Twenty years ago, Subaru was a brand known for its low prices and cars like the Outback and the WRX. It was sporty, it was unconventional, and it bucked trends while managing to carve out its own space in the market.
In 2022, Subaru’s best-selling car was the Crosstrek with 155,142 sales. Look back two decades to 2003, and the entire brand shifted just 186,819 cars. How is it that this little car is selling so well? What makes it the smash hit that it is and was Subaru right to revamp it for the 2024 model year?
Carscoops just had a crack at this little grocery-getter for an entire week and we’ve learned a lot. No doubt, Subaru is still unconventional in its own way, but the Crosstrek is a grown-up shot at the small crossover segment. At this stage though, it might do well to be a little more playful.
Quick facts
Subaru currently sells five trims of the Crosstrek, and all but the base version come with the same drivetrain. It consists of a 2.5-liter flat four-cylinder engine, a continuously variable transmission, and standard all-wheel drive. Our test car is smack dab in the middle of the lineup. As part of the Sport trim it comes with 18-inch wheels, adaptive headlights, manually adjustable heated front seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and a whole lot of bronze trim.
Read: Ask Us Anything About The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Sport
In fact, the body gets gold trim and the cabin gets bronze. They don’t perfectly match, but the aesthetic is similar enough that it gets a pass. Black roof rails, heated mirrors, and LED fog lights are all standard too. As is the case with all Crosstreks, this one has 8.7 inches of ground clearance too. That’s as much as the tallest Toyota Land Cruiser. That seems a bit wild on a car that is basically an Impreza with a lift kit.
Interior Topography
The highs and lows of the Crosstrek cabin are like the peaks and valleys that Subaru emphasizes in its marketing. At first glance, this is a truly grown-up space. The seats are genuine highlights with awesome bolstering, fetching design elements, and cushioning that remains comfortable over long drives.
Subaru uses a fabric upholstery it calls StarTex for the seats. It’s breathable, soft, and waterproof. While I didn’t let any of my dogs into the car, I can see why Subaru owners would like this textile as it repels stains and is easy to clean. The all-weather floor mats are a great touch too. I especially like the designs embossed in them.
The dash layout is attractive too. Subaru does a great job of using colors and shapes that pop compared to some of the other ho-hum designs we’ve seen in this segment. The gauges, driver information screen, and infotainment system are bright, easy to read, and pleasing to the eye. Even the door cards stand out with several square inches of soft-touch material and a cool angular vibe.
About Those Piano Black Plastics
Sadly, this space is far from perfect. The design of the center console is a bit baffling. The diagonal cupholders are laid out in a way that feels unnatural, to me at least. They’re also so big and wide that thin aluminum cans do nothing but slosh around in them. At this stage, we also have to talk about the piano black plastic laden across this car. It picks up fingerprints like few other surfaces can. Indeed, it seems that Subaru (along with several other brands) is ignoring this issue with this type of finish.
The real problem though is that, evidently, this particular plastic scratches very easily. I have never been in a single press vehicle that was so blatantly damaged in this way. I’ve never had to document damage when driving a car like this, but it’s literally the very first thing I did when the Crosstrek showed up.
The infotainment system continues to be a major pain point as well. The display is perfectly nice. It looks a lot like iOS but navigating it takes the patience of a saint. Not only is it slow to react, but it sometimes just hangs on menus for seemingly no reason. Simply spinning the seek knob to go to a different radio station can seem to cause catastrophic problems. If Subaru’s goal here was to teach users’ patience, then mission accomplished because there is no other option.
Sure, one can connect their Android or Apple device, but even those systems sometimes feel buggy. It’s high time that Subaru addressed this because it’s an ongoing issue with several late models.
The rear seats are comfortable but they lack simple things like climate vents. At least occupants will find USB power ports to keep their devices charged. Cargo space is a highlight in the Crosstrek as it offers 55 cubic feet of storage space behind the front row and 20 cubic feet behind the second row.
Lackluster Performance
The driving experience in the Crosstrek is amicable. Synonyms for amicable include polite, easygoing, and non-hostile. They all apply to this crossover that feels smooth but far from invigorating. The 2.5-liter four-cylinder found in our Sport trim makes less power (182 hp/135 kW) than a base Mazda CX-30 (191 hp/142 kW).
That lack of power means that the Crosstrek feels slow just about everywhere. Merging onto the highway feels like a job rather than an effortless task. Zipping into an open space in a lane requires more planning than in most cars and forget about chucking this thing into a corner with any sort of passion or verve.
The suspension really isn’t set up for engaging driving and the continuously variable transmission isn’t either. Subaru does offer two drive modes, “S” for Sport and “I” for Intelligent. In the former, the Crosstrek boosts power and response. In the latter, where the Crosstrek is every time you start it up, it prioritizes fuel economy.
On that front, this little crossover does quite well. It gets up to 26 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway for a combined rating of 29. That matches the performance of the Mazda CX-30 and smokes the turbocharged CX-30. We managed 25.2 mpg over the course of a week, which is below average but I’ll admit that I drove in “S” mode more than in “I” mode.
That brings us to the safety tech in this car, which was an interesting mix of ups and downs as well. First, we applaud Subaru for including adaptive cruise control, lane-centering tech, and more in every Crosstrek. Some of those features improve safety, others improve comfort, and they’re all great at this price point.
At the same time, some of them are mind-numbingly annoying. For example, the rear seatbelt reminder isn’t just incessant. It’s incredibly loud and will not shut up. When you have passengers back there it’s fine. When the “passengers” are dogs or cargo though, it’s just downright annoying. Yes, I absolutely buckled in some heavy boxes back there to keep the Crosstrek from yelling at me across town.
The adaptive cruise control works well, but the lane centering assistance tends to bounce from one side of the lane to the other. This is a car that rewards responsible driving and frankly, that’s not a bad thing considering that it’s a crossover.
Final Thoughts
The Crosstrek is a perfectly passable crossover. It’s especially excellent for the college crowd too as it incessantly screams warnings at occupants like a helicopter parent until they do the safest thing possible. It’s capable of some light soft-roading, has plenty of cargo space, handles more like a car than an SUV, and comes with a full suite of great safety equipment.
On the downside, it gets a very basic warranty package and accelerates like it’s got a case of mesothelioma it’s trying to overcome. In a segment where the Mazda CX-30 and Chevrolet Trax exist, the Crosstrek just doesn’t offer enough personality to overcome its shortcomings. It doesn’t drive as well as the Mazda and is considerably more expensive than the Chevrolet. Still, it’s clearly a sales success.
The reality is that the vast majority of the car-buying population want a car with personality, a major focus on safety, and at least the capability of going off-road a little even if they’ll never ever take it there. The Subaru Crosstrek has some really lovely quirks and features, but it’s far from a leader in the segment.
