Owners have filed 303 complaints on the Hyundai Santa Cruz, covering 2022–2026. The system named most often is Power Train (121 reports). Worst years by volume: 2022, 2023, 2024; cleanest: 2026, 2025, 2024. 9 reports describe a crash, 5 a fire. On average the car was 0.8 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Hyundai Santa Cruz
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 303 Santa Cruz complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Power Train 121 Read
Vehicle seems to not go into park at times and then coasts forward
The contact's husband owns a 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that after her husband parked the vehicle in the driveway, he exited the vehicle and went into the garage when the vehicle unintentionally rolled forward into the garage and crashed into her vehicle. The contact's husband did not sustain any…
The contact owns a 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and merging into highway traffic, the vehicle hesitated and surged forward after depressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the failure could not be duplicated. The vehicle was…
Electrical System 29 Read
On May 1, 2023 I pulled my 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz into my garage at about 5pm and fyi It was blustery outside and had been raining & snowing all day. At about 5:15 pm I heard a loud bang followed by another. I looked out the back door and saw that the whole garage was completely engulfed in flames. My garage is…
The system that failed was electrical near or in the Tow Hitch which caused the vehicle fire. Vehicle is available for inspection at Auto Body Evolution Essex MD. The car caught fire in the back of the vehicle while parked in Owner's driveway and engine off. Neighbor pounded on Owner's door at 6:50 am. Yelling for the…
The contact owned a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while fueling the vehicle, the fuel gauge became inoperable. The contact stated that the fuel gauge displayed a full tank while driving, regardless of the actual fuel level. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the fuel…
Engine 26 Read
The contact owned a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, a loud popping noise was suddenly heard coming from the engine compartment with no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that immediately following the failure, the power steering and brakes became…
Our 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz SE had a loss of engine power while attempting to accelerate into traffic after stopping at an intersection four times since purchase in November 2023. The engine did not go above idle for approximately 15 seconds while the gas pedal was pressed half way down. The vehicle barely moved into…
My truck lost power climbing a pass. My speed dropped from 60 mph to 20 mph while on a state highway outside Yellowstone NP where traffic can be heavy. My error codes have indicated that it is a problem in the fuel injection system. I have had electrical harness on that system replaced 4 times in 6 weeks, 2 of the…
Exterior Lighting 14 Read
While driving at night I happened to notice that the headlights failed to illuminate the road sufficiently. Specifically, the truck was going downhill. As it approached the bottom and soon to go uphill, I noticed that there was a strict delineation in what was lit up and what was not. Being on a country two lane with…
The contact owns a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds at night on several occasions, the headlights were dim and created a shadow across the roadway. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on multiple occasions. The dealer was initially unable to duplicate the failure but later…
The contact owns a 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed at night and approaching either an incline or decline, the contact became aware that the headlamps failed to provide adequate top and bottom coverage of the roadway. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle…
Forward Collision Avoidance 12 Read
While driving at highway speeds with Smart Cruise Control set during the day I put on sunglasses and the driver attention system turned off the system 6 seconds later. I repeated this event set several times at various speeds and driving conditions with the same 6 second failure result. I made the dealership aware of…
The Hyundai Santa Cruz has a Driver Forward Attention Warning system. The steering column has a camera that monitors the driver's eyes and face to make sure the driver is watching the road while the cruise control is engaged. The feature shuts down the cruise control if it assesses the driver is not paying attention…
Vehicle is constantly slamming on the brakes when leaving a parking garage. Users have to turn the feature off every single time we enter our vehicle instead of it being saved to our profile. 2023 model allowed us to select warning sound only if we preferred. I'd hate to see this feature activate while it's raining.…
Vehicle Speed Control 11 Read
I was traveling from Tennessee to Indiana on [XXX] going about 76 mph. I attempted to switch lanes and at the same time the other vehicle decided to speed up as the semi behind started speeding up. When my 2024 Santa Cruz Turbo (which only has 12,000 miles) jerked and started slowing down, the check engine light came…
We purchased our 2024 Santa Cruz [XXX]. On [XXX] the Santa Cruz we purchased from Korum Hyundai Dealership died on the highway as my husband and I were heading to town through the mountains. We had to roll to the side of the road as the Santa Cruz just lost all power and would not accelerate, it just died and lost…
Contact owns 2024 Honda Santa Cruz. The contact stated while driving 45 mph on the highway vehicle wasn't responding while accelerator pedal was depressed. The contact stated there was no warning lights on vehicle before incident happen and that contact had to turn off and on the vehicle to make it function.…
Service Brakes 9 Read
This is an ongoing safety issue with a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited. The forward collision-avoidance system activates frequently and without cause during normal driving. The system will engage when another vehicle is simply turning, merging, or slowing down at a traffic light—normal, predictable situations where no…
Sudden Unintended Acceleration: Coming to a stop in a driveway and planning to put vehicle in to reverse, the Santa Cruz suddenly accelerated and kept accelerating ... It would not stop moving, brakes were applied continuously and forcefully, but with no effect. Vehicle crashed through shrubbery and small trees into…
-Brake pedal feels unsmooth in temperatures below 75-80 (mainly below 70) degrees as well as extremely noisy squeaking / creaking sounds accompanied. Inspection is always available. -I currently don't believe there is any safety risk to the issue I'm experiencing, but rather that it's unknown if there is one. I'm just…
Fuel/propulsion System 9 Read
On [XXX] my car would not run with a half a tank of gas and 776 miles ,I allied Hyundai towing and had it towed to the nearest dealer in Springfield pa and it sat down a week or more before they looked at it ,after that they finally called and stated there was sugar in my tank ,I explained that was impossible because…
Very strong fuel smell coming from parked vehicle after filling the Gas Tank. After driving 40 miles to remove approximately 1/4 of a the Tank, fumes are gone. 1/06/2026: Took Truck to closest Dealership. Burlington Hyundai Nj and they had it for 3 days. (The Tank was not Full) and they didn't find anything wrong.…
Lack of power upon accelerating. I could slowly get car up to 40 MPH however when trying to accelerate it would lose power. I had to pull over for faster traffic to pass
Santa Cruz years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Power Train | — | — | |
| 2025 | Electrical System | 1 | 1 | |
| 2024 | Air Bags | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 1 | 3 | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 4 | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 136 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.2 |
| Worst single series | 9 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 0.8 years |
A model average of 2.2 hides a worst series at 9. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Santa Cruz?
By complaint volume, 2022, 2023, 2024 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Santa Cruz years are the cleanest?
2026, 2025, 2024 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Hyundai Santa Cruz have?
303 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2022–2026. Of those, 9 describe a crash and 5 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.