2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT First Drive: Trying Hard to Truck It Up

We’ve had a few years to consider the Hyundai Santa Cruz’s merits as a pickup truck, even keeping one for an entire year for a long-term test, and we think we have it figured: It’s an SUV that happens to have a pickup bed, not a “real” truck. And that’s OK. We were OK with that, and customers seem to be OK with that.  

Hyundai, it seems, was not, and for the compact pickup’s 2025 update, it poked at least one all-terrain tire through whatever rhetorical door was separating the Santa Cruz from Big Beefy Man Truck classification.  

Among a host of minor changes—spotting the fewer, larger LED rectangles in the grille is harder than peeping the dashboard’s sharp new displays and sexier steering wheel—Hyundai introduced a new XRT off-road trim level.  

Not only does the XRT solve one of our few complaints about the original 2022–2024 Santa Cruz, street-biased tires that let the trucklet down off-pavement, it goes even further in butching up this pickup that is closely related to the everyday Tucson compact SUV.  

It might not sound like much, but the red-painted tow hooks jutting from the front bumper, model-specific fascias, and the surprisingly meaty 245/60R18 Continental TerrainContact all-terrain tires punch above their weight in changing one’s perception of the decidedly new-age-looking Santa Cruz. Think of it as the compact, car-based pickup version of buccal fat removal, jaw augmentation, and successfully sticking to a New Year’s gym resolution all at once.

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So, What Else Is New About the XRT?

Notice we don’t mention any major suspension changes. There aren’t any, and the XRT’s ground clearance is the same 8.6 inches listed for other Santa Cruzes. Hyundai says the model’s exclusive front bumper carves out a little extra room for an improved 19.9-degree approach angle compared to the 16.9 on regular Santa Cruzes, and it includes as standard the lineup’s available Surround View camera array, so you can look for low obstacles immediately in front of the truck when off-road (or parking) via the central display when needed.  

But right off the bat, the XRT treatment can’t match the Tremor-spec off-road upgrades Ford offers on the Santa Cruz’s primary competitor, the Maverick. Unlike the XRT, the Maverick Tremor sits higher off the ground and even includes a torque-vectoring rear end, which, along with all-terrain tires and know-how gleaned from the mechanically related, surprisingly capable Bronco Sport SUV, makes it a far more convincing mini-off-roader.  

That isn’t to discount the improvement the XRT shows in the dirt, or more broadly the changes that apply across the Santa Cruz line for 2025. Buy an XRT, and you can only have the better of the Santa Cruz’s two engine options, a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder making 281 hp and 311 lb-ft paired to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and lockable all-wheel drive.  

The XRT somewhat surprisingly lacks any dedicated off-road drive modes, sticking with the same Normal, Sport, Smart, and Snow settings as other Santa Cruz models. Hill-descent control is included, though, and it and the cameras and locking the center coupling are operated via a handy button just aft of the shift lever. Since tires were really the only thing holding the Hyundai back on roads less paved, the beefy Continentals fitted to the XRT do the bulk of the lifting for its off-road cred.

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Still Great to Drive

Happily, those tires behave well on the road, where we spent most of our drive time anyway. They’re reasonably quiet, and we noticed no howling or rumbling despite their aggressive tread design and sidewall edges. Even better, they soak up ugly road surfaces with a soft, pleasant doughiness, rounding off the expansion joints, potholes, and cracked pavement most of us encounter every day on our commutes.  

Hyundai has kept the Santa Cruz’s tidy road manners intact, too, with the 2025 model carving a smart path through corners without much body roll. It’s pretty fun to drive, helped by its sense of width (the Santa Cruz feels much wider than it is) and quick steering. The brake pedal operates with a soft springiness that translates to an initial lack of bite, but this tuning seems to match the throttle tuning well—this is a turbo engine that feels like one, with thrust increasing on a curve as revs rise and the turbocharger spools up.  

If you aren’t committed to full-throttle blasts, the engine’s behavior can border on surging, but the power is definitely satisfying, even if it lands after some lag. We do wish this four-cylinder sounded better; perhaps because it’s so large (2.5 liters), it’s a little growly.

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A Solid Package

It’ll be interesting to line up the revised Santa Cruz against the also-revised-for-2025 Ford Maverick, which also gains a sportier Lobo model and still has a Tremor off-road iteration that lines up against this XRT. But neither compact pickup’s changes alter the fundamentals, meaning the Hyundai remains a slightly more livable truck than the Ford. The rear seat is roomier, and although its bed isn’t as useful, it still boasts a lockable watertight “trunk” in the floor and a rollup hard tonneau cover.  

Hyundai also trims the Santa Cruz’s cabin in nicer materials, and the new displays are way crisper than the Ford’s units. As in other recent Hyundai products with the same dual-12.3-inch dashtop screen setup, the Santa Cruz’s deliver snappy responses, clear menus, and just enough configurability without tipping into overwhelming.  

In other words, the Hyundai Santa Cruz is still the more cosmopolitan of the two small trucks, with the Ford leaning harder into its commercial-friendly capabilities and affordability.  

If you think spotting pool guys, handymen, and exterminators using your trucklet for work makes it a real truck, there’s no convincing you the Hyundai qualifies. But the XRT moves the Santa Cruz’s needle a little bit into tough-real-truck category without disrupting its carlike qualities we like so much.