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What kind of vehicle is the 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz? What does it compare to?
It’s a pickover, part small pickup, and part compact crossover. Direct rivals for the 2024 Santa Cruz include the Ford Maverick and Honda Ridgeline, but crossover intenders looking for something different might cross-shop the Chevrolet Colorado and Toyota Tacoma as well.
Is the 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz a good car?
The Santa Cruz balances crossover comfort with pickup utility, and comes with great safety features and an even better warranty. But it’s inefficient and the pickup bed is limited. Decidedly different, the Santa Cruz earns a TCC Rating of 6.5 out of 10. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What’s new for the 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz?
An XRT appearance package replaces the old SEL Premium trim, adding beefier bits to the turbo-4 all-wheel-drive model.
It adds buffer fender flares, new door garnishes, and side steps to the small pickup, but the Santa Cruz is still more of a weekend adventure truck than an off-road vehicle.
The front end wears the same grille as the Hyundai Tucson, but it marks the difference down the sides and around the back with its longer profile and four-foot open bed. Inside, it features a winged dash similar to the wing tips of the grille, and a smudgy touchscreen and climate interface.
SE and SEL employ a pokey 191-hp 2.5-liter inline-4 with front- or available all-wheel drive and a payload that maxes out at about 1,900 pounds, while the gutsier 2.5-liter turbo-4 comes standard with all-wheel drive. It’s sold with Night, XRT, and top Limited trims, and can tow up to 5,000 pounds. All models use 8-speed automatic transmissions, but unlike its rival Ford Maverick, there’s no hybrid option. Fuel economy sits at just 22 or 23 mpg combined.
Inside, the Santa Cruz has crossover-like space with flip-up rear seats with underseat storage. The real action happens behind the cab in a bed that is smaller and narrower than any other pickup bed on the market, but has clever features such as an integrated tonneau cover and a hidden drainable storage bin.
Also new this year are blind-spot monitors and LED projector headlights that promise to boost the Santa Cruz’s IIHS safety rating to complement the NHTSA five-star crash rating. Standard safety tech includes automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection and active lane control, while a surround-view camera system and adaptive cruise control are optional.
How much does the 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz cost?
The Santa Cruz lineup starts at $28,000 (including a $1,335 destination fee) for the base SE and its manual seats and 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless smartphone compatibility. It and the $30,500 SEL with its heated power front seats only come with the base engine, however, and AWD adds $1,500 on either.
AWD comes standard on the turbo-4 but the price jumps to just under $40,000 for the Night trim, and peaks at $42,500 for the Limited; the new XRT slots between those two.
Where is the 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz made?
In Montgomery, Alabama.
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