Why we ran it: To see if this capable new crossover can be more than just a niche product
Month 1 - Month 2 - Month 3 - Final report - Specs
Life with a Subaru Crosstrek: Final report
We say farewell to our flawed but nonetheless likeable baby off-roader - final report
Subaru has a new UK managing director with a CV that includes stints at Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren and a new ambition to grow the Japanese brand’s market share, with sales expected to top one million this year. Only a tiny proportion of those will be in Europe, let alone the UK, but it still needs to widen its customer base if it’s to achieve those ambitions.
And after a few months with the Crosstrek, it seems to me that it’s on the right track. With a few provisos, which I’ll come to shortly, this is a very capable, likeable crossover with a wide spread of abilities.
Perhaps the most famous of them is the one the majority of those more mainstream buyers will never need, and that’s its off-road prowess. More than just a hollow boast, Subaru’s signature symmetrical four-wheel drive gives the little Crosstrek a cross-country agility that makes it an obvious choice if you happen to live well off the beaten track. Bouncing along a rutted surface also reinforces this car’s feeling of solidity: the ruggedness of its looks is more than skin deep, and I never felt nervous chucking it at a rough or muddy track.
Unlike most off-road vehicles, however, it’s pretty decent on the road, too, and the Subaru’s comfort will remain its most memorable feature. Although not a huge car on the outside, it’s remarkably roomy in the passenger compartment, with plenty of space for those over six foot and really good, supportive seats. Even with a leggy duo in the front, the rear cabin remains spacious – although the squabs and backs of the rear bench are a touch short. Only the limited boot space is a disappointment, but the load bay’s proper retractable cover is a pleasingly big-car touch.
And that comfort is more than seat deep. The tall suspension that gives it useful ground clearance means a suppleness to the ride that is unusual with modern cars, aided further by the chunky sidewalls of its mud and snow tyres. The way it rides the awful expansion gaps along the concrete-surfaced south-eastern section of the M25 – always a good test of a car’s ride and cabin isolation – is remarkable, yet it’s not so soft that it pogos around and gets unsettled if you want to sample the tidy if ultimately unexciting handling from the Impreza-sourced chassis.
It’s pretty refined, too, once you get up to speed. On the way there, the flat four has an unrewarding thrash, exacerbated by the CVT holding it at high revs, but at motorway pace the engine noise fades and it’s calm, apart from a bit of wind rustle around the A-pillar. I’m afraid I dismissed Subaru’s much-vaunted Eye Sight driver assistance fairly quickly,
However: in a crosswind the car can wander, and you’re rewarded with an incessant beeping that soon becomes tiring. Usefully, though, the forward collision warning and rear monitoring remain active, so there is still an appropriate safety net.
Another aid that I’ve politely refused is the Subaru Intelligent Drive button, which offers two engine maps: Intelligent and Sport. The latter adds snap off the line, but it feels a bit too aggressive in daily use so I tended to leave it in the more linear standard mode – particularly because it’s probably faster than it feels, with that transmission sapping much of the accelerative sensation.
As for those flaws I mentioned earlier, most are niggles more than outright complaints. My car had a slightly sticky brake pedal that released with a clunk in traffic, and while shunting along on the commute the car clearly wasn’t at its happiest, with an irritating tendency for the revs to rise when the hybrid battery was low – it was most noticeable when holding it on the brake while waiting for the car ahead to move. This accentuates the slightly lumpy tickover characteristics inherent to flat fours, and the only way to cure it was to move it into neutral to drop the revs from around 1100rpm to a more relaxed 700rpm.
Small grumbles, but one thing that is harder to justify is the fuel consumption. I should preface this with the admission that a lot of the miles I covered were in town, at low speed, but the limited amount of battery-powered running available from the e-Boxer underlines the mild in this hybrid system. If you are in that remote rural location, however, a more respectable figure should be achievable.
That aside, the Crosstrek is an easy car to live with and an easy car to like. Crucially, and unlike some of this brand’s more traditional products, it isn’t so quirky that it pigeonholes itself into the off-road-use-only category, and it has a broad enough spread of talents to make it a viable alternative to some of its more common rivals. It still requires you to make the odd compromise, but in this case it feels as if they are worth making.
Second Opinion
I found the Crosstrek ergonomically just right, in particular the balance between proper buttons and touchscreen. It’s a car that’s not overly flash yet it’s totally functional; it rides nicely, too, but the erratic revving due to the CVT can be frustrating – even a minor hill has the engine screaming.
Max Edleston
Love it:
Let's off-road! No need to get your drive resurfaced if you buy a Crosstrek: it really does have genuine mud-plugging ability
All-seeing eye Cornering headlights aren’t new, but the Subaru’s swivelling lights are really effective.
Effective screening The portrait infotainment screen lends itself perfectly to sat-nav use and is simple and logical to use
Loathe it:
Continuous frustration I thought I would get used to the ponderous CVT, but it remains a disappointment.
Getting a thirst on A fairly small fuel tank and a taste for petrol in town means spending a fair amount of time at the pumps.
Final mileage: 6753
Life with a Subaru Crosstrek: Month 3
A strange but alarming bit of shake and rattle doesn’t stop our e-Boxer rolling on - 24 July
The dire warnings from reader 'John' from Durham about the battery of his Forester e-Boxer not holding charge, and subsequently leaving him stranded, did make me think twice about leaving the Crosstrek unused for a week on two occasions recently, once in an airport car park.
Fortunately, however, while I do agree with John about the disappointing fuel consumption from this powertrain, I'm happy to report that I suffered no such trouble with the battery upon my return.
A week or so later, I did suspect that there was a fairly fundamental fault with the car when it made a 'clonk' on start-up, followed by an alarming rattling sound from the engine bay under acceleration. I quickly pulled over to have a look. Unusually for a modern car, there is fairly good access in there and not everything is hidden by vanity panels.
The diagnosis was very simple, even if the cause is unknown: for some reason, the bonnet stay had become detached from its retaining clip and was knocking against one of the engine ancillaries and doing a very good impression of a top-end 'death rattle. Once it was clipped back into place, peace was restored.
Definitely the simplest repair Ive ever had to do. Despite the car's compact dimensions, I have no hesitation in using it as a utility vehicle. Its latest challenge was shifting a large hutch for Simone and Peggy, my daughters' two guinea pigs.
Although not hugely heavy, it was large and awkward so the only place for it was on the Crosstrek's (standard) roof bars.
They are a very practical addition, with a load capacity of 318kg when static - so you can live out those 'lifestyle' fantasies with a roof-top tent - and a still-useful 80kg when on the move.
Unfortunately, however, they are painted grey so I was paranoid about covering them with unsightly scratches and had to protect the rails with old blankets to prevent any damage. I can't help feeling that a more hard-wearing stainless-steel finish or similar would be a better bet.
Unlike most SUVs, the Crosstrek is usefully low so a friend and I had no trouble hoicking the hutch up on to the roof and getting it back down again without any slipped discs.
Love it
Practical thinking
I often need to drop and raise the rear seatbacks and love that I can do so without fouling the seatbelts.
Loathe it
Nanny state
The passive safety system doesn’t like me nipping out into smaller gaps and applies the brakes just at the crucial moment as I pull out.
Mileage: 5424
Great for young passengers, apart from... - 3 July
Among the most discerning passengers I carry are my daughters and their friend. On the whole, they give the Crosstrek a thumbs up – decent ride, spacious rear cabin – but my 17-year-old has complained that the rear seatback is shallow and the hump in the headlining to clear the sliding sunroof feels uncomfortably close.
Mileage: 4976
Life with a Subaru Crosstrek: Month 2
Let’s find out if its ‘lifestyle’ ambitions are more than skin deep - 19 June
Judging by the action-packed promotional videos I’ve seen, Subaru’s ‘lifestyle’ aspirations for this car amount to rather sexier outdoor pursuits – usually involving skis, sails or ropes – than a weekend’s fishing in the Home Counties. However, that was what my best friend Alex wanted to do for his 50th birthday, and it was in the depths of the countryside with the potential for the odd green lane, so the Crosstrek seemed the obvious choice of transport.
It was fortunate that there were only two of us, because once we had stowed a weekend’s food, a couple of disposable barbecues, sufficient liquid refreshment, wellies and ancillary fishing gear in the boot, there wasn’t any room left for our clothes (or Alex’s eight rods), so we had to load up the rear seat too.
In this class of car, a luggage bay of just 315 litres feels pretty meagre – presumably not aided by the substantial rear subframe and the differential for the four-wheel drive system beneath. It’s shallow, too, because there isn’t even the option to lower the boot floor that you will find in most of the Crosstrek’s more conventional rivals, as that’s the space where the mild-hybrid gubbins and the extra battery live.
On the plus side, it’s refreshing to find a proper, solidly made retractable luggage-bay cover in this category, where the default setting appears to be a nastily flimsy and bulky solid panel suspended by fiddly strings, which you have to either find somewhere for in the car or leave behind in the house when you anticipate having a decent-sized load to carry.
The journey itself was very pleasant. On a longer run, the Subaru’s normally aspirated flat-four engine is more frugal – I’ve seen up to 38mpg, in contrast to as little as 29mpg when the car is restricted to commuting duties – and the Crosstrek’s Impreza-based platform feels supple and agile (if a little soft) on a typical British B-road. Drive around the rather laborious nature of the CVT and the nicely weighted, accurate steering adds to a fairly rewarding experience, although it’s never quite what I would call fun. I’ve said it before, but a bit more power would definitely help here, along with a manual gearbox...
We didn’t encounter any proper green lanes in the end, but the raised ride height and excellent traction do give confidence on rutted and slippery farm tracks, not to mention bumpy campsites.
This was just one of a number of longer-distance adventures the Crosstrek has been on recently, including to visit fellow car hack and avid collector of automotive lost souls Martin Buckley (My Week In Cars, 31 May 2023) in Gloucestershire.
With a penchant for the unloved and/or exotic, Martin isn’t a fan of Japanese cars in the main (I’m not sure he’s ever owned one out of choice), yet he still felt moved to ask me about the Crosstrek. Subaru is a brand for which people with an interest in cars tend to have a respect and a liking, even if the rally-winning models that really propelled it into the consciousness of most petrolheads are now sadly consigned to history.
You do have to try quite hard to find them, but the echoes of those glory days do still remain, even if they feel as if they are getting more distant with each passing generation.
Love it
Big tough toys
With its stiff shell and permanent four-wheel drive, the Crosstrek feels tough and rugged in a way that most crossovers don’t.
Loathe it
Short term memory
Some preferences remain after I turn off the car, yet I have to go into the menus to turn on the auto hold every time I start it up.
Mileage: 4543
The ultimate test: a trip to the tip - 5 June
No Autocar tester worth their salt can pass up the opportunity of the tip-run test, and I’m no exception. The Crosstrek’s boot is frustratingly small, but with the back seat folded, it took in a house worth of window shutters (don’t ask…) and various other detritus. Impressively, there was very little suspension deflection with all that timber on board and the handling felt largely unaffected.
Mileage: 3824
Life with a Subaru Crosstrek: Month 1
We hit the mud – on standard tyres – to test our SUV’s off-road credentials - 29 May
Living on the outskirts of London doesn’t give a huge amount of opportunity to test the Crosstrek’s ability off the beaten track. I’ve tackled the occasional chalky South Downs car park when out walking the dogs a little further afield, and that’s been about it so far. But the company’s symmetrical four-wheel drive system has long been one of Subaru’s main selling points – and, it reckons, one of most buyers’ key criteria – so when I discovered that the brand had organised an event to introduce its current range to a group of assembled journos, complete with a proper off-road course, I jumped at the chance to take my car along and have a go.
The 250-mile motorway hack north to the Harrogate venue was dispatched in a comfortable fashion enjoying my favourite podcasts. Once the car is up to speed, the continuously variable transmission settles, the drone of the flat-four engine fades away and the supple ride, courtesy of the long-travel suspension, makes it a relaxing drive.
I don’t have a huge amount of off-road experience, so I was pleased to have all-terrain instructor Ben Hume alongside me in the mud – particularly because it had been raining for much of the previous week and, while most of the assembled group of vehicles were wearing more aggressive rubber, my Crosstrek has standard 225/55 R18 Falken Ziex all-season tyres.
I needn’t have worried, because the Subaru tackled the course like a little goat. The 220mm ground clearance is usefully tall compared with a conventional hatchback and the all-wheel drive helped it to scuttle up loose-surfaced inclines with remarkably little wheelspin – plus it’s able to tackle surprisingly steep approach angles considering its long nose. It would definitely benefit from more torque – I can’t help feeling the Forester’s 150lb ft version of this engine would be a good addition – but the CVT ’box really makes sense in these conditions, holding the revs at just the level you want for consistency.
Operating below 20mph, the Crosstrek’s X-Mode offers two off-road options. The first is Snow/Dirt, which activates hill descent control, alerts the traction control, limits the torque and increases throttle travel to prevent wheelspin. The second is a new addition over the old XV model: Deep Snow/Mud, which is designed to help when conditions get really wet and boggy, turning off the torque reduction system to allow a degree of wheel slip, with less aggressive traction control. We tried both and you really can tell the difference, with the car feeling much more at home beneath you in the latter.
According to the on-board ‘Driving Statistics’ screen, the slopes were about 15deg, but they felt steeper on the way up. On the way back down, using the hill descent control – and my feet off the pedals completely – it was an amazing sensation feeling the Crosstrek moderating its speed to retain steering control as the car slithered on the mud. The Crosstrek’s low weight helps here: it’s 150kg lighter than the XV it replaces, with 10% more torsional rigidity, and it certainly felt more fleet of foot and less inclined to get bogged down than the heavier Forester. Indeed, a colleague turned up in a much-vaunted new ‘serious 4x4’ but was warned against tackling the course because its huge heft could cause it to get stuck halfway round.
Clearly, Subaru wasn’t about to give us a challenge that its own cars would struggle to conquer, but I still came away hugely impressed. For what looks like little more than a hatchback, the Crosstrek has remarkable ability when the going gets rough – certainly more than most buyers are likely to need. No wonder Subaru dealerships tend to be found in rural areas, even alongside tractor sales concessions, and the brand has a hugely loyal following in the more remote parts of Scotland and Wales.
Love it
Softly, softly
Front seats really are comfortable. They’re not particularly sporting but nor is the car and they stand up well to long journeys.
Loathe it
Tanks a lot
Pretty modest fuel economy and a small fuel tank mean that I seem to be spending a lot of time at the pumps.
Mileage: 3286
Welcoming the Crosstrek to the fleet - 1 May 2024
Appearances can be deceptive. At a glance, the new Crosstrek looks like any other compact family crossover - a new rival for the Qashqai, perhaps?
But while the big-selling Nissan starts at a shade over £27,000, the cheapest Subaru is more than £34,000. No wonder, you might respond, the company sells so few cars here. "We're a niche manufacturer and proud of it," says Subaru UK.
That's all well and good when all you're selling is quirky oddities such as the Forester (driven, p27), but Subaru hopes to sell a million cars worldwide this year, and while not very many of those sales are likely to be in the UK, the first quarter of 2024 was the Japanese firm's best since before the pandemic and the graph is looking decidedly positive.
In Britain, the Subaru brand still has plenty of leftover cachet from its rallying exploits with Colin McRae, Richard Burns et al, and the Crosstrek (née XV, now wearing the badge it has always carried in North America) has the potential to take it slightly more mainstream, even if it is still attracting buyers with a far more rigorous list of 'must-haves' than the norm.
Key among those will be 4WD. All Subarus now have it, as will those in the future, and the traces of the old Impreza you can see in the Crosstrek's shape are no accident, because the two share much under the skin (a sixth generation of the family hatchback has been on sale abroad since early 2023).
And when you factor in that symmetrical, permanent 4WD system, and the fact that all versions are pretty generously loaded with kit, it looks competitively priced against rivals such as the Mazda CX-30 and Skoda Karoq.
The Limited is anything but, and all my £2000-pricier Touring adds is 18in rather than 17in wheels, black rather than grey door mirrors, high-beam assistance and an electric tilt-slide sunroof.
That last item is a pleasingly retro affair, with a flimsy manually operated cover that reminds me of my dad's 1986 Rover 820i, but it really does brighten up the interior, which is fairly unremittingly black otherwise - albeit clearly very well screwed together.
The sunroof isn't the only throwback inside: if you're the sort of person (and I count myself among their number) who bemoans the ever-increasing number of touch-sensitive - or, far too often, insensitive - controls in modern machinery, this car is for you.
There is a touchscreen for the infotainment, and a pretty good one at that, increased from 8.0in in the old XV to 11.6in here, but elsewhere there are lots of traditional switches, some even making an old-school click-clack sound.
Indeed, a sense of no-nonsense practicality pervades. The interior is surprisingly roomy for what isn't a huge car and the back seats in particular feel spacious (at 6ft 3in, I can sit behind the driver's seat when it's set up for me), although the rear seatbacks are very short and head room is rather at a premium.
Space is even more limited in the boot: the battery for Subaru's e-Boxer hybrid system sits under the floor, so there's no extra storage and it's pretty shallow, leading to a meagre 315 litres with the seats up.
In the front, however, the seats are really comfortable, with an odd blend of sitting fairly high, due to the jacked-up suspension, but deeply set within the car.
Comfort levels are further augmented by the ride, which Subaru has worked hard on to make this car well tuned for road use without compromising the marque's famed off-road ability.
There's 10% more torsional rigidity than in the old XV, and that's more than mere PR guff: open the rear doors and you will see secondary latches at the base of each to anchor them to the body.
So it's stiffer and smoother-riding than before, as well as 150kg lighter, which should further aid its ability in the rough stuff, as well as giving a marginal improvement in fuel efficiency.
So far, it hasn't exactly blown me away on that score, with mainly town driving resulting in an average MPG in the low-30s - to be fair, not far behind Subaru's own WLTP figures.
That's because the 'hybrid' bit is a touch misleading: this isn't a plug-in or a proper self-charging hybrid with a large battery pack but very much a 'mild' hybrid.
Its 0.57kWh battery will give a couple of hundred yards of fully electric running, but the petrol engine swiftly kicks back in and more often the battery power is being deployed under acceleration.
Ah yes, acceleration. Time to address the elephant in the room, which is the standard Lineartronic CVT. This is a boon for off-road work but can make on-road driving and in particular meaningful acceleration - a laborious affair.
Yet it didn't take me too long to work out how it prefers to be deployed and to drive around its compromises, letting the motor chip in with its 16bhp and 49lb ft of torque (much needed, with only 134bhp and 134lb ft from the normally aspirated 2.0-litre flat four) to get me up to speed.
It's simply a case of tuning into - and enjoying - a slightly less hurried pace of life. First impressions, then, are of a flawed but very likeable family car - a conclusion that makes it look like a bit of an expensive indulgence.
But so far it has spent its time with the trundling to and from work on the outskirts of London, so I haven't yet had a chance to really dip into its talent pool. I'm looking forward to rectifying that situation in the very near future.
Second Opinion
The Crosstrek’s well-mannered, pleasant-riding suspension surprised me. With something that has genuine offroad ability, I expected a fairly rough and ready on-road compromise, but Subaru’s claimed fine-detail tuning work really is apparent. The hybrid powertrain is less impressive, particularly when you work it a bit. With such a chassis, this car certainly deserves something more enticing. An atmo flat six, maybe? If only…
Matt Saunders
Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i E-Boxer Touring specification
Specs: Price New £36,290 Price as tested £36,290 Options
Test Data: Engine 4 cyls horizontally opposed, 1995cc, petrol, plus 48V hybrid assist Power 134bhp at 5600rpm Torque 134lb ft at 4000rpm Kerb weight 1630kg Top speed 123mph 0-62mph 10.8sec Fuel economy 36.8mpg CO2 174g/km Faults None Expenses None
