The deal is done, finally traded in my most adored 2010 Honda Fit sport for the 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. It was one of the hardest life decisions to make, spent 9 wonderful reliable years with that little Honda. Those of you who currently drive a Honda Fit / Jazz you will understand.
That being said this is my hands on review of the 2019 Subaru Crosstrek touring 6 speed manual.
The exterior:
I have been driving the Crosstrek now for about four months and have logged on around 6500 km. Lets start with the exterior, stand out features on the touring are 17 inch mags, coloured door handles and mirrors, roof rails and fog lights. Four wheel disc brakes are also standard across the Crosstrek line. The 2019 Subaru Crosstrek also earns the highest safety ratings from the IIHS.
The interior:
I must say the fit and finish along with the quality of the materials are top notch. Everything flows beautifully, no odd looking climate buttons like the Fit and no gaps in the plastics. There is a 6.5 inch infotainment display, above that a 4.3 inch multi-information display. The infotainment display provides multimedia, apple and android car functions, phone and apps.
The multi-information display gives you oil and water temperature, when the water temp is cold the boxer engine will warm up at a higher rpm. Once the engine is ready to roll a normal indicator will appear and the engine rpm will settle down. You can toggle through the menu that will show the power distribution to the wheels as well as the hill grade level (as a %).
Below the infotainment screen you have the automatic climate control, heated mirror rear window deicer and front wiper deicer are all integrated in one button. There are two 12 V adapter plug and only one USB port, Subaru should have included at least two USB ports. Rear seat passengers do not receive any USB ports on the touring model, an expensive 2 USB port dealer add on package is available if you so wish to buy it. Between the front passengers seats you will find two switches for the heated front seats with low and hi settings.
An arm rest is found between the front seats with fairly good storage, it houses that one USB slot an aux slot and the second 12 V adapter (first 12 V in front of gearshift). There are two cup holders between the front seats in front of the arm rest and one on each of the four doors as well as two in the rear fold down arm rest.
The touring model also adds "cool looking" orange stitching around the seats and on the leather wrapped steering wheel.
At the end of this blog you will find the attachments for further features and full specifications.
Subaru vehicles are great for tall drivers with more than enough leg room, at 6'3" (1,95 m) tall my seat is not even all the way back. Big thanks to Subaru for that, both Mazda and Toyota SUV are far behind in leg room dimensions. Front and rear leg room dimensions on the Crosstrek are 1095 mm (43") and 927 mm (36") respectively. I'm finally comfortable on those long trips!
Cargo hold is decent at 588 liters (1566 L with the rear seats down) but no more than on the Fit provided, it's the price to pay for the increased passenger volume. If you need more cargo room then the Forester is the better option but it only comes in the CVT automatic only.
The drive and handling:
How does it drive?
Not as much fun as the Honda Fit, that was a go-cart, but it used to punish my back on those long trips (highway) and poorly maintained roads.
The Crosstrek's engine is not very rev happy or particularly fast with 152 hp @ 6000 rpm and 145 lb-ft of torque @ 4000 rpm. Power is adequate, engine is tuned more for low end torque pulling power. I never found the car to be slow, it's adequate but the Honda engine when revved over 3500 rpm would transform it into a mini monster. The Subaru 2 L engine is more like a Toyota engine very smooth power distribution but when floored there is no "jump" to it.
For those of you who have never driven a Subaru boxer engine this may sound strange. At approximately 2500 rpm in any of the 6 gears it delivers a nice grunt noise, sounds like a 200 + hp engine which of course it's not. That's were I like keeping it humming at that rpm, I just like the sound.
Running at highway speeds that sixth gear comes in handy, 120 km/h (75 mph) will spin the 2 L engine at 3000 rpm.
Another unanticipated pleasantry is the gas consumption. I thought that there was going to be a price to pay at the pump for that full time AWD. Imagine to my surprise, 7.5 L per 100 km (31 mpg) according to the on board display. That consumption is based on 60 % highway (100-120 km/h) (62-72 mi/h) and 40% city (< 60 km/h) (37 mi/h) driving which is fantastic and better than the posted number in the brochure (10.5 L city and 8.1 L highway). My Fit posted 7.1 L per 100 km (33 mpg) with similar driving and powering only the front wheels. With only 6500 km on the odometer the engine has not even broken in yet. It usually takes around 10,000 km for the break-in period, I will re post the fuel economy again if it changes.
Lets move along to the manual 6 speed stick-shift. It was very clunky for the first 2000 km or so, but now seems to have smooth-end out and I now rate it as above average for this category. That being said the only other remaining AWD SUV competition in the North American market with an available manual transmission are Jeeps.
Handling for a small SUV is very good, handles like a Corolla, it definitely is no Civic Type R. Highway ride is excellent with little wind movement, stays in it's lane with little effort, rides like an average mid-size sedan (no not a BMW). Lane changes are predictable and tight, sudden needed acceleration on the freeway in 6th gear is slow, you will have to downshift to 5th for a quick pass.
Most importantly of all it soaks up bad pothole filled roads very nice, even cracks are well dissipated by the frame. One big negative are the stock Yokohama Geolandar G91f tires, pure garbage, and that's being nice, don't think they will last more than 30000 km (already showing wear). I'm not alone, several reviews on TireRack place them near the bottom of their category at 28 out of 39.
I believe with a decent tire the ride and handling can be much better than what I'm currently experiencing. I'll find out this winter when I install my new Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 winters in a few weeks, I will update the blog as to handling and performance changes. This will be my second set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 winter tires since I drove on them with the Fit (for comparison reason). Looking forward for the snow to fall, this being my first AWD vehicle, getting psyched for fun in the snow
In conclusion if you can live with the "inelastic engine" and average cargo space the 2019 Crosstrek is sure to check off all the rest of the boxes. Spacious, economical, standard AWD, reliable and with an excellent fit and finish.
Cheers!
Update3:
Nokian Hakka 8 are on the car and ready for winter. The current temperature is 2 degrees Celcius with no snow yet on the ground. The psi in each tire is set to the proper specifications for the Crosstrek.
My first impressions is that the Nokian tires handle better than the stock Yokohama. Yes they are winter tires, how can they handle better you ask. Well they are XL (extra load) rated which means that the tire sides are reinforced, which in turn will keep the tire from flexing too much. On the negative side due to the Nokian aggressive tread pattern and XL rating there is more vibration, noise as well as a firmer ride. (Well they are winter tires)
Currently at 10,500 km, been running on the Hakka 8's (non studded) for roughly 2 months now. There is an issue I have never experienced before with Nokian winter tires. The Crosstrek at speeds in excess of 110 km/h emits a vibration on the floor, seats and steering wheel. Steel rims are hub-centric and they were balanced not once but twice, at the tire shop and dealer. Even at the proper tire inflation the vibration still persists, I'm baffled. My only idea is possibly the ride height of the vehicle (8.7" / 220 mm) or the deep tread depth of the tire at 13/32" (most winter tires are between 10 and 12/32"). I have e-mailed Nokian tires about this issue, it's been 11 days now and no reply back from them. Pretty poor customer service, maybe going to choose Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 next time. A very close 2nd place contender at a significant discount in price.
