2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT First Drive Review: Leveling Up The Lifestyle Truck

For 2025, the Hyundai Santa Cruz gets a substantial update that makes the brand’s small truck even easier to live with. It starts with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard across the range, but it also includes a new, more off-road capable trim called the XRT. Under the skin of the Santa Cruz, nothing changes for 2025 – it’s still powered by either a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine making 191 horsepower, or a turbocharged version making considerably more power, and all-wheel-drive (optional on the base engine, standard with the turbo version).

While with Hyundai in California to drive the 2025 Tucson, we snuck away with a Santa Cruz XRT to spend some time on and off-road. The XRT is a top trim and brings enhanced off-road capability, so it comes with a 281 horsepower turbocharged 2.5-liter engine and Hyundai’s HTRAC AWD system as standard.

Exterior: Bolder And More Aggressive

At the rate we, as automotive journalists, are told that the new version of a vehicle’s design is “bolder” and “more aggressive,” by around 2050, well over half the cars on the road will look like they’re inspired by Mad Max. Hyundai uses those words, but we would say the front headlights have been simplified with fewer lights making up the cluster design and the front fascia trading its angles for vertical lines. The grilles are also simplified, using a blockier design, and the XRT’s is colored black.

The new stance, at least aesthetically, is more confident for the 2025 Santa Cruz, but the XRT is the most visible at a glance. It rides on 18-inch “wrench-inspired” wheels and 245/60 R 18 all-terrain tires with a healthy amount of sidewall. The fascia and bumper design improve its approach angle for obstacles and ensure that you can see the front tow hooks with red paint. The astute observer will notice that a raise in the ride height is missing from the off-road specific trim. We’ll get to that in our drive impressions.

Interior: Big Changes And More Tech

The bones of the Hyundai Santa Cruz remain the same inside with comfortable seating for four adults – or four adults and one slightly squished child – but a lot of the surface-level stuff has changed. This starts with a new panoramic curved display with a 12.3-inch touchscreen and, for the XRT and Limited trim, a 12.3-inch gauge cluster that we found to be sharp and easily configurable on the fly. It can also show navigation from Apple Maps and Google Maps, which should be much more common than it is.

Hyundai pays a lot of attention to feedback from customers, and it shows in the physical audio, video, navigation, and H-VAC controls. It’s one of Hyundai’s finest moves in terms of ergonomics yet, and this extends to the new steering wheel. Added to the infotainment system is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, which we applaud, and Hyundai Pay in-car payment system, which, well, we don’t applaud out of suspicion based on how badly the automakers in general have been behaving about gathering and selling customer’s data. USB-C ports are welcome, though, and we’ll see how fingerprint authentication plays out over time in terms of reliability.

Under The Hood: Familiar Fun

The XRT, like the Limited version of the Tucson, comes with a 2.5-liter turbocharged engine that matches a dual-clutch transmission. With 281 horsepower and an even bigger dose of torque in a small crossover with a truck bed, it’s a lively mix. The turbo engine comes with AWD exclusively. Lower trims get a 191-hp version of that engine and an eight-speed automatic, with the choice between FWD and AWD.

Power with the turbocharged engine is plentiful and delivered with quick and smooth gear changes – not sports car quick, but enough to enjoy and not have trouble joining a fast-moving freeway or getting into gaps in traffic from a standing start. The XRT is down on fuel economy compared with the rest of the Santa Cruz range due to its tires, aerodynamics, turbo engine, and all-wheel drive setup. On the plus side, it does get a higher, 5,000-pound towing capacity.

On the Road: Little Given Up For Off-Road Ability

With no change in the ride height and using Hyundai’s already proven AWD system, there’s not much taken away from the Santa Cruz’s on-road dynamics to create the XRT trim. Pushing it around on backroads for half an hour showed that it’s only at the extremes where anyone will notice the difference in tires — like during emergency maneuvers or playing race-car driver. However, for everyday driving, the differences are negligible. Road noise may be a little louder from the more aggressive tread pattern, but it’s not intrusive.

Before we get to driving the Santa Cruz XRT, it’s worth understanding the AWD system that’s fitted. It’s made up of a front differential and transfer case, a torque-controlled AWD coupling (front to back), and a rear differential and controlled by the HTRAC AWD control unit. The control units uses sensors for things like acceleration position, steering angle, wheel speed, and yaw to figure out where torque needs to go to optimize traction. This is all available across the Santa Cruz lineup.

Off The Road: Much Better than You Would Imagine

We’ve been impressed by Hyundai’s AWD HVAC system for some time now, and its ability to hustle through a dirt track or deal with slippery situations is something we praise overtly; the limit has always been the tires. So it was a revelation to see what a set of special tires could do for the Santa Cruz. We hit the dirt track behind a ranch Hyundai had picked out, and found it more like a light-rally stage with its tight turns and elevation stages.

What we weren’t surprised about, having spent quite a bit of time in Tucson and Santa Fe models on dirt roads, is how well the suspension deals with a bit of rough and tumble – specifically as you pick up speed and the suspension is operating at higher frequency. Add that stability and the suspension’s ability to control the body, and the new tires finish the equation.

The result is a stable, confident ride on the dirt with the AWD system looking out for you, but because of the active torque control wanting to send more torque to the rear wheels and that the Santa Cruz isn’t a big truck, it’s wickedly agile when the turns start tightening up. We wouldn’t be afraid of getting up to some of our local hiking and climbing spots later in the year with the XRT trim.

Conclusion: But Do You Need The XRT Trim?

Let’s look at pricing to get an idea of whether the XRT is a worthwhile upgrade:

* Excludes $1,395 destination fee

The XRT trims is a bit more expensive than the SEL Activity below it – more than $5k pricier, even with AWD added. That cost goes to the turbocharged engine and dual-clutch transmission, as well as improved towing capacity. A handful of interior and exterior enhancements are included, too.

In reality, if you put a set of all-terrain tires on a regular Santa Cruz, that would be enough for the majority of people that are going off the pavement to get to those hiking, camping, fishing, or other activity spots people are seeking out. From our experience, the all-terrain tires would only make a marked improvement in slippery conditions, which makes for the case of getting a regular Santa Cruz and a set of all-terrains for the wetter or snowy months. The extra approach angle and tow hooks are always worth having in your back pocket for getting off the pavement, but if you don’t want or need the accouterments of the higher trim level the XRT also represents, it’s debatable if it’s worth the cost.

Without much more than a set of tires, a modified bumper, and some front tow hooks, it’s hard to call the Santa Cruz XRT a worthwhile off-road upgrade over getting a second set of wheels and tires – which will happily fit in the truck bed to take to the tire shop and have someone else change for a small fee. Still, it shows off the abilities of the Santa Cruz really well, it looks the part, and we wouldn’t put someone off if it’s exactly what they want. What is undeniable, however, is that the Santa Cruz is a rather great little truck.