Hyundai Santa Cruz (US) review

Snazzy and classy – and, you know, exactly like the Tucson. The real difference between facelift and pre-facelift Santa Cruz's is in here. All the surfaces you touch in the Santa Cruz feel good, and you can get all sorts of creature comforts, like heated and cooled front seats, as well as a heated steering wheel. There’s a ton of room up front, and the back seats have lots of head- and legroom, too – mostly thanks to the Santa Cruz’s squared-off design.

Our one major nitpick with the pre-facelift Santa Cruz was that there was too much piano black surfacing and impractical climate controls. Luckily, most of that is now gone, replaced with giant screens (we'll come to them) and an array of physical media buttons and a separate climate panel. Hurrah!

You still get that giant shifter on the center console too, and down there are more buttons to switch drive modes, to lock into AWD, to activate the hill descent control and to bring up the parking cameras. 

How’s the cabin tech?

In typical Hyundai fashion, it’s great. All Santa Cruz trim levels now feature a panoramic curved display that combines a 12.3-inch digital dial display with a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen. The screen itself is clear and responsive and all versions now get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

There's also now the option of a fingerprint scanner to instantly access your saved settings, plus the ability for the car to accept over the air updates. 

How much stuff can I put in the bed?

There’s 27 cubic feet of coverable space inside the truck bed, but obviously if you roll back the tonneau cover, you can carry all sorts of taller or bulkier items – well, without exceeding the 1,411-pound payload capacity, that is. There's also a sealed underfloor bin with a drain just by the tailgate, and you can have a 115-volt power outlet in the bed. Another great thing about this truck: the load-in height is pretty low, so you don’t have to be super tall in order to load items into the bed. Little cutout steps in the bumper corners let you hop up to reach in and grab stuff, too.