Subaru Crosstrek Review 2025

Making up only a fifth of Subaru's very modest overall UK sales, the Crosstrek is a rare sight on British roads. Are UK car buyers missing out on a hidden gem or is this family SUV rightfully a niche option? Find out in our full Subaru Crosstrek review.

The Subaru Impreza is surely the best-known of the brand's models, thanks in no small part to the World Rally Championship exploits of the likes of Richard Burns. Yet you can no longer buy one in Britain, its UK importers having long since binned-off the model — both the normal versions and the heroic Subaru WRX STI examples.

Except, you can still have one. Sort of. It's called the Subaru Crosstrek but it's an Impreza in all but name. Based on the latest incarnation of Subaru's family hatchback, it differs mostly by virtue of sitting on taller suspension and some tough body cladding. It's a bit like comparing the Kia XCeed with the regular Ceed hatch. 

Within the British range the Crosstrek has adopted the name its predecessors have long been known by in North America — those cars were sold here as the Subaru XV, albeit in small numbers.

Unlike the XCeed with its sub-£25,000, you'll need more like £36,000 for the cheapest Crosstrek. At least part of the cost difference is because you have no choice but to have the Subaru with all-wheel drive. It's the Crosstrek's main selling point as it uses a rugged permanent all-wheel drive system, where rivals tend to use part-time setups, which only power one set of wheels most of the time, only calling the others into action when traction demands it.

Driving all four wheels all the time increases fuel consumption but makes for a more capable car off-road, further helped by the Crosstrek having generous ground clearance and hill-descent control. Whether or not you'll ever go anywhere tough enough to notice the difference is another matter. There's a reason why you'll often find Subaru dealerships in more rural areas, where local car buyers may have different priorities from the norm. 

If you'd describe yourself as the latter you'll find the Crosstrek a tough sell, not just because of its price. It's also slow and feels dated on the inside. Clawing things back slightly, it's roomy for passengers although its boot space is underwhelming. 

If the Subaru Crosstrek's all-wheel drive system and the off-road ability it brings aren't important to you, there's no compelling reason to buy one over its many conventional rivals, including the Hyundai Kona and the Mazda CX-30.

The low-speed ride of the Subaru Crosstrek is smooth, with speed bumps and potholes negotiated with minimal fuss. Things remain cosseting on the move, although you do get the odd suspension thud through the cabin at random intervals. 

Sitting tall and on relatively soft suspension, the Crosstrek leans a fair bit if you try and corner quickly. Drive it in anything approaching an enthusiastic manner and you're likely to hear the front tyres starting to protest.

Traction in the dry is never an issue but as much as we'd like to sing the praises of the all-wheel drive system for this it's probably more down to the fact that there's not enough going on under the bonnet to overwhelm the available adhesion. It'll no doubt be great in the wet but during our extended test the British weather was uncharacteristically dry. 

Once you're up to speed and the revs of the engine settle, things aren't excessively noisy, with little in the way of road noise. There's more wind noise than we'd like.

The ground clearance of 220mm is considerably better than not just other high-stance hatchbacks but also compact SUVs, including the Volkswagen T-Roc. There's also an X-Mode feature with different settings to suit various off-road situations, while hill-descent control — think of it as a low-speed cruise control for off-roading — is also standard.

The only engine available in the Subaru Crosstrek is an unusual one. Many — Subaru included — call it a Boxer engine because the pairs of pistons lie flat and 'punch' outwards. Essentially it's a V-configuration engine but where the angle between the cylinders has been opened to 180 degrees. The only other manufacturer currently using such a layout is Porsche.

Breaking from the norm further, the Crosstrek's 2.0-litre engine doesn't use a turbocharger so although it's relatively large in terms of displacement by today's standards, it only produces a modest 136PS and 182Nm of torque. And good Lord, does it make a big deal out of generating those figures.

Like a lot of Japanese manufacturers, Subaru favours a continuously variable transmission (CVT) over conventional automatics with torque convertors and double clutches. Rather than fixed gear ratios, CVTs are infinitely variable, so putting your foot down results not in the revs going up and down as each gear is changed but with them going right up to the top and staying there until you take a bit of pressure off the accelerator pedal. 

The Crosstrek never feels in a great hurry to get anywhere. Its 0-62mph time is 10.8 seconds but were we to have guessed having driven the car we'd have gone with a longer time. It doesn't help that there's a lag between putting your foot down and the CVT reacting. 

There is a manual mode, enabled by pushing the gear selector to the right when already in Drive. This accesses preset, software-generated ratios within the transmission which can be changed using the steering wheel-mounted paddles. The main reason you'd use these is for more control when off-roading.

The Subaru Crosstrek was awarded the full five stars when crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2025, scoring 83% for adult occupants and 90% for child occupants. All versions of the Crosstrek come with autonomous emergency steering and braking, traffic sign recognition, a driver attention monitor and lane assistance. 

The lane assistance is aggressive and will often trigger when you don't want it to, sending out a series of aggressive beeps in the process. 

The Subaru Crosstrek can tow up to 1270kg of braked trailer weight. Subaru offers a fixed towbar for £264 or a removable one for £375.

Considering its outward dimensions, the Crosstrek's 315 litres of boot space is poor. To put that in context, a Mazda CX-30 manages 430 litres and the Kia XCeed is only a few litres behind. Should you need more space the rear bench folds down in a 40/60 split to open up a total volume of 922 litres. 

The cabin is roomy for its occupants thanks partly to the car's generous width, although those in the rear might be less than impressed by the lack of air vents back there. It's sloping roofline impacts rear headroom as well.

There's a deep cubby hole under the central armrest plus a storage tray just in front of the gear lever. Between the two is a pair of cupholders but they don't have anything inside them to help grip smaller receptacles, leaving them to rattle around and potentially spill. If preferred, the front door bins include smaller cutouts that hold average-sized reusable water bottles more snugly. 

Everything feels quite chunky and almost utilitarian in the Subaru Crosstrek which suggests the cabin should stand the test of time. The choice of materials isn't exactly what you'd call upmarket considering its price, with quite a few hard plastic surfaces and synthetic leather in the range-topping model that feels a bit low-rent.

Generally it just feels on the old side, as though Subaru's interior design department hasn't moved on much in the last decade. 

While the Subaru Crosstrek's Starlink multimedia system's 11.6-inch touchscreen sounds like a decent size, large chunks of the display are taken up with permanently shown sections, including one for operating the climate control. On that point, it's pleasing to see that the screen is flanked by physical buttons for both of the temperature adjusters

Generally the system feels behind the times. Its responsiveness is merely okay, while the graphic design and quality look subpar. We had some minor issues with the Android Auto connectivity, which would only launch after an error message was cleared — after popping up twice. Given that the screen is a decent size, it's disappointing to see that the phone projection only takes up a small part of it.

It can only display one thing at once meaning if you want to switch to a different album on Spotify, you'll be without navigation until switching back. 

Reinforcing the dated look you get an old-fashioned instrument cluster featuring an analogue rev counter and speedometer, with a small, colour TFT between. The latter isn't able to display turn-by-turn data from Google Maps in a further annoyance regarding smartphone integration.

You won't get confused by the Subaru Crosstrek price list, as there are only two derivatives on it. It's £35,995 for the Limited and £38,100 for the Touring. The level of standard equipment on each is very good — indeed other than extra-cost colours at £595 a go, there are no additional options to choose from.

That aside, those prices might seem like a lot when the Kia XCeed starts at £24,610 and the Ford Focus Active can be had from £30,760.

The Crosstrek continues to look pricey if you look at compact SUVs as opposed to high-rise hatchbacks. Mazda's CX-30 starts from £26,135 although if you want all-wheel drive there's a considerable jump to £36,535 — and that's for the cheaper manual transmission version.

Happy just with a single of driven wheels? You're better off saving you're money and going with one of the much better-rounded alternatives. 

One of the Subaru Crosstrek's biggest issues is its fuel economy. The official combined WLTP Combined cycle figure is 36.8mpg which looks poor when an all-wheel drive version of the Mazda CX-30 manages 42.8mpg when fitted with an automatic gearbox.

On a long motorway run you should be able to better that figure but besting 40mpg is a struggle unless you're contending with lots of 50mph average speed checks through roadworks along your route. Not that we'd wishthat on anyone. With more of a mix of driving, 35mpg is about the best you can expect. 

Vehicle tax is the same £195 annual rate from year two onwards for all cars, regardless of their powertrain type, with the token £10 discount for hybrids no longer a thing since April 2025. More happily it's not possible to spec a Crosstrek to go beyond £40,000, so you don't have to worry about the £425 annual Expensive Car Supplement surcharge.

Thanks to its CO2 emissions of 174g/km company car drivers are highly unlikely to choose the Crosstrek given both models fall into the priciest 37% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) taxation band for 2025/26.

There are two versions of the Subaru Crosstrek available — Limited and Touring.

Standard features for the Subaru Crosstrek Limited include:

• 17-inch alloy wheels
• Steering angle-linked LED headlights
• Power folding and heated door mirrors
• Dark-tinted rear windows
• Heated front seats
• Keyless entry and starting
• 11.6-inch infotainment system
• Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto 
• Wireless phone charger
• Rear parking camera

Upgrading to the Subaru Crosstrek Touring adds the following: 

• 18-inch alloy wheels
• Automatic main beam
• Integrated navigation
• Synthetic leather seats
• Ten-way electrically adjustable driver's seat
• Eight-way electrically adjustable passenger seat
• Rear USB-A and USB-C ports
• Steering wheel paddle shifters