Smooth, car like drive but very lack luster acceleration
The Santa Cruz suits my need with small pick-up bed for hauling. The drive experience, handling and braking are good and solid. The electronic safety features (lane departure, back up camera, passing warnings, etc.) are excellent. The acceleration is very poor and believe this is due to the design of the transmission. Like my prior Elantra, the Santa Cruz has a froward looking blind spot on the passenger side due to the sloped nature of the windshield. I very occasionally use the Santa Cruz for short hauling of a boat/trailer weighing about 2000 lbs. I would not try to trailer anything much heavier and am skeptical of the reported 3500 lb towing capacity. The Apple Car Play generally works well. I have only used the Hyundai Bluelink to remotely lock the vehicles door. I once tried to use Bluelink it to remote start the vehicle on a very cold night. Not only did it fail to start but wound up locking me out of the vehicle with both the remote unlock and key fob disabled. Took me hour of fiddling in the bitter cold to finally unlock the car. Will not try again. My dealer offers three year complimentary oil changes and tire rotation. This is a bit of a scam as they only cover semi-synthetic replacement and there is an upcharge for the full synthetic oil that is required. The vehicle has also been plagued with a small coolant leak that the dealer has not been able to locate or repair. Front seats are very comfortable but back seat compartment is very small (expected for compact pick-up). Back seat 60/40 split works well but lacks fold down compartment/arm rest in middle. The vehicle doors do not close easily. Really need to slam them to assure they fully close.