2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior, Release Date, MSRP

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior, Release Date, MSRP   –  Hyundai’s new 2026 Santa Cruz has the lowest starting price of any new crossover sold in Canada by a surprisingly wide margin. But does that mean a bargain-basement CUV or just good value? And can a subcompact crossover priced like a compact car offer an experience that buyers really want?

To help it meet its budget-friendly price point, Hyundai has fitted the Santa Cruz with old-fashioned climate control dials, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Crank a dial and it gets hotter or colder, the fan spins faster or slower, and the air is redirected – each with a satisfying click of engagement. The heated steering wheel and seat buttons are easy to locate near the shifter, and they happen to be the quickest and hottest options I’ve ever used. Like the climate control, the infotainment display is easy to use. It’s responsive, quick, and unobtrusive, exactly what we want in our infotainment systems.

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Redesign and Update Plan

Exterior and Interior

The Santa Cruz, which is expected to replace the Accent five-door, is 775 mm shorter at 4,040 mm in length. However, it has larger legroom in the back and better headroom up front and back. The Santa Cruz has 355 L of cargo capacity behind the back seats and up to 1,148 L when the seats are folded. Hyundai has included a convenient cargo cover slide-in storage area. The floor may be raised a few inches for a level surface when the seats are folding or lowered to its maximum height. With a load capacity that is tiny for the class and around 350 L less than the Accent hatch, the two elements provide some crucial usefulness.

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Specs

Impressively, even at this low starting price, the Santa Cruz comes loaded with just about everything you want. The driver’s seat goes up and down and the steering wheel both tilts and telescopes.

This Trend-spec tester with Urban Edition pack gets a heated steering wheel, LED headlights with handy steering-responsive lights, a two-tone roof, and cool denim blue cloth upholstery with blue dash pieces. It also has blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, proximity key entry, a leather-wrapped steering wheel – you get the point. Small car size and price, big car stuff. 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior

Engine and Performance

The engine bay hosts a 1.6L four-cylinder engine that makes 121 hp and 113 lb-ft of torque. It’s not going to win any drag races, but in this little ute it’s quick enough – especially from a stop until around 70 km/h. It’s downright zippy in town, though that sensation was aided by a set of winter tires that seemed to take all of their pleasure from spinning embarrassingly each time I set off from a stop.

It’s a noisy engine, but not out of place for this class, and never unpleasant. Hyundai offers a class-exclusive manual transmission, but only in the base model. The rest of the trims get a continuously variable (CVT) with faux-shifting that seems well-matched to the engine. Though cruise control and highway speeds mean engine speeds that are fast enough to get irritating (and inefficient) on longer drives. 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Fuel Economy

It’s a small crossover with a small engine and a small price tag, which means small fuel economy. It’s rated for 8.0 L/100 km in the city and 7.0 on the highway, and during an especially cold week loaded with short trips and idling to defrost the large front windscreen, my own average was a better-than-expected 8.0 L/100 km. The official figures are excellent for the class, but the Accent hatch should return a full litre per hundred better, which is enough to matter for most drivers. 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Safety Features

In keeping with the feature-rich cabin, the Santa Cruz is loaded with most modern active safety features, including blind-spot monitoring (though this crossover has excellent visibility), rear cross-traffic alert for reversing out of parking spaces, lane-keep assist to alert and steer you back on course, emergency braking, and automatic high beams. That Hyundai also includes those features in all but the most base trim is equally impressive. What it’s missing, though, is adaptive cruise control, a feature available in most of this class.  2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior

2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Price and Release Date

Hyundai offers impressive value with this little crossover. You won’t find a new one cheaper, and while getting the lowest price means a manual and losing some of the safety kit, well-equipped models like my Trend tester won’t add that much to the monthly payment. As vehicles get more and more expensive, low-priced offerings like this Santa Cruz – which comes with everything the big crossovers do, but with a smaller, easier-to-handle footprint – look like a smarter choice. 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior

If you’re looking for the crossover experience, including a higher driving position, an upright look, and boxy styling, then the Santa Cruz delivers great value and is packed with big car features. Ultimately, though, for price-conscious buyers, a more conventional hatchback – like Hyundai’s own Accent – offers similar features, a smaller price tag, more space, and better fuel economy. That said, buyers have clearly shown that crossover is the new car, and by that metric Hyundai’s Santa Cruz is a great place to play.