For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2022 Santa Cruz as about the typical Santa Cruz year. Among the 2 Santa Cruz years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2023 (1.83 per 1,000 sold) and the most about this one, the 2022 (4.11).
Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.
1.0 times this nameplate’s own median
Counted from 150 complaints filed in the first three years, of 188 ever. 95% lower bound 3.45. Not counted: 3 complaints that reported only that a recall repair was unavailable, not a failure.
The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.
| Model year | Per 1,000 | Complaints | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.11 | 150 | |
| 2023 | 1.83 | 67 |
Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.
| loss power | 17 | 19% |
| accelerate | 14 | 27% |
No clear early or late pattern.
That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.
For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2022 Santa Cruz as about the typical Santa Cruz year. Among the 2 Santa Cruz years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2023 (1.83 per 1,000 sold) and the most about this one, the 2022 (4.11). The typical year is the median across its model years.
The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Power Train (91), Engine (52), Unknown Or Other (36). The phrases they used are listed above.
Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Santa Cruz years: for every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2022 Santa Cruz as about the typical Santa Cruz year.
Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2023, at 1.83 per 1,000 sold. Every Santa Cruz year, ranked.
No guide we read covers the Santa Cruz.
Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site: