The Crosstrek represents all the unique and attractive attributes of Subaru in a single automobile. That’s a lot, because the Subaru brand embodies a lot of appealing traits.
The Crosstrek is nicely sized. The all-wheel-drive sport-utility wagon is not brutishly large and unwieldy. It is compact enough to be adeptly maneuverable, yet large enough to comfortably carry passengers and enough of their gear to support far-ranging activities.
The Crosstrek provides the expert four-wheel traction that makes Subarus so popular around here. The auto company calls its approach symmetrical all-wheel drive, meant to describe how all moving elements in the auto’s drive line are balanced and aligned to provide the best traction attainable. Even the low, horizontal position of its engine enhances road grip by lowering Crosstrek’s balance point. Attention to such details accounts for the sure winter traction that – as I’ve personally experienced – can keep Subarus moving through snow hazards that throw some of those brutishly large vehicles that people think are more secure.
Its balance between dexterity and adequate hauling capacity, combined with Crosstrek’s stubborn four-wheel traction, make it a very useful vehicle. It’s been said that a Subaru Crosstrek looks naked if it isn’t carrying a kayak or mountain bike on a roof rack.
The model’s safety is exemplary. Subaru engineers the roof of the Crosstrek to support four times the vehicle’s weight, just in case. In addition to such built-in integrity, the wagon has lately incorporated high-tech safety aids that monitor traffic and intervene to help prevent accidents. Starting last year, the vehicle’s two upper trim levels offered the Subaru Eyesight option. As part of a $1,995 add-on package,the driver-assistant system includes self-adjusting cruise control, automatic pre-collision braking and lane-departure warning. At night it automatically operates fog lights to increase illumination when a driver steers around a turn. Models equipped with the Eyesight option are rated a “top safety pick-plus” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
While providing so much practicality, the Crosstrek also exhibits an attitude of independent quirkiness that adds to its appeal. The model is an elevated and fortified variation of Subaru’s more mannerly Impreza wagon, a tidy, streamlined cruiser. But the Crosstrek’s big wheels and higher ground clearance, along with details like matte black roof rack and wheel-arch trim, give it a meatier demeanor and make it appear poised for action.
We could probably come up with a couple more. But those five distinguishing characteristics – appropriate size, tenacious traction, practical utility, safety, and stand-apart attitude – are ingrained elements of the Subaru brand that show abundantly in Crosstrek.
At North Reading Subaru, Paul Staffier sees those qualities pulling in a wide variety of drivers. They include mature motorists. Staffier, a sales consultant at the North Reading dealership, sells the crossover wagon to empty-nesters who no longer need a heaping abundance of passenger and cargo capacity.
“They don’t need a bigger SUV. But they still want high ground clearance, all-wheel drive, and the ability to load things into the back. And they get good gas mileage besides. Those are the things that the Crosstrek is all about,” he said.
Those things also attract drivers at an earlier life stage who want to reliably move themselves and their gear no matter the weather.
“The young adventure types like it because it has high ground clearance and symmetrical all-wheel drive,” said Staffier. To illustrate, he noted that his 25-year-old daughter drivers a Crosstrek.
“She likes to throw her snowboard onto the roof during a snowstorm and head up to the mountains,” he said.
In terms of company size, Subaru is a second-tier auto maker. But it blazes its own trail. One longstanding innovation unique to Subaru is its adherence to the “boxer” horizontal engine design. Instead of standing an engine’s cylinders upright, or arraying them in a V – the near-universal configurations that make engines top heavy – Subaru manufactures flat engines that, as noted earlier, improve an auto’s balance.
In more recent years the company has added fuel-economy improvement as a primary ambition. In the Crosstrek, that shows in the use of a continuously variable automatic transmission in place of a traditional, geared automatic. A continuously variable transmission, or CVT, is inherently more fuel-conserving than a geared transmission.
Accordingly, a Crosstrek equipped with the CVT earns a government fuel-economy rating of 26 miles per gallon in city driving and 34 mpg on the highway. By comparison, a starter-level Crosstrek with its standard five-speed manual transmission rates 23 mpg city, 31 mpg highway.
A standard Crosstrek with manual transmission starts at $22,445. You have to step up a level to the Crosstrek Premium to add the CVT, at a list price of $24,245.
According to reports, models equipped with a manual transmission are hard to find. That’s understandable, because the vast majority of drivers purchase automatics anyway. Still, I think any scarcity of manuals is a shame. Personally I value fuel economy, but I place higher value on the greater control and engagement that a manual transmission provides. What’s more, I disliked the performance of the CVT in the Crosstrek I recently evaluated. It made the auto seem sluggish and slow to respond, driving qualities that are hard to accept in an auto that encourages adventure.
Subaru also offers a Crosstrek version with gasoline-and-electric hybrid drive. It uses the same four-cylinder gasoline motor as the standard Crosstrek, but adds electric assist. Its main advantage is better fuel conservation in stop-and-go city driving, where the Crosstrek Hybrid wins a fuel-economy rating of 30 mpg. Its highway rating is the same as an all-gasoline version with a CVT.
For that reason, the Crosstrek Hybrid appeals primarily to urban dwellers, said Staffier of North Reading Subaru.
That’s another category to add to the driver types drawn to the uniquely appealing aspects of the Subaru Crosstrek.
Zygmont is an author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books, and a long-time auto writer. Contact him at www.jeffreyzygmont.com.
2016 Subaru Crosstrek
Vehicle type: 4-door, 5-passenger, all-wheel-drive compact crossover utility vehicle
Price range: $22,445 to $30,845 (plus options)
Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles basic warranty; 5 years/60,000 miles powertrain warranty; 5 years/unlimited miles corrosion warranty; 3 years/36,000 miles roadside assistance
Engine: 2.0-liter horizontal 4-cyl.
Power: 148 horsepower at 6,200 rpm; 145 lb.-ft. torque at 4,200 rpm
Base transmission: five-speed manual
Fuel economy: 23 mpg city; 31 mpg highway
Wheelbase: 104 inches
Length: 175 inches
Width: 70 inches
Height: 64 inches
Weight: 3,109 pounds
Fuel capacity: 15.9 gallons
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