HOCKLEY VALLEY, Ont. – We’re indebted to humble little Subaru. See, these are some of the most faithful cars money can buy. They’ll get you to your destination in one piece, regardless of the weather or what’s under the wheels. Gravel? Yup. Mud? You know it. Snow? Bring it. You’ll get there because you’re driving the Rick Astley of cars – never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.
Subaru was always one to march to the beat of its own drum, but these days ain’t what they used to be. Sales in North America have exploded to impressive figures, but with that growth comes a small loss of identity when the cars started to become a little more mainstream, all in the name of chasing more consumers. Subaru fans went nuts when the Impreza first gained framed windows.
That’s not to say everything Subaru makes today is an amorphous blob of transportation. You just have to look closely – the Outback is still a jacked-up Legacy wagon, the WRX STI still has a picnic bench for a wing and the Crosstrek is still an Impreza on stilts and with a scruffy beard.
For 2016, the Crosstrek (note the name; it’s no longer the XV Crosstrek) gains a number of minor changes, but just enough to warrant a second glance. Stare at the front bumper long enough and you’ll pick out the details – there’s a restyled front bumper, a slimmer grille and new wheels. Well, that’s a relative term; you could call them wheels, but they’re more like studded hiking boots that help the Crosstrek go pretty much anywhere.
2016 Subaru Crosstrek
Nick Tragianis, Driving
And go anywhere any Subaru, especially the Crosstrek, does. The day starts in downtown Toronto, where the roads are locked with weekday traffic until we get to a ho-hum highway run. It’s here the Crosstrek’s weaknesses come to light; the 148-horsepower 2.0-litre four-cylinder Boxer engine doesn’t make for a lively drive, especially hooked up to a continuously variable transmission.
Thankfully, Subaru does offer a five-speed manual across the board, but that takes care of part of the problem. Shoehorning Subaru’s 2.5-litre engine or the 2.0L pancake-four from the WRX or Forester XT would do the trick.
Road manners are another sticking point; the Crosstrek isn’t particularly quiet with significant wind noise, a buzzy engine and a transmission whine you just can’t miss under full throttle. Luckily, blind spots are virtually non-existant and Subaru’s EyeSight suite of safety goodies – adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning and automatic braking – makes highway runs and traffic more tolerable.
But when asphalt ends and gravel roads begin, the Crosstrek comes alive. The rear end takes some work to break loose and stability control is quick to intervene, but the Crosstrek is fazed by much less dirty work than the competition. It loves puddles as much as Colin McRae’s rally-bred Impreza 555 and, as a matter of fact, the Crosstrek looks ridiculously proper caked in chunks of mud. Heck, if you’re crazy enough, you could even take it to the Arctic Circle.
2016 Subaru Crosstrek
Nick Tragianis, Driving
It’s no Jeep Wrangler, Range Rover or Toyota Land Cruiser, but the Crosstrek will get you anywhere and without fail. Within reason, of course – you wouldn’t want to venture into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, even though the Crosstrek could probably get you through. Got the rear end stuck on a pile of zombies? No problem! You’ve got 220 millimetres of ground clearance to work with and the full-time all-wheel-drive system will pull you through, but you’re on your own when you get guts on the Hyper Blue paintwork – incidentally, that’s a new colour for 2016.
Inside, the changes are exactly like what we’ve seen outside. That is to say, they’re mostly minor in nature. Oh, the steering wheel now looks like the one from the Legacy and Outback, there’s some orange stitching here and you’ve got some snazzy piano black trim on top-spec Limited models. The Crosstrek also gains an upgraded touchscreen infotainment system – a 6.2-inch display is standard on the base Touring and mid-range Sport, while a seven-inch screen is standard on the Limited. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto? Not yet.
2016 Subaru Crosstrek
Nick Tragianis, Driving
Aside from that, the Crosstrek is familiar inside. Visibility is spectacular and the controls are mostly logical, but the switches for the heated front seats are still awkwardly located on the back of the centre console, below the armrest. See? Subaru still has a few head-scratching charms. Materials are better than what they used to be, but it’s not exactly upscale in there. A Mazda CX-3 is far more polished.
But you know what? That shouldn’t matter when you pile into the Crosstrek with friends, family or your kids and with a hatch full of coolers, snacks and sleeping bags for epic road trips. It’s the perfect companion for exploring the vast backyard in the home we call Canada.
The Crosstrek is a lot like a Cocker Spaniel in this regard; faithful and playful enough to get you there regardless of the roads or weather, but those floppy ears are reminders that no matter how much Subaru adapts to the growing world of subcompact crossovers, there will always be room for unstoppable, go-anywhere oddities.
