Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness Yearlong Review: Is the Crosstrek Right For You?
Finding the best vehicle for you isn’t always as simple as cross-shopping a single segment. Here’s how we’ve answered real-life inquiries on the Subaru Crosstrek.
When people find out you work for Motortrend, the question is inevitable: “What car should I buy?” And when they find out you’re the chaperone of a yearlong review vehicle like our 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, often the question gets more specific: “Should I buy what you drive?” The answer to both questions, naturally, depends on what they want out of their next vehicle. Here are three people who have asked the question of the Crosstrek, plus my responses to each.
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Subaru Crosstrek Passenger Space
When my mom decided it was time for a new vehicle, she immediately thought the little Crosstrek looked the part of what she wanted. But she had concerns about passenger space. Her new car would need room for four adults plus my grandmother’s walker. Maybe a cat, too, in case a natural disaster forced a quick evacuation of home. As a subcompact SUV, the Crosstrek has inherent weaknesses when it comes to ample passenger space. It seats five, officially, and the front seats are spacious and comfortable for adults, but the rear seats offer significantly less legroom than the fronts: 36.5 inches in the rear compared to 42.9 in the front.
This is largely what you’ll find with any subcompact SUV, though; you sacrifice some space in back for a smaller overall footprint. For short trips, it’s not a big deal, but if you need to drive long distances, you’ll likely be better served by something a bit more spacious. So my recommendation to my mother: Because she really wanted a Subaru, look at either the Forester or Outback. Both have a lot of what she found attractive about the Crosstrek, but they also have far more comfortable back seats. (After her needs changed, the Crosstrek became a more fitting option, so she went with her first choice.)
Subaru Crosstrek Cargo Space
My dad’s been on the lookout for a new vehicle for several years and often asks if I think he should get a Crosstrek. Passenger space isn’t a major concern for him, but overall interior space is. Whatever he buys next will serve as his daily driver while also pulling fishing-rig duty—which for him includes space inside to lie down and rest. For my entire life, I’ve been hearing stories about long drives to Idaho in his Reagan-era Ford Econoline van. He’d park it near a stream and make that his temporary home as long as the fish were biting. For most of my life, though, he’s driven sedans. In addition to a vehicle that will fulfill his trout-seeking dreams, he wants something that’ll enable occasional hardware store trips and transport long items.
Here, my answer is a little bit more subjective. The Crosstrek offers 20.0 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and 54.9 cubic feet with the rear seats folded. But how do you translate cubic feet to sleeping space? Or ability to haul 2x4s? Overall length is a better (but still not quite perfect) metric, and in this the Crosstrek comes up (literally) short. With the rear seats folded down and the fronts moved up all the way, there’s about 70 inches of space between the seat backs and the rear hatch. An adult man of average height could technically sleep in that amount of space, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. Moreover, the space isn’t perfectly flat, and there’s a gap nearly a foot wide between the tops of the folded rear seats and the front seat backs, right where you’d put a pillow or your feet. For a streamside sleeping space, the Crosstrek just won’t get the job done comfortably. It also would struggle to accommodate lumber from the hardware store.
My recommendation for him: Consider looking outside the Subaru family. An Outback would handle those fishing trips, but for his varied needs, he’d be better served by a Ford Bronco or Toyota 4Runner. Both have plenty of space to flip the seats down and take a nap or spend the night by a stream, and both have an opening window in the rear hatch, aiding transport of long items and making quick access to your fishing gear a little bit easier.
