What Makes the 2025 Santa Cruz Perfect for Weekend Warriors

You work hard during the week to provide for yourself and your family; on the weekends, you deserve a vehicle that can help you turn loose and have fun. The refreshed 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz offers the performance and capabilities weekend warriors need in a compact, affordable package.

As the leading Hyundai dealer near Norris, Rusty Wallace Hyundai has the 2025 Santa Cruz for sale for Tennessee drivers who want to let their hair down. This small truck will be your vehicle to make the most of every day off—and it’s a fine daily driver, too. Let’s explore how the Hyundai Santa Cruz steps up its game for concerts, road trips, beach excursions, and other unforgettable weekend experiences.

The Power You Need for Adventure

After punching the clock all week, you want an adrenaline rush on the weekend, which means a weak powertrain can’t be in the cards. The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz solves this with potent engines that emit a pleasingly throaty roar. The base 2.5L inline-four engine makes 191 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque, which is fine for cruising down I-75 with an EPA-estimated 30 MPG on the highway. If you want the hair on the back of your neck to stand up, the Santa Cruz XRT and Limited trims add a turbocharger that boosts output to 281 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque, which you’ll feel every time you stomp the gas pedal.

Both engines are connected to an eight-speed automatic transmission with Hyundai’s Shiftronic technology, which lets you manually shift if you prefer. The transmission for the turbocharged engine adds a dual-clutch and paddle shifters for even smoother transitions.

Great Towing and Bed Features

You’re usually not going on weekend adventures alone; you’ll bring luggage, bikes, ATVs, air mattresses, fishing gear, and other toys. Hyundai knows this, and they designed the 2025 Santa Cruz for some of the best towing and cargo performance of any small truck. This compact truck has a hauling capacity of up to 5,000 lbs, which is enough to bring a boat to Melton Lake Park or cart a pop-up camper for overnight outings. For this, the Santa Cruz is prewired for four-pin or seven-pin attachments.

Furthermore, its four-foot composite bed has so much more to offer than its 27 cu.ft. of cargo area. The bed has sidewall storage and a lockable under-bed compartment to increase capacity and help you organize. Heavy-duty D-rings let you hold everything in place, and the multi-functional tailgate with remote release allows easy access. There’s also a factory-installed tonneau cover with utility tracks on most trims to protect cargo against the weather. Other standard and available features include side roof rails, a 115-volt power outlet, rear bumper steps, and privacy glass.

Great Handling on All Terrain

Norris drivers don’t just want a truck that does well on dry pavement, hence why the 2025 Santa Cruz adapts to the road. Its HTRAC all-wheel drive (AWD) is available or standard with every trim, giving you much-needed traction to handle rain, dirt, and tight turns. When you choose AWD, there are up to seven drive modes that optimize the Santa Cruz. Normal mode is ideal for everyday driving, while Sport mode gives you more throttle and steering response. Snow, Mud, Sand, and Tow modes use special algorithms to keep the Santa Cruz sailing along in these conditions. Finally, Smart mode can automatically switch or combine modes based on driver input and what the sensors detect.

Of course, these drive modes need a good suspension and chassis to take advantage of them. Hyundai thus outfits the 2025 Santa Cruz with a high-strength steel body, independent MacPherson front struts with coilovers, a self-leveling independent multi-link rear suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, and 18-inch aluminum alloy wheels. The result is a truck that handles like a car on the main roads yet tackles backroads and light off-road trails without a drop of sweat. The XRT trim adds all-terrain tires, a higher approach angle for obstacles, and front tow hooks to pull yourself out of trouble.

Keep Comfortable As You Go

Whether you’re the only person on an adventure or you bring family and friends, everyone can get cozy in the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. It has 41.4 inches of front legroom and 36.5 inches of rear legroom, which rank among the best in the compact class. The windshield is acoustic-laminated to help block road noise, and the driver’s seat can be adjusted up to eight ways for a great fit. Most trims have dual climate controls, auto-defogging, and H-Tex leatherette seat upholstery.

Thanks to all-LED lighting, which is unbelievably bright and outlasts traditional halogens, you can keep adventuring well into the night. All Santa Cruz trims have projector-style bi-LED headlights plus daytime running lights for maximum visibility 24/7. The low and high beams automatically turn on and off as needed so you can focus on the drive. Roof-mounted cargo lights are standard, and higher trims also have bed lights to see what you’re loading and unloading during the night hours.

Tech for Entertainment and Safety

The tasty tech on the 2025 Santa Cruz will help Norris drivers become one with their journey. Feast your eyes and fingers on a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, which has built-in wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth streaming and hands-free calls, HD Radio, Bluelink+ remote access, and SiriusXM satellite radio capability. You can queue up great tunes or a Tennessee Volunteers basketball game in seconds. Premium features like a Bose speaker system, dynamic voice recognition, and the ability to pay for parking spaces from the touchscreen further elevate your tech game.

The Santa Cruz is also at the cutting edge of driver assistance technology to aid you on any quest. Thanks to the Hyundai SmartSense suite, every Santa Cruz compact pickup has numerous standard driver assistance features; these include front collision assistance with pedestrian detection, rear cross-traffic alerts, blind spot collision warnings, lane-keeping assistance, lane-following assistance, driver attention warnings, safe exit warnings, rear occupancy alerts, and high-beam assistance.

Other driver assistance features are available, such as advanced front collision assistance, blind-spot monitoring, highway driving assistance, and Smart Cruise Control. These are bonuses for a model that has scored a five-star NHTSA rating and an IIHS Top Safety Pick title, proving it’s built to protect you wherever the weekend goes.

Step Up Your Weekends at Rusty Wallace Hyundai

If your idea of recharging from a long week is getting out there and seeing what the world offers, the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz is your truck. Norris adventurers will love the power, handling, comfort, and tech that let them go anywhere they want and bring anything they need. It’s backed by Hyundai’s industry-leading warranties, like a five-year, 60,000-mile vehicle limited warranty, a ten-year, 100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty, a seven-year anti-perforation warranty, and five years of 24/7 roadside assistance.

Visit Rusty Wallace Hyundai and enjoy high-octane weekend outings with a new Santa Cruz. We strive to provide adventurers in Norris and beyond with a truck that meets the high standards Rusty Wallace has expected since his days as a NASCAR champion. With our team, we can provide whatever you need before, during, and after the sale in a laid-back, stress-free environment. Call us to arrange a test drive; we’ll give you an extra $50 off your Santa Cruz just for trying it out!

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