2021 Subaru Crosstrek Review - DOES IT GO OFF ROAD?

Check out our Other Channels:   / roadtestreviews   https://www.roadtestreviews.com/ The little 2021 Subaru Crosstrek is now my favorite Subaru. It's my first time driving one, and my expectations were quite low knowing it had a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine and was not known for being very quick. I like to have my expectations exceeded and the Crosstek, which can be found lurking around  REI and various other outdoorsy type stores, is a very well executed car indeed. The Subaru Crosstrek is classified as a lifted wagon (8.7 inches of ground clearance) with rugged body cladding, cool looks, and the excellent EyeSight active safety system, all for a very reasonable price. The 2021 Crosstrek features a redesigned front bumper with new-design fog light insert covers (Base trim) or fog light covers (all other trims), plus a newly designed front grille More power For the 2021 model, the Crosstrek offers a 182-hp 2.5-liter flat-four with 176 ft-lbs of torque and comes standard on the top two trim levels, the new Sport and the Limited. This engine has a well-needed 30-hp advantage over the base 2.0-liter and when we hooked it up to our timing equipment hit 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, which is 1.6 seconds quicker than before. The engine is paired to a continuously variable automatic, not my favorite, however, this one tries to mimic an 8-speed auto but ends up being somewhat buzzy at higher revs and can get annoying. The only bad news on the transmission front is you can't option the 6-speed manual with the bigger 2.5-liter which is a bit of a miss. Oddly though the larger engine gets better highway mileage than the smaller 2.0 liter by 1 mpg. Despite driving hard for a week I couldn't get worse than 22.8 mpg, which included highway, city, and off-road driving. My tester was a Limited model with Horizon Blue paint and a two-tone black cream leather interior which stickered for $31,440 which included a Power Moonroof and Multimedia Plus with Navigation. In addition to the engine upgrade, my tester had Subaru’s X-Mode which offers 3 modes, Deep Snow/Mud, Normal, and Snow/Dirt Mode which is programmed to get you out of or through rough and tricky terrain. X–Mode uses lower gear ratios to generate extra power at the wheels that have grip. X–Mode deactivates the transmission’s lock-up clutch to better direct power to slipping wheels and included Hill Descent Control.