10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
0 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz engine problems

engine problem

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2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Owner Comments

problem #14

Mar 012024

Santa Cruz

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I was trying to accelerate with pushing the gas pedal and the truck would not go any faster than 22 mph. This went on for 15 minutes until the truck was turned off and restarted. It seemed to be corrected with turning the vehicle off. No engine warning lights came on and the vehicle was in drive the whole time. The concern was not being able to accelerate on the on-ramp to the main highway. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone at this time. The problem could not be reproduced after it occurred today.

- Philipsburg , PA, USA

problem #13

Dec 162023

Santa Cruz

  • miles
Dec. 16 2023 / 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz(Daily Driver) VEHICLE SAFETY CONCERNS / DANGEROUS DRIVING SAFETY ISSUES INCREASED RISK OF CRASH (HIGHWAY) Transmission: Problems started Dec. 11,2023 Monday Having trouble gaining any speed. The engine revving when getting on freeway when practicing normal function acceleration, slow having hard time gaining speed, car jerking. Transmission gauge will go beyond4-5 sometimes 6 on RPM just as regular pick up to accelerate problems noticed week of Dec. 11/2023. We were going to bring it up when taken for routine maintenance that would be due at 39,000 mile oil change. car currently standing at 37,000 miles. Radiator: Problems started Dec. 16, 2023 (Saturday) Pearland is 12 miles from home route on 288. Incident occurred while driving from Bushi Ban Martial Arts & Fitness after son's class. I was on freeway and car started to lose speed & over heat. The car beeped and said overheating. hood and oil light began to flash. Luckily was exiting freeway when it occurred speed was 60 mph slowed down to 8 mph and it cooled down enough to coast home. When in driveway hot pink liquid spewed every where, battery cover blown open, liquid all over tubes and engine. The liquid leaked all over driveway and was on drivers side quarter panel and paint was bubbled up. Damage to paint from heat of liquid. Lights on dash that are lit up are engine light, oil can light, battery light on staying on not turning off. Car is not able to be driven due to MFG. defective radiator, transmission, possible engine damage. Looked online noticed recall on thousands of vehicle including the 2022 Santa Cruz 4 recalls stated. Have not turned car back on due to needing it checked out by dealership ASAP need it towed to dealership. De Montrond Hyundai 3260 Gulf Fry Texas City, Tx 77591 Followed instructions on maintaining service at dealership as stated on warranty. REQUEST THAT THE CAR BE TESTED AND OPENED TO FIND ALL DEFECTS AND DAMAGE.

- Rosharon , TX, USA

problem #12

Jun 172023

Santa Cruz

  • miles
Waiting to turn at a busy intersection then proceeded to press the accelerator the vehicle lossed power and had shut off. I Shifted gear to park to start engine and it would not go faster than 10mph. Vehicles behind nearly wrecked into me and were honking their horns. It had died again then started back up. I was able to drive home before it died again. Vehicle towed to dealership. Was told they are booked until next week and no available loaner cars.

- Moore, OK, USA

problem #11

Oct 012022

Santa Cruz

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Both rear taillights have condensation since 1 month out from purchase till currently. Dealer garage will not fix it says it normal and will not even write up or make an appointment to have it checked. Recently, I was proceeding into the highway and I lost acceleration to move into traffic that scared the life out of and my family. Pressed the gas and car doesn-??t move at all then hardly at 40rpms. No warning lights or anything came in. Drove home in the back roads and made an appointment with the garage in 2 days later. Which upon driving to garage the car seemed fine. The garage did not even write up a service order said it was normal.

- San Francisco , CA, USA

problem #10

Nov 092022

Santa Cruz 4-cyl

  • miles
I was driving on the 394 in Minneapolis and my car had a massive loss of power, dropping my speed from 65 to 35 in seconds, as if i was braking (which I wasn't). The engine light began flashing and I was unable to accelerate beyond the speed it had reduced me to. I was able to limp off the freeway and into a parking lot where it kind of fixed itself after 10 minutes. I took it to a local dealership who said the engine had lost 2 cylinders suddenly. The cylinders were not replaced and no additional work was done to the engine (I don't know why). It has since continued to stutter at lower speeds and occasionally lags when accelerating. Hyundai refuses to do anything about it.

- Springfield, OR, USA

problem #9

Nov 182022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
constantly states it does not work ever since the front license plate was installed. no way to disable it. it's either have a front plate or have no cruise control.

- Billings, MT, USA

problem #8

Oct 112022

Santa Cruz

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While driving on the 405 fwy my vehicle would not accelerate pass 20 miles it was 11 pm so not many cars on the road, I had to drive with my hazard lights on 17 miles to get home, I am taking it to the dealer today. No warning lights, or messages came on during the whole ordeal

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

problem #7

Sep 242022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
I was driving on the highway (55mph) with my two children in the backseat. My vehicle started slowing down quickly even with my foot on the gas. There was no warning, no lights on the dash lit up warning me there was anything wrong with the car. The rpm-??s we-??re going up but it was like there was no power to the car. I got off the highway onto a side road as fast as I could do I wouldn-??t get hit. Then I pulled off to the side of the road. I put it in park and turned it off. I tried to turn it back on and it would start. After a second attempt it turned on but was really rough and felt like it would stall. I used blue link to call for a tow truck. Then I called the dealership to tell them since I-??ve only had the car for 9 months. I tried to turn the car back on and the dash said battery discharging due to electrical and it turned off before I could read the last word. Tonight checking my email blue link sent an email stating a possible condition with the engine control system. The vehicle was towed to the dealership where I bought the car.

- New Windsor, NY, USA

problem #6

Sep 172022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
Driving at 60 mph. Car stopped responding to accelerator. I was forced to pull off the road. Not a safe situation due to traffic. Turned off car and restarted. The car would then accelerate normally.. There was an error logged stating that " A possible condition with your Engine Control Module has been detected. A full system check is recommended to be done soon. Please consult your your local dealership to schedule an appointment. This is a common problem occurring on numerous Santa Cruzs.

- Minnetonka, MN, USA

problem #5

Sep 162022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
Hyundia Santa Cruz was purchased Aug of 2021 and it has 5,655 miles on it. After making a stop, sometimes the Santa Cruz does not want to accelerate when pressing down on the accelerator pedal. While pushing more on the accelerator pedal to make the vehicle move, after a second or three elapses while still pressing on the accelerator will cause the vehicle to suddenly lurch forward at a rate of speed too fast and I have to immediately slam on the brakes to regain control of the forward motion of the vehicle to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me. I took the vehicle to a dealership today (9/16/22). No codes or errors were found by computer check or by a technician driving the vehicle. Dealer comment on the paperwork "Unable to verify concern at this time". Next comment on paperwork, "There is a software update that will remedy this concern". I refused the software update, as I have read numerous comments from online forums of customers having issues after dealership upgraded software. If they are unable to verify the concern, how does the dealership know the software update will remedy the issue that they cannot verify the vehicle has. Dealership paperwork also states, "Shifting issue will continue if software is not updated". It is NOT a shifting issue; it is an uncontrollable/unreliable acceleration issue. This vehicle will be put in storage on 10/18/22 and not taken out of storage until mid-May of 2023. In May of 2023 I will investigate the software update in hopes that Hyundia will have a more stable software update.

- Janesville, WI, USA

problem #4

Jul 302022

Santa Cruz

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While driving between 30 to 40 MPH the vehicle jerks. It feels like the transmission is not getting in gear and it slows down. Then the engine and transmission kind of engage and it goes back to normal. I have tried to figure out as to when specifically it does it but it does it at different time and situations. I have not driven it again in the highway since when it slows down vehicles behind me have to slow down also. I have had some instances where the vehicle is to closed to me or not paying attention and when it happens I hear those drivers blowing their horns as if I was slowing down on purpose which I wasn't. My opinion is this is a safety issue since the vehicle could be hit from behind, have an accident, injuries or even death. I keep reading the issues with this problem and the complaints keep coming. Thank you

- Miami, FL, USA

problem #3

Jul 152022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
My 2022 Santa Cruz experienced an apparent fault of the automatic transmission control during operation on a ~20 mile trip including city and highway driving. Weather was low 80s and dry. Symptoms were sluggish and delayed upshifting; loss of acceleration power. The issue was most noticeable while attempting to accelerate uphill; several times the vehicle topped out at 25-30 mph when going uphill and failed to accelerate further. As one of these occurred during moderate traffic while entering a highway on-ramp, I think this is a serious safety issue. I was able to pull to the side and eventually regained control of up/downshifting by placing the transmission shift lever in manual control - fortunately the transmission seemed to respond to manual up/down shifting and I was able to eventually accelerate to a safe highway speed (65mph). After a short ~2 mile drive on the highway I got off on the next exit and when stopped at the end of the exit ramp, turned the vehicle off and on. Following restarting the vehicle, automatic shifting seemed to operate correctly for the remainder of my travel (another ~20 miles of driving). During this malfunction I did not see any unusual indicator / warning lights on the dash or any indication that the vehicle wasn't in normal automatic driving mode. Reporting features such as the "vehicle health report" indicate that the vehicle had no issues, diagnostic messages or service due.

- Twinsburg, OH, USA

problem #2

May 182022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
Upon accelerating vehicle jumps rpms6000-7000 and does not accelerate. Vehicle needs to be turned off to function properly again, it gets stuck in high rpm-??s with no acceleration.

- Mays Landing, NJ, USA

problem #1

Feb 102022

Santa Cruz

  • miles
As other owners have reported, there is an issue that happens, seemingly at random, when accelerating from a stop. The vehicle feels as if it-??s stuck in too high of a gear and accelerates very slowly despite high RPMs. The maximum speed I could achieve was 16 MPH after keeping the gas pedal nearly floored for 3-5 seconds, which normally would have had me to nearly 60 MPH. This happened to me in rush hour city traffic on a busy street with no shoulder. The only apparent solution is to shut off the vehicle and restart it, at which time the problem resolves itself and normal operation is resumed. In my case this caused a brief traffic backup that extended through the intersection of two major arterial streets and lots of upset drivers behind me. This has only happened once (occurred on 2/10/22) since purchasing the vehicle new on 12/28/21 and having driven it approximately 1,100 miles.

- Seattle, WA, USA

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