Amazing vehicle, aside from transmission issues.
We purchased our 2022 Santa Cruz SEL Premium 2.5T new in February of 2022, and I want to preface this review with the fact that aside from the issues I've had thus far with the transmission I absolutely love everything else about the vehicle. During the first 600 miles or so it was free of issues and drove quite nice, plenty of power and the 8-speed DCT shifted smoothly. Soon after I was driving in a light snowstorm and had it in snow mode and attempted to pull out from a gas station, from a steady start (just over 1/4 throttle) RPMs shot over 7000 and had to completely let off the gas and wait before the car acted normal again. Since then things have just gotten worse with stickier shifts and essentially waiting for the transmission to engage properly before applying gas, basically driving on eggshells. The two worst scenarios were the transmission failing to shift when applying the brakes and almost flying into a (different) gas station parking lot from a slight downhill descent, and also getting locked at 2000 RPM (no shifting from gas pedal input) while going 50 MPH that didn't stop until I pulled over and had to aggressively apply the brakes in order to release the transmission. This 8-speed DCT is either a dud in our vehicle or just plain unrefined, and it's sad because everything else about the vehicle is fantastic. I can't recommend this engine and transmission setup in this vehicle until hyundai addresses it, stick with the 2.5L engine and the cvt if your still up for buying one.
Recommended