Subaru Crosstrek 2.0S long-term review

The Subaru XV has a new name for 2023, with the Japanese automaker now calling its AWD-equipped small SUV the Crosstrek across all global markets – including Australia.

We’ve been to the local launch of the updated SUV and have sampled the range, but now, we’ve taken on a high-specification 2.0S grade to test for six months…

Priced at $41,490 before on-road costs, the 2.0S is relatively affordable for a top-shelf model in this segment and it has a long list of standard kit.

Resplendent in ‘sun blaze pearl’ orange, our Crosstrek S has a 11.6-inch centre touchscreen, a 10-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, a glass sunroof, satellite navigation and leather-accented upholstery.

But while the features are luxe, the S model soldiers on with an engine we’ve found underbaked in the past – this long-term test will give us the chance to see if those impressions are correct.

The Crosstrek is powered by a 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated flat-four engine that produces 115kW/196Nm and powers all four wheels through a CVT transmission – these outputs remain unchanged from the XV that came before it.

There is also a fairly mild hybrid alternative that costs $3600 more in S trim, and we’ll make sure to sample that powertrain to see if it’s worth the extra dosh. In previous-gen XV form, it wasn’t.

The new Crosstrek competes in a very competitive small SUV market, with rivals such as the Toyota Corolla Cross, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Kona and the Skoda Kamiq – just to name a few.

You can get into a Crosstrek from $34,990 before on-road costs for a base model L version while there is a possible sweet-spot in the middle-tier Crosstrek R, which costs $38,490 before on-roads..

For its starting price, the Subaru Crosstrek certainly has the upper hand in being able to offer an all-wheel drive practical package for under $35K – something that some other small SUVs can’t match.

So here the journey begins with the new Crosstrek. Buckle in as we take the Crosstrek on some exciting adventures and big road trips to see what this small SUV is all about!

Navigate this long-term Subaru Crosstrek review

• Month 1: comfortable, practical but a little soulless
• Month 2: road tripping to Brisbane
• Month 3: from dirt to the daily grind
• Month 4: comparing ‘my’ Crosstrek to its hybrid sibling
• Month 6: farewell to the Sun Blaze Subie!

Month 6: farewell to the Sun Blaze Subie!

Kilometres this month: 358km
Fuel economy: 7.4L/100km
Running costs this month: $73.70

The day has arrived where I have to unfortunately hand back the Crosstrek’s keys to Subaru Australia.

Almost 8000 kilometres later, it’s been a largely positive six months, with plenty of weekend adventures around Sydney, commuting to work and also long-distance trips to Brisbane to visit family and friends.

As cliche as it is, time has gone by so fast, but I must make the comment that the Subaru Crosstrek has been a great companion for my single-man-no-kids lifestyle.

‘EZU-15G’ has been very easy to live with and has been fun to drive in a mix of conditions, whether that’s through rainy days, clear days, during highway stints or even through Sydney’s busiest inner city streets.

As I now say my final goodbyes, here is a reflection of my time with Subaru’s newest small SUV.

Reflecting on key highlights of ownership

The Crosstrek for me is all about adventuring, so that’s exactly what I set out to do. My favourite drive over the six months was to a gorgeous spot near Nowra, about two hours south of Sydney, called the Bundanon Art Gallery.

A hidden gem of the Southern Highlands, the gallery is a great place for art lovers to tour, or to simply stop for lunch and take some nice photos of your pride and joy (in this case, the Crosstrek) beside the architectural bridge that juts out from the hillside.

Over my time with the Crosstrek, I very much enjoyed its all-wheel-drive surefootedness on loose dirt and wet roads, as well as being surprised by its capable off-road nature. Impressive ground clearance and X-Mode chassis smarts helped make a few visits to tracks outside of Sydney a real breeze.

During the six months, it was also a great experience to get to know my petrol Crosstrek’s slightly more efficient hybrid sibling. I came away from the comparison thinking that the hybrid version was a little bit better to drive, and also a little more frugal.

Inside the cabin, I was very impressed with the new 11.6-inch central touchscreen – its easy-to-use nature, large size and responsive control was very much appreciated. The Crosstrek’s comfortable and nicely trimmed leather seats were also a highlight of the interior, as is the lovely sound system.

As a massive music fan and an avid Spotify devotee, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the 10-speaker Harman Kardon system in all of its glory. This audio experience alone would be enough for me to make the jump up from the mid-spec R – that $3000 premium is worth it.

On the safety side of things, the Crosstrek certainly shone bright with loads of standard safety assistance features thanks to its Eyesight suite.

I found the autonomous emergency braking to be well-tuned and responsive and the lane-keep generally pretty precise on regular, real-world Australian roads and highways.

Elsewhere, the Crosstrek’s 360-degree camera was a surprisingly useful addition and certainly made things easy parking at home where I have to position the car pretty precisely in a space tucked between a wall and a large concrete pillar.

The camera’s ability to pick up objects close to the car in very low light is certainly a feature I didn’t know I needed in a car until now.

Some things I think could be tweaked for the future

It wasn’t completely smooth sailing with the Crosstrek. But again, what car is perfect?

The biggest bugbear for me was with the 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated engine and the CVT transmission, a combo that just doesn’t work as well as I think it should.

The powertrain as a whole is loud, very revvy, lacking some polish and quite underpowered, which really became apparent when pulling out from a side street into fast-moving traffic, or merging onto the highway.

Also, for a small SUV, I was expecting a slightly better level of practicality, such as a more generous-sized boot, as the Crosstrek couldn’t fit nearly as much luggage as I would have liked – it fills up fast and is certainly smaller than some key small SUV rivals.

For a future facelift, I’d love to see the bigger 2.5-litre engine from the US-market to be added to our Aussie Crosstrek, along with a proper series-parallel hybrid system to rival (or borrow from) Toyota.

Also, we need the more off-road-focused Wilderness Crosstrek in Australia. Please, Subaru, please!

Final stats for the long-term Crosstrek

• Lowest calculated fuel economy was 7.5L/100km, however 6.8L/100km was lowest figure indicated in-car that I observed during long highway stints 
• No flat tyres (yay!) 
• No rattles, creaks, or rumbles 
• Total kilometre driven: 7778km  
• Total fuel cost over the six-month period: $1191

Month 4: comparing my Crosstrek to its hybrid sibling

• Kilometres this month: 1909km
• Fuel economy: 8.0L/100km
• Running costs this month: $359.20

What awesome timing. A Crosstrek hybrid S variant has landed in the Chasing Cars garage, which has allowed me to do some interesting back-to-back testing with my petrol Crosstrek 2.0S.

The hybrid version of the Crosstrek uses a very slightly detuned version of the 2.0-litre naturally aspirated ‘boxer’ four-cylinder engine, producing 110kW – five fewer kilowatts than the 2.0S – and 196Nm. An electric motor makes maximum outputs of 12kW/66Nm. A very small lithium-ion battery pack also features. 

I was particularly interested to see how the hybrid would compare to my long termer when it came down to the raw fuel efficiency numbers, so I took the hybrid version out for an extensive drive through Sydney to find out. 

To conduct my little test, I ran two slightly different runs from my home in Alexandria (just to the south west of the Sydney CBD) down to Kurnell beach near Cronulla. Once there, I turned the Subie hybrid around and headed back on the exact same roads.  

The first run I conducted, I had no air conditioning running and the windows down and sunroof open, and for the second, I ran with windows up and air conditioning on. Outside temperature was sitting at around 26-28 degrees and the test was conducted on the same day. 

The run from Alexandria to Kurnell Beach is made up of largely 50km/h to 70km/h roads, with plenty of traffic lights and, yep, plenty of traffic to deal with (as per normal in Sydney, which is surprisingly normal even on the weekend!). 

Fine and clear weather meant the traffic was a little slower going south towards Cronulla, as people headed to the beach, but this only made the hybrid’s figures even more surprising. 

How fuel efficient is the Crosstrek hybrid?

After the first run, which was a distance of almost dead-on 70 kilometres to Kurnell and back to home, the Crosstrek hybrid returned a very impressive 6.3L/100km.

On the next identically-distanced run, with air conditioning on medium fan speed at 21 degrees (as it was getting pretty hot by that stage), the hybrid returned a higher fuel efficiency figure of 7.0L/100km. 

Regardless, this is a pretty decent effort despite the high heat environment and the extra load put on the engine from the air conditioning system.

Working out the simple maths, a combined 6.65L/100km figure for the hybrid Crosstrek is very acceptable.  

How do these figures compare to the petrol Crosstrek long-term small SUV?

During my tenure so far with the 2.0S, the lowest I have ever seen the indicated fuel economy on the Crosstrek was 6.8L/100km on the long distance highway drive from Sydney up to my home town of Brisbane.

With my day-to-day commute largely running through busy inner Sydney streets, I am currently seeing a much higher indicated fuel economy on the car’s readout of between 10.0L/100km and 11.0L/100km.

That’s not so good, but understandable as my commute is very short, congested and the car doesn’t quite get the chance to get completely to normal operating temperatures.

While my Chasing Cars long termer is frugal on the highway, it’s definitely let down somewhat when driving through urban environments.

I honestly think a turbocharger strapped onto the 2.0-litre flat-four, or a proper series-parallel hybrid system borrowed from Toyota, could amend some of this inefficiency.

Observations and findings from the Crosstrek (mild) hybrid

Subaru’s marketing of the electrically-assisted Crosstrek as a hybrid is a little misleading. This variant is most definitely on the mild side of hybrid assistance.

Driving the variant for the first time, it’ll be hard for the average punter to actually tell that this vehicle is in fact electrically-assisted, as the instrument cluster is almost identical to the petrol, except for a small ‘EV’ and ‘READY’ dash lights that appear from time to time during regular operation.

Talking now of the hybrid’s transmission, the CVT automatic seems to be a little bit better tuned and less prone to engine over-revving, which unfortunately plagues the petrol variant quite significantly.

The hybrid system can be driven in EV-only mode but only using miniscule levels of throttle, which is pretty unrealistic for normal driving and especially in the city. Unlike some hybrids on the market, there is no dedicated EV button, which is almost certainly due to the teeny tiny battery pack fitted.

The electric mode, or when only the motor drives the wheels, is a period that ends at around 1400rpm, which then starts the petrol engine abruptly and with a little bit of a bit of a judder from the transmission.

Positively, however, I noticed that the Crosstrek hybrid has a pretty loud electric vehicle sound generator for low speed situations. I think this is a great feature, and very helpful for alerting pedestrians in very slow driving situations like shopping centre car parks

How well does the Crosstrek sell in Australia?

As of September 2023, Subaru has shifted a pretty sizable 6148 units of the Crosstrek small SUV into Australian homes, which positions the model above the sales results of the Toyota Corolla Cross (5628), Nissan Qashqai (5076), Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (5988) and luxury rivals such as the Volvo XC40 (4573) and the Audi Q3 (3363).

I wanted to know a little bit more about the sales split with Crosstrek and Crosstrek hybrid, so I directly got in contact with Subaru Australia to find out.

Subaru Australia PR manager Adriana Saviane got back to me and stated that “the all-new Subaru Crosstrek has been very well received in the Australian market. Non-hybrid Crosstrek has proven to be the most popular choice among our customers, constituting the majority of Crosstrek sales.”

So there you go. Petrol is still the winner with Crosstrek buyers.

But I also wanted to know how well the Crosstrek was selling in comparison to its older XV-badged sibling.

“Given that the Crosstrek nameplate was recently introduced in Australia this year, direct comparisons are limited,” Subaru claims.

“Nevertheless, we’re delighted with the enthusiastic response the Subaru Crosstrek has received from Australian customers. Since the launch of the new generation and introduction of the Crosstrek nameplate, we’ve only seen an increase in momentum for this model. The continued strong levels of interest in Subaru’s small SUV further affirm its popularity in the Australian market.”.

According to VFACTS, in the first nine months of 2021 (up to September), Subaru Australia had shifted a sizable 7578 units of its XV into Australian homes – a slightly better result than the current Crosstrek sales figures for September 2023.

By December 2021, Subaru had sold over 9000 XVs to Australian buyers.

Very interesting!

Next month, we head into the Christmas break and bid farewell to our time with the Crosstrek 2.0S.

Month 3 – from dirt to the daily grind

• Kilometres this month: 1577km
• Fuel economy: 7.5L/100km
• Running costs this month: $245.50

I live very close to the Chasing Cars Sydney office. Exactly three kilometres from door to door.

This unfortunately means that before and after work, I don’t get the biggest opportunity to drive Subaru’s small SUV. Some of my lovely colleagues live much further away, which might seem a complete pain with Sydney traffic, but for me, I wouldn’t mind a slightly longer commute than just ten minutes.

After all, I just love driving, no matter the situation or where I am at the time.

Day-to-day observations of the Crosstrek

You’re probably reading these updates wondering what the Crosstrek is actually like to live with day-to-day, so I thought I’d explain how I use the vehicle and how it fits in with my lifestyle. For context, I’m a single guy living in the heart of the city with no kids. It’s just me!

Jumping straight in, the first very liveable thing about the Crosstrek is that Android Auto phone connectivity is wireless, so I can simply leave my phone in my pocket and it syncs up quickly and effortlessly.

Of course, I can still plug my phone in to charge via either USB-C or USB-A ports, but for shorter trips, the wireless setup works very well.

One slightly strange thing I have noticed is that ‘my’ Subaru Crosstrek revs quite a lot on first start up, which quickly had my Dad asking: “what is that noise?”

I’ve spoken with a few of my colleagues at Chasing Cars and also seen from other Subaru owners online that this is indeed very common with the brand’s boxer engines which are said to run a higher RPM idle (and thus louder) to get the engine block warmer quicker, which also aids efficiency and protects the engine.

From my experience, the engine sits at around 2000rpm for a minute or two, before dropping back into a more quiet idle. It’s worth noting that most, if not all cars do this to some degree, but it’s just more pronounced in the Crosstrek.

Although I have been a little critical in this long-term report so far of the Crosstrek’s naturally-aspirated flat four engine, around town it’s certainly peppy enough, and quite fun to steer once you get the hang of it.

You can happily drive the Crosstrek with one-third throttle and just potter around town pretty effortlessly, and this is honestly how the majority of people will drive, so that’s a real win for Subaru. I find the seats to be particularly comfortable, with plenty of support and the leather feels premium, too.

Outside of the hustle and bustle of Sydney city life, I recently had the opportunity to go for a more spirited drive up my all-time favourite mountain roads just outside of Brisbane, and despite its softer-sprung nature, I found the Crosstrek to be a really fun driving package.

This car is by no means a sports car to rival its BRZ coupe sibling, even though the word sport is technically in the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) name, but this Crosstrek is enjoyable to drive through higher speed sweeping corners and has surprising levels of grip thanks to that iconic Subaru symmetrical all-wheel drive system.

I even managed to get the Subaru Crosstrek up the famous Goat Track near Mount Glorious which is a one-way dirt stretch that winds back and forth through the D’aguilar mountain range.

I half expected the Crosstrek to be a little unsettled on such loose surfaces, but the reality was far different. Not a sniff of oversteer or understeer. Just nice and neutral, which felt safe – very important attributes for a family vehicle such as this one.

And when it rains, the Crosstrek once again gives a great sense of grip and sure-footedness that the average punter will very much respect and value. And if you happen to drive into a tricky situation, like a muddy and slippery campground, there is a very good chance you’ll be able to drive straight out without an issue.

In the next update with the Crosstrek, we’ll be comparing the 2.0S petrol variant with its hybrid Crosstrek sibling to see how they compare. What will be the difference with fuel economy? I can’t wait to find out!

Month 2: road tripping to Brisbane

• Kilometres this month: 1367km
• Fuel economy: 7.8L/100km
• Running costs this month: $224.00

It’s that time of the year again. The annual pilgrimage to Brisbane, my home town. But this time I won’t be doing it the easy way and flying. Instead, it’ll be the mighty Crosstrek and me for a grand total of 1800 kilometres (there and back) with nothing but a few bits of luggage and the world’s biggest Spotify playlist.

But unlike other times, such as with my Kia Picanto GT long termer, I’ll be making a pitstop about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane in the small town of Raleigh, near Coffs Harbour, to visit a very good friend who is also a very good drifter.

There is a small racetrack there, and it’s tight and technical – a perfect way to completely scare passenger Zak.

As often as I now drive between the two large east-coast cities, it’s always refreshing to do it over two days, rather than one.

So as soon as 3am hit, it was time to get up and go. A quick Maccas coffee, a bottle of water and some snacks would keep me going. After all, it was always the first two hours on the road that I found to be the hardest.

Despite feeling more and more sluggish, a quick stop into a servo for fuel and another coffee around Newcastle helped push me past the lack of sleep I was experiencing.

The softly-sprung Crosstrek ate up the kilometres with ease, and top marks for Subaru for making a really comfortable seat – I certainly never felt sore even after many hours on the road.

It’s notable that production specialist Tom Place made similar remarks when he drove his Outback Touring long termer from Sydney to Adelaide. Subaru, it seems, has a knack for making cars that can go the distance.

On the open stretches of Pacific Highway where there was nothing but trees, trees and more tarmac ahead, the Crosstrek settled into a nice rhythm, with its suspension soaking up some rough road work sections pretty easily. This Crosstrek really hit the mark here, and was quiet with minimal wind or tyre noise.

At first I wasn’t too impressed with the fuel economy, averaging around 7.5L/100km, but after refuelling and resetting the trip computer, I got the economy down as low as 6.8L/100km – not a bad effort for an atmo 2.0-litre flat-four engine.

Rolling into Raleigh around 9am that same morning, I was keen to relax. The Crosstrek did a good job reeling in all those kilometres, and I was very impressed with the excellent ten-speaker Harman Kardon sound system and those leather seats.

It was a stark contrast then when I hopped straight into a 380kW LS1 V8-powered Nissan Silvia driven hard around a track. But I loved it, making me feel alive!

Raleigh is a gorgeous spot and wouldn’t look out of place in a Jurassic Park movie. The track has plenty of elevation and is very technical, which works out well for drift cars of all shapes and sizes.

After being covered in rubber and dirt, it was nice to get to the accommodation in the small town of Urunga, south of Coffs Harbour, to have a shower and get some rest.

Early the next morning, I hit the road eager to get to Brisbane. Google Maps was telling me it would take over four and a half hours to get to Kangaroo Point, where my parents live.

Although great on the highway overall, I did notice a distinct lack of grunt which is often for overtaking manoeuvres and getting up to speed on highway entry ramps, for instance. It could do with a turbocharger or just more power, as I have been quite vocal about in the past. The 115kW/196Nm just isn’t enough.

With a huge dose of caffeine and some not very healthy KFC in Ballina, I pointed the nose north once again and within a relatively short amount of time (or at least it felt short), I had finally arrived at the beautiful suburb of Kangaroo point, right on the banks of the Brisbane River.

Reflecting on the journey, most of it was very positive, but some things that would make the Crosstrek even better would be a head-up display, a larger boot capacity and less touchy lane-keep software.

Now that I’m up here in Brisbane, it’s given me some good time to reflect on everything Crosstrek. Has there been any rattles, squeaks or knocks from the car? Not at all, in fact this car is as tight as a drum. The build quality is very good, in fact.

But where to next? Well, in next month’s update, I’m going to be taking ‘my’ Subaru Crosstrek for a drive off the beaten path to an area where this car has excelled in the past, and is likely to do so time and time again.

I’m very much looking forward to it.

Month 1 – comfortable, practical but a little soulless

• Kilometres this month: 2326km
• Fuel economy: 7.7L/100km
• Running costs this month: $288.50

It’s official: EZU15G is mine for the next half-year and I’m pretty bloody excited about it. It’s always a pleasure to have a new car in the garage.

The timing is good because I’ve recently sold my pride-and-joy Ford Focus XR5. It, too, was bright orange – but unlike the brand-new Crosstrek the Focus had started to show its age after 70,000 kilometres of fun.

While it’s no five-cylinder hot hatch, I am a fan of how the new Crosstrek sits. It’s smart yet rugged in appearance and has an adventurous spirit about it. From the chunky plastic wheel guards to the sculpted front grille and LED lights, the Crosstrek really stands out.

Overall the proportions are similar to the previous XV but the massaging done to the body means the Crosstrek is the better looking vehicle in my books.

Considering just how much Aussies love the outdoors and camping, the Crosstrek seems to really fit in well on Australian roads – I have seen plenty of the previous XVs at hiking trails and camp sites in my time.

But what are my first impressions of EZU15G?

Within minutes of driving the new Crosstrek, it became apparent that this is a comfortable way to get around, although the seating position for the driver is a touch high for my liking.

The major touchpoints like the steering wheel and gear selector seem to be of good quality, although the leather on the steering wheel is tougher and harder than in other vehicles I have experienced. Still, this isn’t meant to be a luxury car.

Connecting to Android Auto for mirroring is a choice of wired or wireless. Crank up a playlist and you’ll notice that the Harman Kardon sound system sounds pretty crisp and is noticeably better than the six-speaker stereo found in the rest of the Crosstrek range. Music lovers will want to splash for the S.

But how does the Crosstrek 2.0S drive? In the city it’s immediately sufficient. Zipping around town is what the Crosstrek is good at and is comfortable while doing so. The suspension is well tuned, not overly soft, and it manages to iron out some of the worst Sydney roads.

A few opportunities to drive on the highway have already come up and that environment reveals what we’ve thought was a Crosstrek/XV weakness in the past: the engine.

This vehicle’s strong suit is not its powertrain. Both the engine and the CVT transmission lack character and refinement and, when accelerating, can be overly loud and thrashy.

On the highway and during light throttle applications around town, the engine and transmission is adequate, but from driving the Crosstrek on the launch to my time with the car now, my opinions on this powertrain remain unchanged.

So much more work could be done here.

I’ll do more of an explainer piece about this powertrain as part of my long-term updates later down the track.

Any quirks or cool features?

One of the wins for the Crosstrek is the new 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen which bundles a stack of features into one screen with several partitions. I’m not usually a fan of on-screen climate controls, but here they work because the controls are big and clear.

There is certainly a lot going on with this screen setup but everything is relatively easy to use and find within the menus.

It’s worth noting that it’s very handy that auto start-stop can be switched off straight from the core menu.

There is also an excellent 360-degree parking camera. I never appreciated how helpful this tech could be until I moved into a new apartment with a particularly unfriendly parking space, with a low wall and pole threatening to wreak havoc. They’re obstacles easily spotted in this car.

But by being able to see all sides of the vehicle at once, it’s a great tool to have. It also works well in low light (such as in my basement) which is a big plus.

Where to from here?

I’ve got a lot of plans for the Crosstrek, and will hopefully make the trek back home to Brisbane to see my family and friends, plus I’d like to take it up a trail or too, or even to the beach.