2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz refresh brings $1,910 price hike

Hyundai trucked its 2025 Santa Cruz to this year’s New York Auto Show for debut. With dealer deliveries expected later this summer, it’s time to answer the question every dad is programmed to ask at the end of a meal when eating out: “What’s the damage?” As with just about every 2025 light-duty vehicle, the coming Santa Cruz costs more than the current Santa Cruz. Let’s recap what the money pays for. We’re looking at a new front grille and fresh front bumper, re-styled daytime running lights, and new wheel designs. Interior updates are similar in scope to what we saw on the refreshed Tucson, the Santa Cruz’s SUV sibling, meaning the arrival of Hyundai’s panoramic curved screen setup featuring a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system running the latest Hyundai software. It does away with the touch haptic center stack controls in favor of real buttons and switches for easier use, and makes wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay standard. Hyundai also redesigned the steering wheel, air vents, instrument panel and rear seat armrest.

Also mirroring Tucson tech are various new systems available on the Santa Cruz, including items like a fingerprint scanner for vehicle startup, Digital Key 2 tech (for phone-as-key use), over-the-air updates for the infotainment system, more powerful USB-C ports, and a new driver attention monitoring system.

And Hyundai made the XRT off-roading trim a more robust off-roader after introducing it as an appearance package in 2024. The XRT is known by an exclusive grille, red tow hooks poking through a redrawn front bumper that provides a better approach angle, a new rear bumper, and 245/60R all-terrain tires wrapping trim-specific 18-inch “wrench-inspired” wheels. The cabin features XRT logos and the Surround View Monitor comes standard to improve visibility in off-road situations.

Powertrains powertrains carry over unchanged. That means a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder making 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque, shifting through an eight-speed automatic transmission to either the front or both axles, or a turbocharged variant of the same engine making 281 hp and 311 lb-ft, shifting through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox to both axles. However, the 2.5 turbo adds a tow mode to its drive mode selection for both the Limited and XRT trims, even though maximum capacity holds pat at 5,000 pounds; the non-turbo can pull 3,500 pounds.

Finally, the Night trim is no more. The ultra dark stepping stone filling the $10,000 gap between the SEL and XRT is now the SEL with the Activity Package. 

Ok, to the MSRPs then. Prices for 2025 after the $1,395 destination charge and their differences from 2024 launch pricing are: 

SE: $29,895 ($1,910)
SEL: $31,595 ($1,220)
SEL Activity: $34,595 (New trim)
XRT: $41,395 ($210)
Limited: $43,895 ($1,490)

As we’ve seen with some other vehicles for the 2025 model year, Hyundai raised prices during the 2024 model year. We have a feeling automakers are doing this for two reasons: 1. They can; 2. So stories about new pricing don’t seem so bad when comparing the latest pricing to what’s ahead. For instance, the 2023 Santa Cruz SE started at $26,745 after a $1,010 destination charge. When announced for 2024, the little hauler started at $27,985 after a $1,335 destination charge. Based on a Hyundai price sheet, in June of this year, the SE’s MSRP rose to $26,900 plus a $1,395 destination charge, for a base price of $28,295. So what looks like a $1,600 premium over the 2024 Santa Cruz is only valid if going back to June, and doesn’t count the cumulative $310 bump in MSRP and destination before then. 

As for the putative competition, the 2025 Honda Ridgeline starts at $41,545, the still-hot-selling Ford Maverick will start at $27,890 for 2025.