Hyundai has transported his truck 2025 Santa Cruz to this year New York Auto Show for debut. With trader With deliveries expected later this summer, it’s time to answer the question every dad asks at the end of a meal when dining out: “What’s the damage?” As with virtually every light vehicle made in 2025, the upcoming Holy Cross costs more than the current Santa Cruz. Let’s recap what the money gets paid for. We’re looking at a new grille and a fresh front bumper, reshaped daytime running lights and new wheel designs. Interior updates are similar in scope to what we saw on the refreshed TucsonThe Santa Cruz’s SUV sibling, which sees the arrival of Hyundai’s panoramic curved screen setup with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system running the latest Hyundai software. It ditches the centre console’s haptic touch controls in favour of real buttons and switches for easier use, and makes wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay standard. Hyundai has also redesigned the steering wheel, air vents, instrument panel and rear seat armrest.
The Santa Cruz also gets several new systems that mirror the Tucson’s technology, including things like a fingerprint scanner for starting the car, Digital Key 2 technology (for using your phone as a key), 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 version a more rugged off-road vehicle after introducing it as an appearance package in 2024. The XRT is known for an exclusive grille, red to tow hooks that extend through a redesigned front bumper that offers a better approach angle, a new rear bumper and 245/60R all-terrain tires wrap-specific 18-inch “wrench-inspired” wheels. The cabin features XRT badging and the Surround View Monitor is standard to enhance visibility in off-road situations.
Powertrains remain unchanged. That means a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder making 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque, sending power to either the front axle or both axles through an eight-speed automatic transmission, or a turbocharged variant of the same engine making 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft, sending power to both axles through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The 2.5 turbo does add a towing mode to the drive-mode selection for both the Limited and XRT trims, though maximum towing capacity remains at 5,000 pounds; the non-turbo can tow 3,500 pounds.
Finally, the Night trim is no more. The ultra-dark entry point that fills the $10,000 gap between the SEL and XRT is now the SEL with the Activity Package.
Okay, so to the MSRPs. 2025 prices after the $1,395 destination charge and how they differ from the 2024 launch prices are:
- LIKE THIS: $29,895 ($1,910)
- SEL: $31,595 ($1,220)
- SEL activity: $34,595 (New Edition)
- XRT: $41,395 ($210)
- Limited: $43,895 ($1,490)
As we’ve seen with a number of other vehicles for the 2025 model year, Hyundai raised prices during the 2024 model year. We get the feeling that automakers do this for two reasons: 1. They can; 2. So pricing stories don’t seem so bad when you compare the latest prices to what’s coming. For example, the 2023 Santa Cruz SE started at $26,745 after $1,010 destination charge. When announced for 2024The small transporter started at $27,985 after a $1,335 destination charge. Based on a Hyundai price list, the SE’s MSRP jumped to $26,900 plus a $1,395 destination charge in June of this year, for a base price of $28,295. So what looks like a $1,600 premium over the 2024 Santa Cruz only applies if we go back to June, and doesn’t count the cumulative $310 increase in MSRP and destination before that.
As for the supposed competition, the 2025 Honda Ridgeline starts at $41,545, the still popular Ford Maverick starting at $27,890 for 2025.