Functional, but too complex.
The 2020 for Hyundai Santa Cruz has a great basic design. The size is good.
The electronics package is much more complex than is needed for a vehicle. Critical controls are located in switches immediately adjacent to the cup holders, which invite electrical problems as liquid sloshes into the electrical switches. Using a touch screen to control navigation, vehicle and entertainment functions is dangerous because the driver must take his eyes off of the road in order to touch the specific places on the screen. With physical knobs a driver can perform these tasks by touch.
Some of the driver aids can be hazardous. There is a lane centering function in a lane assist function that cannot tell the difference between white lane lines and snow tracks, and also cannot tell the difference between an object in my lane straight ahead of me versus an object in an adjacent lane that's merely following its lane as the road curves. Until I turned these two features off, my car often jerked strongly to the side in traffic When driving on snowy roads or on roads with multiple lanes and tight curves.
The engine is fuel efficient and more than powerful enough to handle duties as a light truck. The engine, however, is probably overstressed due to its small displacement and the use of the turbo. I am a very gentle driver, yet at the oil change at 48,000 miles (nearly all of which are highway miles), there was brass or bronze-colored flecks in the oil filter. I've been immediately switched to 5W30 weight oil instead of Hyundai's recommended 0W30. My previous vehicle lasted 390,000 mi. I do not think the engine in this Hyundai will make it to 200,000 miles. The strongly recommend that Hyundai put a lower compression V6, such as those used in the 2005 Sonata. Our 2005 Sonata ran for nearly 300,000 miles with zero mechanical issues. I fear that Hyundai is manufacturing a vehicle that the company considers to be disposable, while charging a premium price for it.
Verified Owner
