Where Everything Actually Is Inside The Santa Cruz
I spent last winter trying to find the heated steering wheel button during a frost at 6 AM. My fingers were numb, the cabin was cold, and I ended up pressing half the climate controls before I found it. It is on the center stack, below the temperature display, and it looks exactly like every other heating button until you actually press it. That is one reason I keep a reference around. The 2025 Santa Cruz keeps most of its primary controls clustered in three zones: the steering wheel for driving aids and media, the center stack for climate and vehicle functions, and the lower console near the shifter for traction and off-road stuff. The layout shifts slightly depending on whether you have the SE, SEL, Limited, or TRX trim, but the core buttons stay in roughly the same places across all trims. The heated and ventilated seat buttons moved to the door panels this model year on higher trims. On my Limited test truck, they replaced the older location that sat between the front seats. It took me about a week to stop reaching down there out of habit. The HVAC touch controls live on the center stack and respond to a light tap. Press and hold them if you need fine adjustments for fan speed, which is something the manual barely mentions.
Steering Wheel Controls Break Down
Left spoke handles volume and track selection. Right spoke covers cruise control and the driver assist features. The button with the car and distance lines activates adaptive cruise when pressed once. Hold it to set the following distance. I learned this the hard way when I accidentally switched from adaptive to standard cruise on a highway drive and nearly rear-ended the car in front of me by forgetting the mode had changed. There is a dedicated button for blind-spot view monitoring that shows a camera feed in the instrument cluster when you signal. It only works above 12 mph. I noticed this limitation during a parking lot maneuver where I assumed it would activate at low speed and was annoyed to find nothing happening.
Center Stack Layout
Climate controls dominate the middle section. Physical dials for temperature remain, which is good because touch-only climate systems are a pain in bad weather. Below that row, you get the heated steering wheel, rear defrost, and auto start-stop disable. The auto start-stop button is small and sits right next to the heated wheel, which is why I mashed both of them during that frost morning incident. Above the climate display is the infotainment screen. Touch input works fine for navigation and media. Voice commands are handled through a dedicated mic button on the ceiling, not the screen. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are wireless on SEL and up. They connect within five seconds of getting in the truck, usually.
Get the Full Details
Lower Console And Shifter Area
Near the electronic shifter, you will find the drive mode selector dial. Turn it to switch between Comfort, Sport, Smart, and Snow modes. Each mode changes throttle response, shift points, and steering weight. The TRX trim adds Mud and Sand modes as well, which adjust traction control thresholds and stability settings more aggressively. The hill descent control button sits right below the drive mode dial. It holds a set speed on steep grades without you touching the brake pedal. Useful if you are running off-road trails, pointless on city streets. There is also an electronic parking brake with auto hold, which engages when you come to a full stop in traffic. I leave it on constantly. It saves my right foot.
Truck Bed And Towing Buttons
The bed area has a few dedicated controls worth noting. There is a tailgate release button inside the cabin, located near the driver knee panel. Pull it to open the tailgate electrically. The bed lighting controls sit on the dash to the left of the steering column. One button toggles all four corner lights and the under-bed light bar if equipped. For the towing package, a trailer brake controller button appears on the center stack when you have the factory tow prep. The controller itself is mounted under the dash. Adjustment is done with a rotary dial on the side of the unit. I had to swap a trailer once because the brake gain was set too high, causing the trailer to drag slightly on every stop. Dialing it back to about 3.5 out of 10 fixed it immediately.
Known Issues And Quirks
The touch-sensitive volume slider on the steering wheel stopped responding one afternoon in July. I wiped it down, restarted the infotainment system by holding the power button for ten seconds, and it came back. Hyundai has a technical service bulletin covering this for 2024 and 2025 models, so if you run into it, the fix is a software flash at the dealership, not a hardware problem. The ventillation seat button sometimes does not register on the first press when the cabin is very hot. Press it twice and it works. I do not know why. My SEL had this behavior, and my wife's SE did not. Might be a sensor calibration thing or a supply chain variance. Either way, double-tap is the workaround. Another issue that came up: the heated steering wheel does not reach full temperature as quickly in sub-freezing weather if the engine has not been warmed up yet. The system pulls maximum power from the battery before the alternator kicks in properly. Wait about three minutes after startup and it warms to full strength. It never bothered me much, but it is worth knowing if you live somewhere cold and want immediate heat on arrival.
Where To Find An Official Diagram
The owner's manual PDF is the most accurate source and it is free on Hyundai's site. Search for the 2025 Santa Cruz owner's manual and look in the index under Controls or Switches. The diagrams in the back match every button location precisely, including the less obvious ones like the tire pressure reset button, which is behind a small flap near the hood release lever. Third-party sites like Edmunds and Cars.com also publish button layout guides, but they sometimes mix up trim levels or list features that are not available on base models. Cross-reference with the manual if you see something listed that you do not have in your truck.
Summary Of Key Locations
Heated steering wheel: center stack, below climate display, shared space with rear defrost. Heated and ventilated seats: door panels on SEL and Limited, center console on SE. Drive mode dial: lower console near shifter. Hill descent: same area as drive mode dial. Trailer brake controller: under dash, adjustment dial on the side. Tailgate release: driver knee panel. Ventilation seat double-tap issue: real, happens occasionally in heat. Volume slider freeze: exists, soft reset fixes it, TSB covers the permanent fix. If you are buying a used 2025 Santa Cruz, test every button before you commit. A dead heated seat module or a finicky touch slider is a pain to diagnose and replace, and the cost adds up fast. The buttons themselves are generally reliable, but the underlying modules can fail with age or water intrusion from sunroof drains or door seals. I have seen both happen. The 2025 model year did not overhaul the button scheme from 2024, so guides from last year still apply in most cases. Just watch for the seat button relocation on newer builds and the updated infotainment software that came out mid-year for some trims. I figured most of this out the hard way over twelve months of daily driving, and I am saving you the trial and error.
