2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.