Hi everyone,

I'm currently evaluating the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Toyota Tacoma to determine which compact pickup best suits my needs. While the Santa Cruz offers a crossover-like driving experience with a refined interior, the Tacoma is renowned for its rugged off-road capabilities and proven reliability.

I'm particularly interested in comparing aspects such as towing capacity, fuel efficiency, interior comfort, and overall driving experience.

For those who have experience with both models, could you share your insights on how they stack up in real-world usage? Looking forward to your feedback on a Side by Side Car Comparasion.

thanks in advance for any help

 

You can't compare them, because the Cruz is not in any shape or form a truck. And has never been sold as such.
What you have to do is figure out what your priorities are. Urban adventurer with occasional light trail or are you a rock crawler in the back forty. (don't confuse off-road with trail)
The jury is still out on the Toyota redesign base engine with the turbo. If you go that route get out of it at 30k max mileage. Don't be fooled by the so called Toyota quality they are using the same cheap Chinese parts as everybody else is including the Germans.

 

 

I'm particularly interested in comparing aspects such as towing capacity, fuel efficiency, interior comfort, and overall driving experience.

Towing and fuel efficiency are easy to obtain objective data points, while comfort and driving experience are personal and subjective to each individual person.

I switched from a Dakota, which like the Taco, is a traditional BOF (mid-sized) truck and the SC is superior is all aspects, including towing. My use case involves zero off roading so I didn't care about rugged capabilities. As for reliability all brands and models have issues, however clearly Toyota is better then Hyundai. One thing for sure the Toyota will have superior resale value. These final points come down to how long you except to own the vehicle. Almost everyone thinks they are going to keep a vehicle "forever" but that rarely comes to pass.

 

My Santa Cruz is a truck.

 

Well then, based off that it's a no-brainier, you have to go with the Tacoma, more capable and a better value.
Remember 'perception' sells, if people truly believe Toyota means quality it's difficult then to convince them to go with the shady Koreans. The market was missed read, people wanted a Slate type size runabout but not in E.V.

 

I came from a 2021 Silverado, I came to realize I didn't need all the truck capabilities and living with a real truck just wasn't me. I like my cruz, it's easier to live with.
I considered a mid sized truck and drove a few, I decided the Cruz was just a better fit for me. Ride, handling and features mattered most to me.
My advice is drive them both and be honest with yourself. If you're buying new you have warranty and can always trade into something else after a few years.

 

Think of it this way, you're comparing a car (Tucson) with a BOF pickup truck. Apples and oranges.

 

Warranty on the Cruz is far better and extended is fantastic. You can get a half yard of dirt or mulch in the Cruz. But yes, what are you using it for? Also, what is the retail of both. The Cruz is fun to drive and sutes my requirements. I have a 2024 preffered and honesty, I would buy it again.

 

I had several Tacoma over the years and they treated me very well. Now I'm in the years where I don't utilize a truck that often. I purchased a brand new SEL in 2024 and it's been fantastic all around. I'm glad I did. (This getting on in years isn't what I thought it would be. lol)

 

I'm coming from a new 2014 Tacoma 4x4 TRD Off Road I drove for 10.5 years and 120k miles, which is now my son's truck, to my new 2025 Cruz Limited and couldn't be happier. (bought Dec and already 14k miles)
The ride is soooooooo much better
The gas mileage is waaaaay better
The tech is so much better
Waaaay more zippier and actually fun to drive, the Taco was just so sluggish.. zero pep
Overall the Cruz is just a more well rounded vehicle. Especially for a daily driver and not a heavy work truck.
Yes, a time or two I've had to get creative arranging loads and missed that extra 8 inches of bed, but part of that also is the extra lost having to tonneau cover (in reality more than you'd think). But I added cross rails over the bed and a basket, as well as the factory cross rails over the roof.. so added storage space when needed.

It will always depend on your use case, of course, but for my use case, which is 98% road driving with occasional loads.. I choose comfort and gas mileage of the Cruz over the overkill for me Tacoma.
Plus, I really like the look of the Cruz, especially with the basket over bed.. and really hate to new Taco redesign that is all boxy and just a shrunken Tundra now.

 

but for my use case, which is 98% road driving with occasional loads.. I choose comfort and gas mileage of the Cruz over the overkill for me Tacoma.

If people were honest about their use case they would likely come to the same conclusion.

 

All states will list it as a truck because it has an open bed, what we are talking about here is Hyundai's marketing approach. It appears for the 2026 model year they are going to say it's a truck.

 

Ok I can see your point how ever we only know what we see & here in E Tennessee Hyundai already calls it a truck at the dealer as well so my view was different with Hyundai n tilted doing it. But see where your coming from thank you for being, kind enuff to respon.

 

I bought a 2025 Santa Cruz XRT in June, I started leaking oil at 3,000 miles. It has been in the dealership service department for 26 days and they have no idea when I'll get it back. They had an oil change special this last week so they were too busy with oil changes to get to my brand new piece of junk. And my 2001 Toyota 4Runner with 340k still tows my trailer. I can't tow with the XRT because they need a hitch installed.

Toyota all the way!!

 

I bought a 2025 Santa Cruz XRT in June, I started leaking oil at 3,000 miles. It has been in the dealership service department for 26 days and they have no idea when I'll get it back. They had an oil change special this last week so they were too busy with oil changes to get to my brand new piece of junk. And my 2001 Toyota 4Runner with 340k still tows my trailer. I can't tow with the XRT because they need a hitch installed. View attachment 30438
Toyota all the way!!

I call bs. Oil changes are not done by an entire shop.
If you made an appointment to have your oil leak looked at, they would have diagnosed it and told you what needs to be repaired and give you an estimated time of repair.
You didn't know there was no hitch on your vehicle when you bought it?
Troll

 

I agree with the feedback that it all depends on how you are going to use the vehicle and also how much are you willing to spend to get premium features. For me, I was going back and forth between the Tacoma and the Santa Cruz. But the cost of a mid-level trim Tacoma was more than the top trim of the SC, and I really wanted to have the premium features for once in my life. So I went with the SC. I use my SC to move my kids in and out of college, and buy bulk items at Costco. For those needs, the SC offers me more than enough bed space.

Tacomas are expensive and if you have the money to buy the top trim, then go ahead and do that. Seems like a no brainer. There's no doubt that's a great vehicle that will last you forever.

But since budget was a factor for me, I went with the SC. And I do really like the features that mine came with and I use mine all the time.

 

i drove a Tacoma for 18 years. best vehicle i've ever owned. loved it but....... the Tacoma is a truck. the Santa Cruz does have some obvious truck characteristics but i don't consider it a truck. the Cruz drives and handles much more like a car than the Tacoma. i didn't need the truck bed and hauling capabilities anymore and i wanted a change after so long. think about how you'll use the vehicle and buy accordingly. you'll like either one imo.

 

If you drive both the choice will be easy unless you spend a lot of time off-roading Mine is a 2025xrt the turbo 4 is quick and good mileage

 

I call bs. Oil changes are not done by an entire shop.
If you made an appointment to have your oil leak looked at, they would have diagnosed it and told you what needs to be repaired and give you an estimated time of repair.
You didn't know there was no hitch on your vehicle when you bought it?
Troll

I never said I got an appointment to look at my oil leak. My vehicle was towed in because of an excessive oil leak. You don't know how backed up the service department is, Einstein. You think you can tell me the status of all Hyundai's service departments? I'm sure you think so. I was informing th OP of the fact there isn't a hitch when he buys it. I guess that money you spent for reading lessons was a waste of time.You are the obvious troll!

I call bs. Oil changes are not done by an entire shop.
If you made an appointment to have your oil leak looked at, they would have diagnosed it and told you what needs to be repaired and give you an estimated time of repair.
You didn't know there was no hitch on your vehicle when you bought it?
Troll

 

I'm also in my "older" years and have had different size trucks since graduating high school after riding my dinosaur to school. I no longer need the capability to haul a barn or a mountain in the bed and the SC has enough bed space for my needs today. My take on if it's a truck or not is, if it has a bed then it is a truck even if someone modifies a VW Beetle and welds a bed and axel on it, (yes, I have seen one in person, photo attached) it's a truck.

I have recently rented Tacoma's while traveling and the seat comfort, ride, noise, gas milage, bells & whistles can't compare to my SC. I drove my SC to a race a couple of weeks ago and a truckload of young guys were tailgating in a new highly lifted with oversized tires Chevy Silverado and they all wanted to look at it and said many compliments.

 

Our Santa Cruz is not listed as a truck in KY. You have two questions to ask yourself. Which one fits you better, take a test drive and find out. How much off-roading are you actually going to do. Plenty of lifted Jeeps and large trucks around here, with NO dirt ever in the wheel wells, EVER! I do some serious off roading with my Ridgeline, I tow my ATV to the trail and use it. Remember, these trucks aren't cheap, my ATV was $7000 new, one small dent in your $40k truck and you'll pay more than that.

My Ridgeline is much quicker than any Taco, rides better, BUT the wife's Cruz is even quicker (XRT model) and gets better gas mileage. I think the Cruz actually rides a little better, but I have it beat with back seat room, and the ability to haul 4X8 sheets of lumber between the wheel wells.

I don't think QC is a big thing in Mexico, home of the Taco, whereas the Cruz and Ridgeline are American assembled with more American content.

 

Our Santa Cruz is not listed as a truck in KY. You have two questions to ask yourself. Which one fits you better, take a test drive and find out. How much off-roading are you actually going to do. Plenty of lifted Jeeps and large trucks around here, with NO dirt ever in the wheel wells, EVER! I do some serious off roading with my Ridgeline, I tow my ATV to the trail and use it. Remember, these trucks aren't cheap, my ATV was $7000 new, one small dent in your $40k truck and you'll pay more than that.

My Ridgeline is much quicker than any Taco, rides better, BUT the wife's Cruz is even quicker (XRT model) and gets better gas mileage. I think the Cruz actually rides a little better, but I have it beat with back seat room, and the ability to haul 4X8 sheets of lumber between the wheel wells.

I don't think QC is a big thing in Mexico, home of the Taco, whereas the Cruz and Ridgeline are American assembled with more American content.

TN has PK (pickup truck) code for the SC on the registration, so I guess each state has its own determination like us (six of one-half dozen of another)! I agree that most 4x4 trucks probably have never seen more than road film on them. I didn't buy my SC to do serious off-roading, but the AWD is nice when needed.

 

I traded my 2016 Tacoma in on a Santa Cruz. The Tacoma started to fall apart as it approached 100k miles. It was nothing like my 2006 Toyota tundra that rode and drove much better and was extremely reliable. The Santa Cruz is so much more enjoyable to drive than the 16 Tacoma.

 

Hope your Santa Cruz gets to 100k mine was having transmission trouble. Couldn’t trust it so after 42k I traded it. Will not buy another hyundai product.

 

Correction it is a truck small in size yes carries a round bail of hay with no problem.

Except any "round bail" .... also known as a roll or round bale..... its over the 661 lbs that Hyundai says the bed is able to haul. Even the smallest rolls that must have gone away from (4x5) start around 700lbs if it's really light and perfectly dry. Usually closer 800.

Putting a roll in a bed sucks. We haul a couple on a flat bed sometimes but even that sucks.

Generally we pull 13 or so on a trailer behind a pickup.

I'm coming from a new 2014 Tacoma 4x4 TRD Off Road I drove for 10.5 years and 120k miles, which is now my son's truck, to my new 2025 Cruz Limited and couldn't be happier. (bought Dec and already 14k miles)
The ride is soooooooo much better
The gas mileage is waaaaay better
The tech is so much better
Waaaay more zippier and actually fun to drive, the Taco was just so sluggish.. zero pep
Overall the Cruz is just a more well rounded vehicle. Especially for a daily driver and not a heavy work truck.
Yes, a time or two I've had to get creative arranging loads and missed that extra 8 inches of bed, but part of that also is the extra lost having to tonneau cover (in reality more than you'd think). But I added cross rails over the bed and a basket, as well as the factory cross rails over the roof.. so added storage space when needed.

It will always depend on your use case, of course, but for my use case, which is 98% road driving with occasional loads.. I choose comfort and gas mileage of the Cruz over the overkill for me Tacoma.
Plus, I really like the look of the Cruz, especially with the basket over bed.. and really hate to new Taco redesign that is all boxy and just a shrunken Tundra now.

A 2014 tacoma isn't in the same class as a new one. You had the old 2.7 or 3.5/4.0 back then. Reliable but gas hogs and real dogs.

I bought a 2025 Santa Cruz XRT in June, I started leaking oil at 3,000 miles. It has been in the dealership service department for 26 days and they have no idea when I'll get it back. They had an oil change special this last week so they were too busy with oil changes to get to my brand new piece of junk. And my 2001 Toyota 4Runner with 340k still tows my trailer. I can't tow with the XRT because they need a hitch installed.Toyota all the way!!

But again that old 5vz 3.4l v6 has absolutely nothing to do with the new Toyota lineup.

Our Santa Cruz is not listed as a truck in KY. You have two questions to ask yourself. Which one fits you better, take a test drive and find out. How much off-roading are you actually going to do. Plenty of lifted Jeeps and large trucks around here, with NO dirt ever in the wheel wells, EVER! I do some serious off roading with my Ridgeline, I tow my ATV to the trail and use it. Remember, these trucks aren't cheap, my ATV was $7000 new, one small dent in your $40k truck and you'll pay more than that.

My Ridgeline is much quicker than any Taco, rides better, BUT the wife's Cruz is even quicker (XRT model) and gets better gas mileage. I think the Cruz actually rides a little better, but I have it beat with back seat room, and the ability to haul 4X8 sheets of lumber between the wheel wells.

I don't think QC is a big thing in Mexico, home of the Taco, whereas the Cruz and Ridgeline are American assembled with more American content.

Your ridgeline is considerably slower than a decent trim taco and would be lucky to beat a base 2.4. We aren't talking about 10 year old tacoma. Then the tacoma could gain considerable hp from just a tuner. The na Ridgeline is pretty well stuck

All new vehicles are now having problems; Tundra's are getting new engines. Chevy has engine problems also. Ford has a new recall every week or so. Nissan is ready to close the doors with bad quality. The list goes on and on.

Recalls for failing lights and radios bricking are seperate from "your motor is going to blow up" or "your trans is failing" though. My Ford work trucks have had a ton of recalls for sure. Not one of those recalls yet though, would leave you stranded. My cup holders can break and spill my drink...... they definitely all have failures though. People demand such a sophisticated vehicle with 1000 ft lb of tq and 30k lb tow capacity with an 11 second 1/4 mile with 30 mpg. and 40 speaker high fidelity sound. Heated steering wheels and self driving etc etc etc. Stuff will fail.

I own a shop. Own a cruz. Have spent about 20k in a new Tacoma. If you want to offroad or tow get the taco. If you want payload in the bed...get the taco. It's over double the bed payload.

Power... base engine vs base engine, get the Taco. Uplevel engine vs uplevel engine.... get the taco. You can also get a proper manual transmission with the taco.

Mpg is dangerously close now. Ive spent my 20k in a buddies hunting truck. It's the base 2.4 turbo/ auto. 228 hp. My bil also drives a company truck that is the same engine. His company switched from Ford f150 to the Taco checking mpg options. His and one other worker got the new tacomas to "try out". He was told to run the crap out of it. He does. Lol. So far about 6k miles though. Running it hard (and i mean hard) he is around 19 mph here in the mountains. He said on the highway he got 25 ish. They switched for mpg reasons from the 3.3 base f150s. They are getting far less mpg in the Taco. They sell the f150s at 200k miles and have no complaints of reliability. They haul next to nothing as far as weight but it's nasty stuff so idk why they didn't give them Maverick. 4x4 I would guess. They do go on fire roads and muddy places.

The new taco is nothing like the old ones in mpg, power, or "lacking bells and whistles". BUT the new taco is very much a taco in ride quality. I was considering a new manual trans taco for a beater until I rode in one. I don't think it's a bit better than our old 1996 tacoma was. Its harsh, stiff, noisy etc. Great for offroad. Pretty sorry for on road. If your wanting an suv with a bed....get the cruz. If your wanting a plush and quiet ride get the cruz. All day. The tacoma is the worst riding new truck made and ive ridden in them all repeatedly. I drive 60s-80 trucks for fun all the time. I know all about rough ride. I also have not one but two jeep wrangler. I bounce around on tractors all winter feeding..... when i say the tacoma rides a bit harsh, it should carry a decent bit of weight. Lol

I'd strongly consider a fronteir too if you are going that route. I hate Nissan but the fronteir is a petty solid truck. Non turbo v6 powerplant. Little less mpg but I think long run it will be a better truck if your going for longevity.

As far as reliability. Hyundai has never won anything in that category. They gave been the worst in that category for the entire time they made cars. If your buying new you get a 10 year 100k mile warranty. So no worries. But having a Hyundai out of warranty is a recipe for disaster. Something like 13 million recalls for catastrophic failure in 10 years. Pretty much every engine installed over a many year period recalled etc etc. So you know where they stand.

Toyota has had over half of the top ten most reliable vehicles over 200k miles for 20 years. Everything from hybrid prius and highlander to plain base carolla. For longevity Toyota will win out every time. Hyundai has never had a Single vehicle make the list and it's not coming any time soon since the vehicles that would be nearing 200k miles are the 10 year old ones..... the same ones Hyundai had to be flexed to recall for engine defects.

None of that really matters when you look at new Cruz vs new taco though. Both are pretty much new trans/ engine designs. It's possible this could be Hyundais first 200+k mile vehicles. It's possible the new Tacoma could have all kinds of long term issues. Historically though I've seen far more 250k mile Toyota that never had a part than I have ever seen 150k mile Hyundai. And any shop anywhere will tell you the same thing. And I don't own a Toyota. Don't care anything about Toyota. So it's certainly not brand loyalty.

For tacoma money you can almost get in a half ton and have double everything and a better ride with the same mpg. All three half tons today ride pretty darn good.

 

Turbo Taco 0-60 in seven seconds. NA Ridgeline 0-60 in six seconds. Sure, you can tune a Toyota, but the life of the engine goes downhill from there. My boss tuned his Taco, mainly because he got larger tires. Not even close, but his is a V6 model, not a new turbo truck.