Our Subaru Crosstrek is quietly becoming a bestseller! In-depth Review!
So we're going to go in depth with this car, talk about why I think it's so great and why I also think it's so popular. So before we begin, we got to thank Jim Gilbert's Wheels & Deals. They're giving us access to their complete line of vehicles and we get to go through these cars in detail.
So if you have questions about this vehicle or vehicles in its class, feel free to ask questions in the comments below because we probably have a direct competitor to this. And in fact, we have more than just this model in stock. And we have lots of ways where we can answer your questions. So feel free to subscribe to our channel.
From here you can watch Peters Video or Read What he says the choice is your enjoy... this is a great review ether way...
It's a manual transmission. It doesn't have some of this safety items that the Subarus have, but it's still very popular. And when you look at it from the outside, it really does look like a higher end small Crossover. So what is this vehicle? First of all, we all know it starts as the Impreza. They jack it up a little bit and it becomes a Crossover.
We call it the Crosstrek. So it is an economy car with all-wheel drive, slightly raised suspension. And here in New Brunswick, that's a great combination because we have all kinds of roads that are maybe less than ideal. We also have a lot of gravel roads where you can head down there and with lots of potholes and that kind of thing and find a lot of beautiful scenery, especially here in the fall.
But what you end up with is a car that is simple, works well and is designed for the environment that a lot of people use it for. So let's dig in depth with this car to look at the details that make it good. So let's start with kind of the obvious styling detail in this car. All of this plastic cladding. Now it doesn't matter the trim you get.
Generally speaking, you're going to have large bits of plastic cladding here. And the reason Subaru does that is because these are high areas of impact with things like gravel or dirt or those kind of things. And when you take a vehicle like this off road or at least off the main roads, you're going to run into debris that shoots up.
If you've ever been to a campground, you'll see an extremely high percentage of Subarus compared to other places where you drive. And that's partly because the marketing and the vehicles are designed to appeal to people who go outdoors and do outdoors type things. And this panel here is far more than just styling.
Peter:
It allows those high impact areas when you head down those less than ideal roads to be protected, to have paint protected. And you'll see the same thing out front. This again, lower spec model, no fog lights there, but they still have that sort of durable plastic.
The other thing you're going to see here with these Crosstrek is these are 17 inch rims, which means here to there is 17 inch. On most cars in this class, you get to an area where the sidewall is what they call 50 series sidewall. So it's 225/60R17. And a lot of times it's 50 something. What that means is that 60 is 60% of the tire's width is here in the side wall as well.
So 60%, if I was to take that kind of go over there, that means that you have a taller side wall than a lot of other cars in this class, which is great when you're going on less than ideal roads, lots of potholes, that kind of thing. You don't end up with those pinch flats. And although we all like real big rims and real skinny tires, they're not ideal for going under rough roads.
And for an economy car, small Crossover, these are pretty good size tires both in width and in sidewall to make sure that you can go on roads that are less than ideal. The types of people who go down roads that are less than ideal are the types of people who take things like canoes and mountain bikes and all kinds of things.
And then what's nice about this is you have a really good roof rack. It's raised well from the roof, which means when you put your crossbars on, you've got space underneath to tighten those various items, whether you're carrying skis, whether you're carrying mountain bikes, canoes, kayaks, whatever it is, having roof racks that are slightly raised gives you a little bit more space to attach the attachments that will carry your gear.
You can also put a hitch on this car, carry hitch rack things. But the nice thing with this is again, this is essentially a small Crossover built on an economy car and that means that these rails are not that high. Most Crossovers, the roof sits about here, the rails are even higher and it's very difficult to get your gear not only just on the roof but strapped down if it's something like a kayak or a canoe or even just attached if it's something like a bike rack.
So this gives you a great solid mounting point to put them on. And it makes, even though these are taller rails from the car, they're still relatively low overall so you can reach your gear and it makes perfect sense for usability. Heading to the back end of the car, you still have things that make a lot of sense. First of all, you'd never guess this is a lower spec model.
You've got detailed lighting in here, you've got nice sort of jewelry on the car with all the symmetrical all-wheel drive labeling, everything else like that. You've got a rear wiper, you've got tinted windows, which you don't always see on every lower spec vehicle. Of course, the back up camera is now required by law.
But even down here you've got this painted sort of diffuser type looking thing with again, these durable plastics where you might brush against things like if you're backing up in a campground, trees, sharper objects, sharper thorns, that kind of thing. Instead of scratching your paint, you've got this non painted surface.
So again, well thought out and good ground clearance here as well. So you can park up close to various things. Underneath here, not a powered trunk. And that's totally fine. You've got a good size trunk. And not a lot of wheel well intrusion in here. You've got some lighting in here. There are places down here where you can use to tie down a cargo net or various other things.
And of course, the seats fold down. So in car terms we call this a hatchback. In SUVs, it's this is an SUV. Right? That's why we do these big things. So you've got a lot of space in there for all of your cargo. Underneath the floor there is very tiny bits of space, but mostly just a spare tire underneath there. So you could put a few things down there, but mostly you're looking on top of the floor right here.
So as we take a closer look at the trunk, we talked about sort of these tie downs, but why are they important? Again, this is Subaru understanding their market. They've got a tie down spot up here, they've got tie down spot down there. They've got one over here. You can use of course the child latch areas down there as well.
And the idea is you can put a net back here, you could put things on the floor, you could tie things down in many different ways. And that matters for people who are going on roads that are less than ideal. If you're going outdoors, off-road, you're probably going to want to take some friends. And if you get a Subaru Crosstrek, you're going to have plenty of space in here.
So space above my head, I've got easily three, four fingers above my head. I'm about six feet tall. This seat is set to where I would use to drive this car and I've got tons of space. For a compact car that's raised up on the suspension, this easily has SUV type space back here and it's quite comfortable.
You'll also notice that there's wide opening doors and that's great because if you're fitting child seats in here or just loading your gear in here, it makes it very easy to get in and out. Now again, in this lower trim model, not a lot of things. They do one thing wrong with me, there should be a pocket here.
There's only a pocket on the right side there. There's no vents back here, no ports back here. So again, lower spec car, you're getting a few less things than maybe you could in higher spec cars. Cloth seats are very nice, they're supportive, they have fairly durable fabrics as well and I think that matters to a person like me who might be dragging a cooler off of his seat or something like that.
But again, very comfortable backseat, very usable backseat. And again, this is why this vehicle's selling. It just makes sense in a lot of different areas. As we head towards the driver seat, I want to show you the key first of all. Again, simplicity is the key here on these lower trim models.
You have a key, but you also have the remote built into the key. So unlock, lock, pop the trunk, which is really just release the trunk and a panic button all built into a key. Simple, simple stuff. So you do need to use the key in this trim level because of what we have.
But again, you have that remote right there. Jumping in here, there's your adjustments here. So you've got some height adjustment there using that lever there. Of course, forward and back. And cloth seats that are very supportive. This one happens to be a manual transmission.
You can get an automatic transmission. The automatic is slightly more efficient, the manuals are going to be a little bit more fun. The other thing to keep in note is that the standard transmission, the enthusiasts kind of like for the way it divvies up the all-wheel drive system, but the automatic has a little bit more of an advanced all-wheel drive system.
Both are going to be excellent in poor weather, which is really what they're designed for overall. Jumping in before we go too far, let's just show you the windows here. They are automatic windows, so auto down and auto up, not just auto down. And again, a little bit lower spec vehicle, that's nice to have. A carbon fiber type looking plastic here. So just gives you a little bit of detail there.
And down here, even though it's not the highest spec, you do have nice soft arm rests to rest your arms as you jump in. Now let's go in here. We'll start up the car. As we dive in here, again, this is a little awkward here because I've got the camera in my right hand, so we're going to have the key in my left hand, if I can get it in.
There we go. Clutch in, start it up, and what do you see? Not a whole lot of electronics or anything else in here. Simple, simple stuff, which again, I think appeals. Now you'll notice that this trip computer here is pretty basic. You're going to see some flickering here on the camera. That doesn't happen in real life.
What that is that's just the shutter speed of the camera interacting with there. You do notice it's running a little bit high, it's revving a little bit higher. That's because the engine is not warmed up. It is warming itself up. And that's one thing to keep in mind with Subarus.
The other thing with Subarus, we'll talk about the boxer engine in a second. But let's first deal with a very simple display here, which has a button down here, which you can adjust it there. All that does is trip A, trip B and that's it. It's shows you the total mileage, about 14,000 kilometers on this car.
But over here you have a more advanced display. And that is where it really comes in handy. Oops. We can try to get the focus right there. You can see a lot of different things on there. So we can switch through some of that information by doing this over here. Right side. Oh boy, we're having really some trouble focusing there. So we got rid of that.
We got 500 kilometers, five or 10 kilometers empty, 12.6 liters for a hundred kilometers. Again, dealership cars, you should never look at the mileage because people do what I do. They sit here and idle in them all the time. You can see that your air conditioning's on on the bottom there. Set to 25 and a half degrees, which is pretty hot.
It is an automatic climate control system in this car. So let's just keep turning that down. Boy, we're really having trouble with the focus on that style of screen. Coming down here there is your automatic climate control. So again, you hit the auto button, you've got within your line of sight the temperature up there, which again, 22. Again, harder to film. I'm having no trouble showing it in real life, but it's having trouble focusing there.
And then again, you've got a nice little display screen here. If we hit the... Let's hit apps and you can sort of see what you've got. So Aha, really not sure what that does here in Canada. Somebody can tell me for sure. It's something you're probably never going to use. But you do have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Again, having some trouble showing with the glare here, not having any issues in real life. So we'll just brighten that up a little bit there. And as you can see, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay are right there. Going to the radio, basic type stuff. Gives you the information that you need.
And then if we throw the car into reverse, which again, manual transmission we can do here for a second. You do have the guidelines that keep you straight and the guidelines that curve with you. So I think that's nice to have. Again, lower spec car, that's what you've got going on.
So taking a look at one more thing, this lower spec car as we call, I'm going to go wide angle for a second here. Let's take it out of reverse so I don't accidentally slip the clutch. As we go a little bit wide angle, you can sort of see your view here. One of the things is you'll see is first of all you've got this rubber urethane style steering wheel. I like those.
If you're an outdoorsy kind of person, you don't scratch the leather with your ring or anything else or you don't get it so dirty. It's easier to clean. One thing with Subarus, and it's hard to show here, but I'll try to show you on this wide angle camera. The visibility in these cars is excellent.
You've got the extra little window in the front there in addition to the side window, the mirror's out on wing mirror so they really don't block your view very much. And even on the back here, very, very good visibility. It's again, harder to show on camera. But one of the things that again, Subaru thinks about is visibility.
Those mirrors, they are heated mirrors as well. They turn on with your reader frost. So you've got nice ability to clear that snow off. And then let's talk about the engine in this car. The engine in the Crosstrek is actually really unique. It's what allows them to have what they call symmetrical all-wheel drive. Without getting too technical, the engine is called a boxer engine.
The only other manufacturer that really uses that on a regular basis is Porsche. One of the things it does is it keeps the center of gravity very, very low. And that means you can raise up this car from the regular Impreza, for instance, the regular car. The Crosstrek is just a raised up Impreza for all intents and purposes.
But you can raise up this car and still keep a very low center of gravity. And it also has very good suspension travel. Because of that symmetrical all-wheel drive, it allows the drive shaft to go down the center of the car, which a lot of cars they have to sort of bridge it off to one side or the other at front or rear.
And that means that you have the ability to have less long arms on your suspension. Basically, you still have a car that feels like a car to drive, gives you good suspension travel, gives you a low center of gravity like a car, but it's very, very comfortable. That's one of the big benefits of Subarus.
So when you drive them, even though you have that extra ground clearance, you don't feel like it's top heavy in any way. And that's one of the things it does really, really well on this car. Want to talk really briefly about the manual transmission that comes standard in this car. And of course, you can get automatics in these vehicles as well.
The automatic is a CVT. CVTs are excellent for fuel efficiency. It also allows the Subaru computers to have a little bit more control over your all-wheel drive system. But the manual is fun and it's really hard to get a Crossover with a manual transmission. This is a six speed manual transmission. Makes it all kinds of fun to drive in the winter, in the summer, whatever you want.
So again, you still have the option to get a manual in this car and that makes a lot of sense to me. So I mentioned the seat fabric before, but I want to show you sort of the design of the seat. Again, lower trim spec vehicle. You still have big supportive shoulder bolsters here, big decent sized bolsters there and there.
So those are going to hold you in place going around corners. And again, the fabric is very durable, but you also have adjustments that other vehicles don't have. And it looks kind of funny when you adjust it out of position on the camera here, but you've got several clicks there.
So you can set that headrest forward and bring it right to where you want it. And again, on the angle looks weird, but you can set that up to fit your head so that it catches you exactly where you are and tilt it back. Not a lot of headrests have that extra adjustment of the tilt forward. But again, Subaru thinks about your comfort in these vehicles.
So we started off the video by talking about this becoming a best selling vehicle, a quick moving vehicle as far as getting off dealer lots. So let's recap again about a couple things that make a difference. First of all, no matter what the trim level is, you've got fairly consistent styling.
You've got the raised ground clearance here, but an engine that gives you a lower center of gravity, long travel suspension with an all-wheel drive system that works very well in all weather situations. So not so much a Jeep Wrangler off-roading system, but an all weather system that works well on many off-road situations.
You've got a tall roof rack raised from the vehicle to allow you to put accessories on easily, but also a low overall roof height, which allows you to take your gear along. Great size in your back seat, comfortable front seats, decent trunk space, and fairly good economy as well as a vehicle that's easy to see out of and easy to park.
Now is this vehicle right for you? Maybe it is, maybe it's not. And that's one of the best things about being able to be here at Jim Gilbert's Wheels & Deals, you can compare this vehicle alongside with most of its competitors right here on our lot, talking to the same sales person.
So you're getting numbers that are in the same context and having people that care about you. They call this Canada's Huggable Car Dealer. They do that for a reason, it is an absolute amazing place to shop to buy a car. And I want to thank them for giving me access.
If you have questions about this vehicle or any vehicle in this class, let me know in the comments below and we'll get that vehicle on video and answers to your questions about these vehicles on video so that you can know more and you can have a better shopping experience. Thanks everybody for watching.
