Hyundai Santa Cruz by Model Year: A Southport Homeowner's Buying Guide (2022-2026)

If you own a home in Southport, you already know what a vehicle has to pull off. It needs to haul a load of mulch from the garden center on SR-77, back a kayak trailer down to Deer Point Lake, fit in a standard residential garage, and still drive comfortably into Panama City for everything else. The Santa Cruz does all of that. So the question worth your time is which model year to buy, because the gap between a 2022 and a 2024 runs deeper than age. Recalls, transmission design, and how much drama you're willing to manage in your driveway all factor in.

Here's the short version. For most used buyers, 2023 and 2024 are the sweet-spot years. They cleared the first-generation reliability stumbles, carry "Great" reliability grades, and sidestep the most consequential 2025 recall issues. If you want a new truck off the lot with the final mechanical refinements, the 2026 is a genuinely solid choice. Just verify its open recall repairs are completed before you sign.

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Which years are the sweet spots?

For a Southport homeowner who wants a used Santa Cruz with the lowest documented hassle, we'd point you at 2023 and 2024 first on the used market, though a well-documented 2022 can still work if its recalls check out. The 2023 was the year the Santa Cruz crossed into "Great" reliability territory. J.D. Power's midsize truck rankings show it climb from dead last in its class in 2022 to consistently third or better in subsequent years. We're describing a documented two-year leap, and the complaint data backs it up. The 2024 continued on that track and earned top-small-truck recognition. Neither year carries the 2022's powertrain complaint volume, and neither has the 2025's pair of significant recalls.

What changed between 2022 and 2023? The sharpest early problems (dual-clutch transmission hesitation, infotainment freezing, and a powertrain fail-safe concern) got addressed through service bulletins and build revisions that worked their way through production by the 2023 model year. By the time 2024 trucks were rolling out of Hyundai's Montgomery, Alabama plant, those fixes were standard.

Every model year stacks up differently on the dimensions that matter for a used buy, and the table lays it out.

Which years should you watch out for?

The year to watch most is 2022, and that caution is documented rather than reputational, since per NHTSA data the 2022 Santa Cruz accumulated four recalls and 171 owner complaints, the most of any year in the nameplate's short run. Two of those recalls carry real weight. First, a turbo oil supply pipe that could crack and cause an oil leak in the engine compartment (NHTSA campaign 22V-746). Second, a tow hitch harness electrical short that created a fire risk even with the vehicle parked and turned off. Southport homeowners should weigh that second recall the hardest. If you park in an attached garage, which most Southport households do, NHTSA's guidance was to park outside until the recall repair was completed. A 2022 with a verifiably closed recall history on that specific VIN is a different conversation than one that isn't.

The turbo-equipped 2022 trims (SE AWD, SEL AWD, XRT, Limited) carry a higher documented complaint rate than the naturally aspirated FWD versions. The base engine side is cleaner, though still not as clean as 2023 or later.

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The 2025 needs attention for different reasons. Two distinct recalls hit that model year. The first is a side curtain airbag installation issue (affecting 2025-2026 Santa Cruz vehicles) where the curtains may not deploy correctly in a crash. Dealers reinstall them at no charge. The second is a wiring routing problem specific to 2025 Santa Cruz trucks that allows the gear selector to shift out of Park without the driver pressing the brake pedal. Dealers reroute the wiring, also free of charge. Per NHTSA, owner letters went out in late 2024. Neither recall disqualifies a 2025 truck. Both require confirmation that the repairs are completed on the specific vehicle you're considering.

The 2026 carries three software-category recalls. You've got the side airbag recall (shared with 2025), a forward collision camera issue causing the system to apply brakes unexpectedly (NHTSA 26V-316, affecting 2025-2026 units), and an instrument cluster that can blank out or reboot while driving (26V-047, 2026 only). All three are fixed by software updates or dealer reinstallation. Software fixes like these sit in a different category from the 2022's physical powertrain failures.

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What Southport homeowners actually do with this truck

What most Southport homeowners do with this truck plays to its strengths, though a couple of jobs fall outside them, and the platform explains both. The Santa Cruz rides on the same unibody underpinnings as the Hyundai Tucson, which is intentional. It drives and parks more like a crossover than a body-on-frame pickup. The bed is roughly 48 inches long (four feet, four inches), with a built-in locking tonneau cover standard on all trims.

Southport is an unincorporated community in Bay County, Florida. For everyday homeowner use, that bed handles the tasks that come up. Weekend loads of mulch, soil bags, a pressure washer, a kayak or small fishing boat on a trailer. The naturally aspirated 2.5-liter engine makes 191 horsepower and Hyundai rates it at up to 1,763 lbs of towing capacity on FWD trims. Step up to any turbo trim (XRT or Limited on 2022-2025, or either of those plus the SE AWD and SEL AWD on 2026) and you're working with 281 horsepower, 311 lb-ft of torque, and a tow rating of up to 5,000 lbs. The tow rating on the turbo trims covers a typical Bay County fishing setup or a loaded landscape trailer on post-storm cleanup days without stress.

The clear limitation is bed length. The four-foot-four bed won't haul 8-foot dimensional lumber or full sheets of plywood without overhang. If your home projects regularly involve framing runs or full-sheet loads, you'll feel that constraint. A longer-bed pickup handles raw building materials more practically. On everything else, the Santa Cruz earns its place in Southport driveways. It's 195.7 inches long (a full-size pickup runs closer to 230 inches), the cabin feels like an SUV, and the EPA rates the base FWD 2.5-liter at 22 city / 30 highway. Fuel economy like that matters on daily runs to Panama City, when you'd rather not think about fill-ups on every trip.

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Which Santa Cruz year fits which Southport buyer?

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No single Santa Cruz year is right for every Southport homeowner, so the smart move is to match the year to how you'll actually use the truck, and the table below does exactly that across six common buyer profiles.

We'll put one thing plainly about the 2026 XRT and Limited turbo trims. They got a genuine mechanical change. Hyundai replaced the wet dual-clutch automatic transmission (a documented source of low-speed hesitation and rough engagement complaints in 2022-2024 turbo trims) with a traditional 8-speed torque-converter automatic. You'll feel that kind of improvement on subdivision streets more than on the highway. Backing a trailer, pulling out of a tight driveway, creeping through a neighborhood at low speed with a full bed. The torque-converter version is noticeably smoother there. If you want a turbo Santa Cruz and you're buying new, 2026 is the one.

The Santa Cruz wraps production after 2026. Hyundai's moving toward a larger body-on-frame pickup truck in the years ahead, and there's no 2027 Santa Cruz coming. For used shoppers, that actually simplifies the market. The 2023-2025 units aren't going to disappear from lots just because a new generation showed up. The supply is what it is. For buyers interested in new, what's on dealer lots right now is the final chapter of this nameplate.