their steering wheels, and a logo like that is a conversation starter.
The logo mirrors the minimalist approach to the interior. My loaner Santa Cruz XRT had an all-black interior, and the minimalist styling didn’t work as well because of that. There wasn’t much variation to draw my eye throughout the cabin, and too much of the surface area was piano black, which quickly gets dusty, greasy, and scratched.
However, there’s plenty to like about the Santa Cruz’s interior. It has a storage shelf built into the dashboard, a modern trend that utilizes otherwise unused space. It also has a long screen setup for the driver instrument cluster and infotainment system, which looks sleek and is intuitive to use. I also had about six inches of legroom in the rear seats with the front seats fully reclined.
The truck bed on the Santa Cruz is small—4 feet—and I’m sure rear legroom is one of the reasons. However, I assume people buying the Santa Cruz will have rear passengers more often than they’ll need to haul massive cargo in the bed (otherwise, they’d purchase a larger truck), so it feels like a good compromise.
How It Drives
The Santa Cruz XRT has almost 300 horsepower. Because it’s a crossover-truck, it’s moderately quick. Crossovers feel more agile than big, body-on-frame trucks, and the Santa Cruz is similar. It’s manageable, with the added practicality of a truck bed, making it fun to drive.
Road and wind noise are moderate, particularly on the highway. Even at neighborhood speeds, I could hear the road beneath me, but not loudly. The smooth suspension helps counteract the noise; bumps and dips aren’t harsh, which helps negate the sound seeping into the cabin.
I picked up a bookshelf and a large mirror while I had the Santa Cruz. They wouldn’t fit in many SUVs. They didn’t lay flat in the bed because it was too small. Yet, I had unlimited vertical storage to work with (like in my Mazdaspeed Miatas), showing the Santa Cruz’s real-world, practical use.
The Santa Cruz is a logical vehicle in both its use case and driving performance. Growing up in Texas, I saw many people driving huge trucks. Even in high school, kids around me drove trucks they rarely used, and their beds always remained empty as they drove on city streets instead of off-road. They didn’t need those trucks; they just wanted them to show off. It was a waste, but the Santa Cruz isn’t.
Does the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Fulfill Its Purpose?
Crossover-trucks like the Hyundai Santa Cruz have a place in the market because they are useful without being obstructive. They’re comfortable, compact, and enjoyable to drive. The Santa Cruz is more efficient than the full-size, body-on-frame trucks most people never fully utilize.
The Santa Cruz is a truck for those who don’t need one every day, only a few times a year. The rest of the time, it behaves like a crossover with a comfortable ride and plenty of space for rear passengers. In America, that’s a great gap to fill.
