Subaru Crosstrek Review: Far From Perfect, But Strangely Charming

The other day I was on Spotify, queuing up my new favourite banger about love and turbocharged four-wheel drive saloons, Sports Team’s ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’. That song’s about the Impreza, but in the search results beneath it was another Subie song: ‘Subaru Crosstrek XV’ by Hobo Johnson.

I confess I hadn’t heard of Hobo – real name Frank Lopes Jr. – before this, but Wikipedia tells me he’s an emo rapper from Sacramento. Anyway, it’s a fun song. More to the point, Hobo’s basically done the job of reviewing the Crosstrek for me, albeit with far more self-aware NorCal irony than I could muster. “Nothing like a Subaru Crosstrek,” he raps over a minimalist beat. “Suspension as soft as a cute lil’ baby neck.” Weird metaphor, Hobo, but you’re not wrong.

Hobo also points out that the Crosstrek is cheaper to insure and more family-friendly than a Lamborghini, but that because it’s only a four-cylinder, it’s probably not the car of choice for towing anything heavy (“My dad says that messes up the transmission.” Oh, Hobo, you and your postmodern lyrical ways).

It’s an impressive amount of journalistic advice to pack into two and a half minutes of folkish West Coast stoner rap, but I’ll do my best to expand on it. This is the third generation of the car previously known as the Subaru XV in most places, and the XV Crosstrek in North America. Now, it’s just the Crosstrek, regardless of where you live.

In the UK, we’re offered a single powertrain, a hybrid setup that pairs a 2.0-litre petrol boxer four-cylinder with an electric motor for a total of 134bhp and 134lb ft of torque. A CVT gearbox sends this to all four wheels. Unsurprisingly, this setup makes for some fairly relaxed stats: 0-62mph takes 10.8 seconds, and the Crosstrek tops out at 123mph.

Effectively, it’s a lifted Impreza hatch, but it wouldn’t be a very Subaru move to just jack up the suspension, slap on some plastic body cladding and head to the pub.

To try and make it stand out among the scores of other small hybrid crossovers, Subaru has focused on giving the Crosstrek genuine off-road ability. As well as the company’s well-proven full-time Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive setup, it gets 220mm of ground clearance, and standard hill descent control. Upgrade to the Touring model tested here and you get a more advanced suite of drive modes, including settings for mud and snow.

I didn’t get much chance to properly put the Crosstrek’s off-road chops to the test, but it happily splashed through some deep, rocky fords that would have been ill-advised in other cars. Certainly, it feels like it’d have no issue crossing a muddy field that would send other crossovers sliding gracelessly into a hedge.

None of this particularly impacts its on-road manners, either. As Hobo so succinctly points out, the Crosstrek is an unapologetically softly sprung car. It’s incredibly welcome in an age where so many everyday cars pointlessly chase a sporty setup, and it means the Crosstrek lopes along, soaking up ruts and holes that would leave you wincing in plenty of rivals.

Sometimes, it’s almost too soft. Particularly naff roads full of subsidence and compressions can leave your head flopping side to side as the car wobbles around. Mostly, though, you’ll enjoy its marshmallow-like squidginess.

Even better, the squishy suspension hasn’t made the handling vague or ponderous. You turn the wheel, and it goes where you expect, when you’re expecting it. A WRX it ain’t, but it’s perfectly neutral, responsive and pleasant.

The rest of the driving experience leaves a little more to be desired. This is a really strained powertrain, and you need to thrash the Crosstrek to get up to speed. This highlights the weakness of its gearbox – one of the better CVTs I’ve experienced, but still a CVT and therefore fundamentally rubbish.

Pull out of a junction and there’s the usual sensation of revs building at a manic rate that bears no relation to the car’s leisurely progress until the scream of the relatively gruff petrol boxer dominates proceedings.

The engine settles down when you’re at a cruise, but here, wind and tyre noise become quite noticeable. Relief is offered when the car defaults to electric power – often around town, or when coasting down a hill – which also helps make the claimed 36.8mpg reasonable. I managed an average of 34mpg, and that included giving the powertrain the thrashing it often needed to make progress.

Inside, things are leaps and bounds ahead of where Subaru used to be in terms of quality. It’s not what you’d call ‘premium’, but nothing feels unacceptably cheap. Most importantly, everything feels like it’ll withstand the relatively hard-working life I suspect lots of Crosstreks will be subjected to.

The 11.6-inch portrait infotainment screen dominates proceedings. It’s not a particularly easy thing to navigate, but most important things can be operated with buttons either surrounding the screen or on the wheel. Sadly, this doesn’t extend to the climate controls, for which you have to interrupt whatever else is on the screen and use a particularly fiddly, lag-prone menu. Car companies, please – stop this. I’m begging you.

Contrast that needless bit of interior digitisation with the Crosstrek’s crisp, clear analogue instruments, which just go to show that the age of the digital cluster is nothing more than tech for tech’s sake.

Up front, the seats are much like the ride – soft and cushy – although a bit more support for your thighs wouldn’t go amiss. Things are similarly comfy in the back, but adults might find themselves struggling for legroom a bit – this is, after all, basically a lifted family hatch.

The biggest question around the Crosstrek is who it’s actually for. Starting at £34,345, it’s right in line with plenty of other crossovers which, frankly, go about the business of being everyday cars better. They can’t match the Crosstrek’s off-road ability, but nobody’s buying a family crossover based on that, and the green-laning crowd won’t care for a jacked-up hatchback. That said, if you regularly need to head down unsurfaced roads or live somewhere that gets heavy snowfall, it starts to make a lot more sense.

Regardless of its shortcomings, though, the Crosstrek got under my skin a little. It’s an endearingly rugged, genuinely capable thing, and has more personality than basically any rival. Perhaps that’s what drew Hobo to it – after all, it’s hard to imagine a lo-fi indie rap song about a Honda C-RV.