2024 Subaru Crosstrek Premium Review – Competent Utility

by Tim Healey

Published: January 5th, 2024

Fast Facts

2024 Subaru Crosstrek Premium Fast Facts

Powertrain

2.0-liter horizontally-opposed four-cylinder (152 horsepower @ 6,000 RPM, 145 lb-ft @ 4,500 RPM)

Transmission/Drive-Wheel Layout

Continuously-variable automatic, all-wheel drive

Fuel Economy, MPG

27 city / 34 highway / 29 combined (EPA Rating)

Fuel Economy, L/100km

8.8 city / 7.1 highway / 8.0 combined. (NRCan Rating)

Base Price

$26,145 (U.S.) / $32,195 (Canada)

Price As-Tested

$29,685 (U.S.) / $34,771.50 (Canada)

Prices include $1,295 destination charge in the United States and $2,295 for freight, PDI, and A/C tax in Canada and, because of cross-border equipment differences, can’t be directly compared.

2024 subaru crosstrek premium review competent utility

Reliability, when it comes to cars, has at least two meanings. One meaning involves a model’s likelihood to suffer mechanical maladies over time. The other involves how well it does its prescribed job.

Subaru has made its bones by being very good at the latter.

Yes, sure, the company isn’t completely boring – the WRX and BRZ exist, after all. But generally speaking, if you’re shopping a Subaru, you’re looking at a small crossover or wagon that will be safe and offer utility.

Speed, handling, luxurious creature comforts – those are nice but safety, ease of use, cargo friendliness, and the ability to do some very light off-roading take priority here.

The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Premium fits that bill.

As I’ve often said in these reviews, those of us who are self-described car enthusiasts sometimes forget that while we might place a premium on acceleration or ride and handling, most car buyers don’t. Obviously there are plenty of vehicles that also don’t prioritize those things.

Once you get your Andretti fantasies out of your head and evaluate these vehicles based on how well they do what they’re meant to do, you gain clarity. And this Subie generally does what its meant to do and does it well.

Sure, it’s pokey. Don’t expect a lot of thrust from its 2.0-liter boxer four-cylinder (152 horsepower, 145 lb-ft of torque). Don’t be shocked when you see that the handling is competent but not grin-generating, even though the 2024 model gets the WRX’s dual-pinion electric power-steering rack.

You should, at least, be happy that the continuously-variable automatic transmission mostly fades into the background. It does have an eight-speed manual mode and shift paddles.

Ride-wise, you get a mixed bag – the car is a bit stiffly sprung but it’s generally comfortable enough for trundling around town. Subaru did stiffen the chassis 10 percent for this year in a bid to improve ride quality and handling.

Other news for 2024 includes the availability of wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Subaru’s EyeSight driver-assist system is now standard. So, too, is the CVT.

The 11.6-inch StarLink multimedia/infotainment system is now available, and models with blind-spot detection, lane-keep assist, and rear cross-traffic alert add automatic emergency steering.

This all comes in a package sporting new duds, including a frameless hexagonal grille. Oh, and the price is right – with options, my test vehicle cost a tick under $30K. Not bad in a time where average transaction prices are in the mid-40s.

Standard features included all-wheel drive (it is a Subie, after all), torque vectoring, dual-zone climate control, rear-view camera, hill-start assist, Bluetooth, engine performance management system, hill descent control, LED headlights that follow steering, LED fog lamps, 17-inch wheels, roof rails, and USB-A and USB-C ports. The starting price was $26,145.

Options included spot detection, lane-keep assist, and rear cross-traffic alert; a power moonroof; and an all-weather package.

The cabin puts function over form and the large infotainment screen is appreciated – and well-integrated. You won’t be overwhelmed with buttons here – but the most important buttons and knobs remain. It’s a nice enough place to hang out, though a little too much noise permeates the interior at highway speeds.

It’s easy to daydream about blitzing backroads in muscular Mustangs – but a lot of car buyers just want something easy to live with at an affordable price. Oh, and with decent fuel economy, if possible (27/34/29 here). It sounds insulting to say something is basic transport, but it really isn’t.

Sometimes you just need a car that can swallow cargo and save you money on gas – one that’s also decently equipped and considered safe. There’s a reason Subarus are so popular.

The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Premium offers that and while it’s not particularly fun to drive, it’s not going to punish you, either.

Sometimes, you just want something that’s easy to live with.

[Images: Subaru]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

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2 of 37 comments

Goatshadow on Jan 09, 2024

Somehow they made these uglier than the previous version.

Are these more or less reliable than a VW? Asking for a friend.

Like Reply
Paula on Jan 25, 2024

nice

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Steve S. Steve was a car guy. In his younger years he owned a couple of European cars that drained his bank account but looked great and were fun to drive while doing it. This was not a problem when he was working at a good paying job at an aerospace company that supplied the likes of Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, but after he was laid off he had to work a number of crummy temp jobs in order to keep paying the rent, and after his high-mileage BMW was totaled in an accident, he took the insurance payout and decided to get something a little less high maintenance. But what to get? A Volkswagen? Maybe a Volvo? No, he knew that the parts for those were just as expensive and they had the same reputation for spending a lot of time in the shop as any other European make. Steve was sick and tired of driving down that road."Just give me four wheels and a seat," said Steve to himself. "I'll buy something cooler later when my work situation improves".His insurance company was about to stop paying for the rental car he was driving, so he had to make a decision in a hurry. He was not really a fan of domestics but he knew that they were generally reliable and were cheap to fix when they did break, so he decided to go to the nearest dealership and throw a dart at something.On the lot was a two year old Pontiac Sunfire. It had 38,000 miles on it and was clean inside and out. It looked reasonably sporty, and Steve knew that GM had been producing the J-car for so long that they pretty much worked the bugs out of it. After taking a test drive and deciding that the Ecotec engine made adequate power he made a deal. The insurance check paid for about half of it, and he financed the rest at a decent rate which he paid off within a year.Steve's luck took a turn for the better when he was offered a job working for the federal government. It had been months since he went on the government jobs website and threw darts at job listings, so he was surprised at the offer. It was far from his dream job, and it didn't pay a lot, but it was stable and had good benefits. It was the "four wheels and a seat" of jobs. "I can do this temporarily while I find a better job", he told himself.But the year 2007 saw the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. Millions of people were losing their jobs, the housing market was in a free fall, people were declaring bankruptcy left and right, and the temporary job began to look more and more permanent. Steve didn't like his job, and he hated his supervisors, but he considered himself lucky that he was working when so many people were not. And the federal government didn't lay people off.So he settled in for the long haul. That meant keeping the Sunfire. He didn't enjoy it, but he didn't hate it either, and it did everything he asked of it without complaint.Eventually he found a way to tolerate his job too, and he built seniority while paying off his debts. There was a certain feeling of comfort and satisfaction of being debt-free, and he even began to build some savings, which was increasingly important for someone now in their forties.Another bit of luck came a few years later when Steve's landlord decided to sell the house Steve was renting, at the bottom of the housing market, and offered it to Steve for what he had in it. Steve's house was small and cramped, and he didn't really like it, but thanks to his savings and good credit he became a homeowner in an up and coming neighborhood.Fourteen years later Steve was still working that temporary job, still living in that cramped little house that he now hated, and still drove the Sunfire because it wouldn't die. For years now he dreamed of making a change, but then the pandemic happened and threw the economy and life in general into chaos. Steve weathered the pandemic, kept his job when millions of people were losing theirs, and sheltered in place in that crummy little house, with Netflix, HBO, and a dozen other streaming services keeping him company, and drove to and from work in the Sunfire because it was four wheels and a seat and that's all he needed for now.Steve's life was secure, but a kind of dullness had set in. He existed, but the fire went out; even when the pandemic ended and life returned to normal Steve's life went on as it had for years; an endless Groundhog Day of work, home, work, home. He never got his real-estate license or finished college and got his bachelor's, never got a better job, never used his passport to do some traveling in Europe. He lost interest in cars. "To think how much money I wasted on hot cars when I was younger", he said to himself. He never married and lost interest in dating. "No woman would want me anyway. I've gotten so dull and uninteresting that I even bore myself".Eventually the Sunfire began to give trouble. With 200,000 miles on the clock it was leaking oil, developing electrical gremlins, and wallow around on blown-out shocks. Steve wasn't hurting for money and thought about treating himself to a new car. "A BMW 3-series, maybe. Or maybe an Alfa Romeo Giulia!" He began to peruse the listings on Autotrader. "Maybe this is just what I need to pull out of this funk. Put a little fun back in my life. Yeah, and maybe go back to the gym, and who knows, start dating again and do some traveling while I'm still young enough to enjoy it!"Then his father passed away and left him a low-mileage Ford. Steve didn't like it or hate it, but it was four wheels and a seat, and that's all he needed right now."Is it too late to have a mid-life crisis?" Steve thought to himself. For what he needed more than that stable job, that house with an enviably small mortgage payment, and that reliable car was a good kick in the hindquarters. "What the hell am I afraid of? I should be afraid that things will never change!"But the depression was like a drug, a numbness that they call "dysthymia"; where you're neither here or there, alive or dead, happy or sad. It was a persistent overcast, a low ceiling that kept him grounded. The Sunfire sat in his driveway getting buried by the needles from his neighbor's overhanging pine trees which were planted right on the property line. "Those f---ing pine trees! That's another thing I hate about this damn house!" Eventually the Sunfire wouldn't start. "I don't blame you", he said to the car as he trudged past it to drive the Ford to another Groundhog Day at that miserable job.
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