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Although it narrowly bettered Subaru’s own standing-start acceleration claim (0-60mph in 10.4sec as tested versus 0-62mph in 10.8sec), the Crosstrek wouldn’t fool anyone into believing it was any kind of energetic performer.
Aside from being around 20-30% slower than what we might refer to as the £35k hatchback class standard, this car gives the perception that it’s even slower at times because of the way its transmission works. But does that matter, given the Crosstrek is engineered for such specific dual-purpose use? If you are regularly going off the Tarmac, you might just be minded to forgive it.
The CVT actually shows some subjective signs of improvement on refinement, driver engagement and all-round drivability on the road, while it functions very well off it.
That it can’t work any miracles is apparent in the figures we recorded. The Crosstrek does feel like a slightly underpowered car when you want it to make brisk progress, particularly when you’re using the transmission’s manual gear selection mode. Here, the lower intermediate ratios are made to feel unusually tall, while the driveline itself seems capable of swallowing fairly large applications of mid-range torque without showing much added forward urgency.
We measured 50-70mph in ‘third’ – prime overtaking territory – in 8.4sec (a VW Golf 1.5 eTSI takes just 4.3sec), but here we must allow for a transmission that’s being asked to work differently from how it is designed to when ‘locked in gear’.
When the gearbox is left in D, while it revs a little stratospherically through first and second gears and only takes on a more normal way of working through its ‘ratios’ from third upwards from about 50mph, the car isn’t quite as slow as that performance differential suggests.
That’s because, in getting you from A to B in normal daily driving, the Crosstrek has respectable roll-on performance. It isn’t assertive or sporty; it isn’t characterful or idiosyncratic, as Subaru flat fours used to be; and it isn’t particularly efficient either. On the road, the hybrid system merely does a job.
The car’s electromechanical brake servo can be a little irksome, making the pedal especially grabby when the car is cold. But it improves thereafter, and permits the car stopping distances that, considering its tyre specification, are respectable enough.
Off-road notes
The Crosstrek isn’t blessed with Land Rover-beating off-road angles and fairly obviously isn’t a car for the kind of rock crawling or sand duning that some 4×4 enthusiasts engage in.
And yet this is a genuinely able car on the muddy gravel tracks and slippery climbs for which it is intended. The X-Mode traction control system has separate settings for on-road use, and then specifically for mud and dirt, or deep mud and snow.
The off-road modes work only below about 20mph, but the difference they make – to prime the transmission to keep revving and delivering really useful and consistent torque levels when climbing at those lower speeds, for instance, or to more pre-emptively change the front-to-rear torque distribution – gives the Crosstrek a remarkably sure-footed feel on loose surfaces.
Our test car scaled a wet, muddy 35% incline on Millbrook’s off-road course without struggling for a second.
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