2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Road Test and Review

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Five years ago, two unusual pickups hit the U.S. market. Rather than riding on a heavy-duty truck chassis, these two pickups borrowed front-wheel-drive platforms from best-selling compact crossover SUVs. 

One of those two, the Ford Maverick, was a runaway sales success. Since launch, Ford has hiked its prices by 50 percent, yet demand hasn’t slackened. The other, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, never took off. Back in the 2022 model year, it cost more than the Maverick and had a challenging touch-based control layout. 

Now, the Santa Cruz is about to end production. But if you weren’t paying attention, you might not have noticed that the 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz has become a lot more competitive than it was back in 2022. Its prices have risen more slowly than the Ford’s, and it now has more features for the money than the Maverick. An update last year brought a new dashboard with simpler controls. And this year, Hyundai subbed out a troublesome complex transmission for a simpler unit. 

For this review, we spent a week testing the 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz, priced from $29,750 plus a mandatory $1,600 destination charge. Keep reading to learn more about its pros and cons to see if you should rush to grab one before it’s gone. 

Funky Design

The Santa Cruz is a pickup version of the Hyundai Tucson compact crossover. The two models share a nose, meaning the Santa Cruz wears the Tucson’s squinting headlights and intricately patterned grille (with more lighting hidden inside). Hyundai restyled the Santa Cruz and Tucson last year with a more upright face, making it slightly more like a traditional truck. 

But the rest of the Santa Cruz’s body leans into its car-based roots. Hyundai didn’t create a mockup of a conventional pickup like Ford did with the Maverick. The Santa Cruz is a stubby, aggressive little trucklet whose bed flows cleanly into the cab. Some people will wish for a more traditional look. Others will prefer the Santa Cruz’s imaginative embrace of its uniqueness. 

Either way, the Santa Cruz is small for a pickup. It’s 196 inches long, with a small 4-foot-long covered bed sticking out past its rear seat. That means it’s more than a foot longer than the Tucson, but it’s a foot and a half shorter than a Toyota Tacoma and 3 feet shorter than a Ford F-150. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Car-Like Dashboard

The Santa Cruz also shares its dashboard with the Tucson. It’s a familiar layout to anyone who has been in a modern compact crossover – with graceful curves and a high-end feel compared with the rugged touches that define the typical small pickup (including the Maverick). 

A digital gauge cluster joins the 12.3-inch center touchscreen across a single panel, while simple buttons and knobs are below the screen to handle most audio functions. Big dials control the climate system’s temperature, too, though other climate functions rely on a touch-sensitive panel. Still, that’s a big jump up from the first few years of the Santa Cruz’s life, in which most trim levels had only a flat panel of touchscreen and touch-sensitive controls – no buttons or knobs. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Roomy in the Front, Smaller in the Back

The Santa Cruz shares the Tucson’s spacious, comfortable, and supportive front seats. Traditional small pickups have heavy-duty frames that rob cabin space, while the Santa Cruz combines an SUV-high ride height with passenger-car comfort. All but the base model include either leatherette or genuine leather upholstery, heated front seats, and a power-adjustable driver’s seat; our top Limited test vehicle even has ventilated front seats. 

Don’t expect a big backseat like the Tucson, though. Since a pickup bed is much lower than an SUV’s roof, a bed needs to be pretty long to have any meaningful cargo capacity. That’s also why the Santa Cruz is so much longer than the Tucson. And Hyundai also took some space away from the Santa Cruz's backseat, leaving limited legroom for adults. The seat is high and wide, at least, and still competitive for anything but a full-size pickup. Hyundai also carved a bit of emergency knee space out of the front seatbacks. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Choose Your Engine

The Santa Cruz comes in a choice of two four-cylinder engines: a base non-turbocharged 2.5-liter that it shares with the Tucson and a turbocharged version of that engine, shared with the larger Hyundai Santa Fe crossover. 

The base engine makes 191 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque. It’s smooth and quiet when driven gently, but if you push it harder, it starts to roar and strain without making much further progress. The top XRT and Limited trim levels upgrade to the turbo, which makes 281 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque for effortless and downright invigorating performance. But these trims both cost more than $40,000.

The turbo also burns more fuel. The base Santa Cruz engine gets 22 mpg in the city, 30 mpg on the highway, and 25 mpg overall with front-wheel drive and 1 mpg less with all-wheel drive. The turbo, sold only with AWD, drops to 18 mpg city, 25 mpg highway, and 20 mpg combined. That’s not bad for a pickup truck, but it’s not great for such a small one – speedy or not. And unlike the Maverick (and the Tucson and Santa Fe), the Santa Cruz has no fuel-sipping hybrid option getting more than 30 mpg. 

This year, the turbo engine swapped out a dual-clutch automatic transmission for a smoother-shifting conventional automatic. This change keeps the Santa Cruz from stumbling at low speeds, but it costs it 2 mpg in EPA tests. At least we edged out the EPA estimate to average 21 mpg during a weeklong test. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Smooth Ride and Nimble Handling

Since the Santa Cruz is a crossover SUV with a bed, it rides and handles like a crossover SUV instead of a truck. It’s smooth and steady as you cruise down the street, and it responds quickly and confidently when you turn the wheel. Some truck buyers welcome a traditional rougher, bouncier feel, but the Santa Cruz is more comfortable and approachable for daily use. It doesn’t have the Ford Maverick’s sporty edge, though; the Ford has even sharper handling responses. 

The Santa Cruz’s car-like driving manners do force some compromises. The first is off-road capability. The Santa Cruz’s optional all-wheel-drive system will help it keep traction on slippery roads. And like a crossover SUV, it can handle light off-roading. The XRT trim level has off-road-specific driving modes, tougher styling, off-road recovery hooks, and fewer low-hanging plastic bits to catch on obstacles. But even the toughest Santa Cruz’s suspension can’t keep all four wheels on the ground over uneven terrain as easily as a body-on-frame truck.

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Modest Capability, Clever Features

The Santa Cruz’s car-based roots also cost it some capability if you’re planning to tow a trailer. It’s rated to tow up to 5,000 pounds with the turbo engine or 3,500 pounds with the more common base engine. Even the turbo tops out at 50 percent less towing capacity than a Ford Ranger or Chevrolet Colorado. 

The Hyundai’s payload capacity is more competitive at 1,411 pounds. But its little 4-foot-long bed is the shortest of any pickup’s in the U.S. Plan ahead what you’d use your Santa Cruz for and whether it can handle that work. It’s great for tossing some messy gear or gardening supplies in the back, but it comes up short if you need serious space. 

Hyundai does provide some extra cargo flexibility. A locking retractable tonneau cover is included on upper trim levels; it slides over the bed when you’re storing something more valuable in the back. You can lock in the tailgate at a not-quite-flat angle to rest 4x8 sheets of plywood on it (when strapped in). A shallow trunk lies under the bed floor. And you can flip up the rear seats to create in-cabin storage as well. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Priced From $29,750

Hyundai sells the Santa Cruz in a choice of three trim levels with the base engine and two with the turbo. Prices start at $29,750 for the entry-level SE model (again, plus a $1,600 destination charge). The next-up SEL, $31,400, has leatherette upholstery, a power driver’s seat, heated front seats, and automatic climate control. And the SEL Activity, $34,450, has a sunroof, the tonneau cover, a flashier digital gauge cluster, a wireless smartphone charger, and a power outlet in the bed. AWD costs $1,500 extra on each trim level. But even with it, you can get a luxuriously equipped Santa Cruz for less than $40,000 – roughly $10,000 less than an equivalently equipped traditional mid-size pickup. 

If you want more power, that costs extra. The off-road-themed XRT starts at $41,350, while the Limited costs $43,700. In addition to the turbo engine, they also both bring some extra features, including adaptive cruise control, a blind-spot camera, GPS navigation, and standard AWD. (The XRT loses the sunroof, though.) The Limited is the only Santa Cruz with genuine leather, ventilated front seats, a premium Bose stereo, a power-adjustable passenger seat, or rain-sensing windshield wipers. 

2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Santa Cruz vs. the Competition

As we’ve discussed throughout our review, the Santa Cruz’s top competitor is the Ford Maverick. The Maverick has fewer optional amenities and a simpler look and feel. But it’s more fun to drive, comes standard with a zippy turbo engine rather than restricting it to upper trim levels, and offers a fuel-sipping hybrid option. Between the two, the Santa Cruz is funkier and fancier, while the Maverick embraces affordable functionality. Hyundai also has a longer warranty, a longer list of optional amenities, a smoother ride, the only in-bed trunk, and a higher maximum towing capacity. 

The other car-based pickup on the market is the Honda Ridgeline. It’s a bigger, more expensive pickup, as it's based on a mid-size crossover rather than a compact one. It has a V6 engine, a smooth ride, and more space to spread out inside. Think of it as the car-based equivalent of a full-size Ford F-150 rather than a mid-size Ford Ranger. 

As we’ve noted, you can also shop the Santa Cruz against a traditional pickup. You’ll have a smaller bed, you won’t go as far off-road, and you’ll tow a smaller trailer. But the Santa Cruz takes up less space, is more comfortable to drive, has more passenger room, costs less, and gets better gas mileage. 

Finally, we’d shop the Santa Cruz against the Hyundai Tucson and other similar compact crossovers. They fit more total cargo space into a smaller package, especially if you fold down the rear seats. You risk getting the interior dirty by carrying certain cargo, of course. And the Santa Cruz can tow more than a compact crossover. 

2025 Ford Maverick Hybrid XLT ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Get It While You Can

In its final model year, the 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz is more competitive than ever. It still swims in a small niche even versus the Ford Maverick – to say nothing of America’s beloved traditional pickups. 

But if you’re attracted to this comfortable, affordable, and overall unique package, this is your last chance to pick one up. If you like the idea of the Santa Cruz but ruled it out a few years ago, see if its upgrades have made it the right little pickup for you. 

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited ・ Photo by Brady Holt