AutoUtility currently tracks 17 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. Driver Assistance & Safety Tech issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 9 complaints (52.9% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 filing cites a crash, 1 cites a fire.
Factual proportion of owner complaints categorized by automotive subsystem in NHTSA records
9 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI for this subsystem.
3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI for this subsystem.
3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI for this subsystem.
2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI for this subsystem.
Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
"The contact owns a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds at night on several occasions, the headlights were dim and created a shadow across the roadway. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on multiple occasions. The dealer was initially unable to duplicate..."
"The contact owned a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, a loud popping noise was suddenly heard coming from the engine compartment with no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that immediately following the failure, the power steering..."
"While driving at night I happened to notice that the headlights failed to illuminate the road sufficiently. Specifically, the truck was going downhill. As it approached the bottom and soon to go uphill, I noticed that there was a strict delineation in what was lit up and what was not. Being on a..."
"I was driving on a highway at 55mph at night today 3/1/2026 and all of a sudden the headlights, instrumentation lights, and computer display went out, very scary, the all turned back on about 1.5 seconds later."
"The contact owns a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz. The contact stated that after a month of owning the vehicle, while attempting to start the vehicle, the Forward Collision Avoidance warning light and other unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the Forward Collision Avoidance warning..."
Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2022–2026)
| Model Year | NHTSA Complaints | Crash Reports | Safety Recalls | Detailed Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz | 179 | 4 | 4 | View 2022 Problems → |
| 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz | 77 | 2 | 2 | View 2023 Problems → |
| 2024 Hyundai Santa Cruz | 35 | 3 | 1 | View 2024 Problems → |
| 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Current Page | 17 | 1 | 3 | Current |
| 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz | 0 | 0 | 3 | View 2026 Problems → |
Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 10 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications
| Vehicle Component / System | Total Complaints | Crash Reports | Fire Reports | Injury Entries | Fatality Entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EXTERIOR LIGHTING | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cross-reference safety recalls, crash test safety ratings, and EPA fuel economy for this model year
Key performance indicators, EPA fuel economy specs, powertrain variants, and summary ratings.
Official recall campaigns, safety defect descriptions, and manufacturer free remedy instructions.
NHTSA 5-Star NCAP crash test results, driver assistance systems, and rollover resistance ratings.
EPA fuel economy ratings, electric range, and annual energy cost benchmarks.
Direct, deterministic answers synthesized from verified United States government databases for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz
In official NHTSA consumer records, the most frequently cited issue area for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz is Driver Assistance & Safety Tech, appearing in 9 records (52.9% of submitted filings).
Secondary reported categories include Exterior Lighting (3) and Electrical System (3).
AutoUtility does not issue subjective reliability scores or commercial ratings. In official United States government records, NHTSA tracks 17 consumer defect complaints and 3 safety recall campaigns for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz.
Reviewing documented component complaint distributions, recall remedy notices, and active federal investigations provides an objective, evidence-based view of the vehicle's historical safety and defect record.
Among consumer complaint records on file with NHTSA for the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz, 1 filing cites a crash, 1 cite smoke or fire, and 0 report one or more injuries.
Incident entries represent consumer descriptions at the time of submission to federal authorities and do not establish mechanical causation or legal liability.
The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database under 49 CFR Part 576.
Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.