2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited AWD

The rush to cater to the growing crowd calling for small pickups netted two vehicles in recent years: the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. One of these is a small pickup and the other is the Santa Cruz — and we’re just fine with that.

It would be too easy to start with something like “when is a truck not a truck …” but to be honest, the Santa Cruz is bigger than that. Not just reputationally, but if you park it next to its closest competitor, the aforementioned Maverick, you’ll see it’s really more like a compact SUV in proportions than a compact pickup.

A different look

While the Santa Cruz offers much of the utility of a small pickup, the looks are more Chevy El Camino from the ’70s and ’80s than today’s Maverick. That said, it’s a bit shorter than the old Chevy, but the spirit is there.

For 2025, it gets a few exterior tweaks, focused mainly on the front end. It now features a more squared-off look, more like a pickup, really. It retains the multiple lights in the fascia, lending a contemporary feel and keeping it in line with the Hyundai Tucson, with which it shares its underpinnings.

It also gets a few new colors for the new year, including the Rockwood Green our tester sported. It’s a nice color, but nothing to write home about. The Limited sits a bit higher than you expect it when you first walk up to it. It inspires confidence, as if you could perhaps take it off-road — although not too far. There is a new XRT variant for 2025, which you could have a bit of non-tarmac fun with.

All in all, the look is not quite truck and not quite SUV, which is just about perfect for someone looking for a vehicle to be a little bit of both.

Power to be flexible

When the Santa Cruz hit the market a few years back, Hyundai officials said it was aimed at younger, urban buyers who needed a vehicle that could go to a local farmers market as well as the local home improvement store and then later handle taking a couple of mountain bikes or other recreation equipment out for a day of fun.

The upside is that the 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder our tester came with can handle all of those things without breaking a sweat. The powerplant puts out 281 horsepower, and it’s matched to an 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters.

Power is smooth and immediate, and you’ll race from zero to 60 mph in just about six seconds, which is pretty impressive. It’s a strong performer when motoring around town. It’ll also tow 5,000 pounds in the all-wheel-drive configuration, which means towing a couple of wave runners isn’t a problem.

According to the EPA, you should get 19 mpg in the city and 27 on the highway, resulting in a combined total of 22 mpg. We did a bit better than that, coming in a little over 23 mpg combined without making any special effort.

It’s what’s on the inside …

Yeah, it looks like a funky truck on the outside, but on the inside it seats five people like the small compact SUV its based off of: the Tucson. Front seat passengers have little to worry about in terms of space. The seats are comfortable  — and heated and ventilated in the Limited — and are leather trimmed.

If you’re related to the second row, all is not lost. There’s a decent amount of legroom and enough shoulder space to seat three adults who like one another comfortably. That said, you’ll likely only want to carry four people in the Santa Cruz. Additionally, there are dual automatic temperature controls, including rear air vents, so back-seat denizens won’t swelter/freeze.

Since you’re driving, you’ll get dual 12.3-inch curved screens to look at: one for gauges and one for infotainment functions. Hyundai does a great job with these screens. The gauge screen offers a bit of configurability, but the default look mirrors the analog gauges that come on the lower trims.

Tech savvy

The technology on the Santa Cruz is excellent, starting with the available wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as the wireless charging pad. The layout of the pad does a nice job of keep your phone in place to charge. There’s also some additional storage next to it for keys or change. The cupholders are find and the center console storage bin is fine, but not cavernous.

If someone else wants to charge a device, there are additional USB ports in the front and second rows to keep everyone happy. Keeping everyone entertained is a Bose Premium audio system. It provides clear sound, even when the decibel levels exceed safe standards — according to my Apple Watch.

Additionally, the Santa Cruz comes with Hyundai’s SmartSense suite of driver assistance technologies. Forward collision-avoidance assist with pedestrian detection, rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist, highway driving assist, blind-spot view monitor, blind-spot collision warning and more will help keep you and those around you safe.