Subaru XV/Crosstrek review 2021: For when an Outback is too big, but a hatch is too small!

CarExpert

SUVs based on hatchbacks are all the craze at the moment. But Subaru has a formula they have stuck to for some time - when creating an SUV version of something, make it usable. Unlike most other high-riding hatchbacks, the 2021 Subaru XV has more ground clearance and the ability to actually do some light off-roading. Is it any good? Paul Maric tests it out to see.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2021-subaru-xv-2-0i-premium-review  More Subaru content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru More Subaru XV content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru/xv  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:57 Interior: 03:41 Infotainment: 05:06 Safety Tech: 06:28 Practicality: 07:51 On-road: 11:30 Off-road: 14:58 Verdict: 17:26  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #subaru #xv #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.

00:00 So we know that Subaru loves taking standard cars

00:03 and then jacking them up a little bit.

00:04 We've seen it with the Outback and we're a fan of the Outback.

00:07 I think it's a really nice all-rounder.

00:09 Well, they've also got this, it's called the Subaru XV.

00:11 This is based on the Impreza,

00:13 but it sits a little bit higher in standard Subaru form.

00:17 This one right here in Australia is called the 2.0 IS.

00:20 This is the top specification

00:22 before you get into the hybrids.

00:23 This is priced at just over $37,000.

00:26 If that's a little bit too much,

00:27 you can get into an XV at the base from a little under $30,000.

00:31 This competes with things like the Hyundai Kona,

00:33 the Toyota C-HR, and the Mazda CX-3.

00:37 Today, we're going to do a detailed review

00:39 to see if it's any good.

00:40 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,

00:42 you can use those time codes up on the screen there.

00:44 Or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down

00:45 and you'll see the chapters below.

00:47 And if you haven't done so already,

00:48 make sure you hit subscribe and press the bell icon.

00:51 That way you can find out every single time

00:53 we drive a yellow or whatever colored car that is.

00:57 Okay, let's talk design.

00:58 So you've got nine exterior colors to pick from

01:00 and they're all free, which is great.

01:02 Let me know, do you guys find that information useful,

01:04 how many colors there are?

01:05 We'll use your feedback to decide

01:07 whether we include it in future videos or not.

01:09 Now, in terms of the design of this,

01:11 I have a bit of a soft spot for these

01:13 because they buck the trend of SUVs.

01:15 And it means that you can have something

01:17 the size of a hatchback to drive in and around the city,

01:19 but also something that's versatile enough to use off-road

01:22 because this is permanent all-wheel drive as well.

01:24 And yes, it's not going to climb Mount Everest,

01:26 but you can do a bit of light off-roading

01:27 if you go camping and stuff like that.

01:28 Now let's have a look at some of the design highlights.

01:31 So this is obviously quite an outrageous color.

01:34 Let me know what color you think it is

01:36 because here in person, it looks yellow,

01:39 but it's also got like a deep green tinge to it as well.

01:41 So let me know what you think.

01:43 Now, in terms of the design,

01:44 you've got this grill down the front here

01:46 that has a matte finish on it.

01:48 They haven't gone to town with chrome here.

01:50 And I think that's a good thing

01:51 because it really gives this kind of that rugged look

01:54 as opposed to being that luxury look.

01:57 But on the same token,

01:58 it still looks nice and classy as well.

01:59 Same trend continues down the bottom here

02:02 where they've got that brushed plastic feature.

02:04 Over here with the headlights,

02:05 you have full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.

02:09 You've got headlight washers.

02:10 These are becoming a little rarer on cars these days.

02:12 And then a fog light down the bottom there.

02:14 If we whip around to the side here,

02:16 you've got 18-inch alloy wheels on a highway terrain tire.

02:20 I really like this design.

02:22 So have a look at how they've integrated

02:24 what looks like an R into the top there,

02:26 and that's got that chrome finish on it.

02:28 And then it's black on the inside.

02:30 So it really makes the car stand out nicely.

02:32 Similar to the Outback,

02:33 they've got these wheel arch cladding things

02:36 that basically aren't uniform.

02:38 So they start small there,

02:40 and then they get wider as they go

02:42 and then sort of chisel in around the back.

02:44 A lot of you said that you weren't really a big fan

02:46 of those on the Outback.

02:47 Do you also dislike the treatment here?

02:50 I'm keen to see what you think.

02:52 Now, if we move around to the side of the car,

02:54 you can see that black highlight continues

02:56 under that wing mirror there,

02:57 and that cladding continues down the side of the car.

03:00 On the Outback, you actually have Outback written here,

03:03 but on the XV, they don't really have anything on there.

03:05 You've got these roof rails

03:06 that sit nicely on top of the car,

03:08 and this top spec also comes with a sunroof,

03:11 privacy glass, more wheel arch cladding.

03:14 Now, if you come around to the rear,

03:15 you'll see a spoiler up on the top there.

03:18 You've got these nice-looking taillights, XV badges,

03:21 more of that black cladding with a reflector lamp in there,

03:25 and then instead of going with a black diffuser,

03:27 they've kind of integrated a diffuser-style material here

03:30 that matches the car's body colour.

03:33 So I like the XV.

03:35 Let me know what you think.

03:36 Do you think it's over-styled?

03:37 Would you rather just get an SUV?

03:39 I wanna know what your thoughts are.

03:41 Okay, we're inside the Subaru XV, and here is the key.

03:45 You have lock, unlock, boot.

03:48 The unlock is the Subaru badge there.

03:50 Nothing on the back, and then you have

03:52 like a brushed aluminium section on the side.

03:54 It's a proximity sensing key, so leave that in your pocket,

03:57 and you have a push-button start over on this side.

04:00 Now, what about the styling?

04:01 I think it's nicely presented.

04:02 All of this stuff is rubber.

04:04 It's got these sort of stitched inlays.

04:07 It actually looks pretty nice.

04:08 So this is at the higher end of the price tag

04:11 for hatchbacks or SUV-style hatchbacks,

04:14 so I think it does actually need to look pretty cool,

04:17 and I think they've ticked that box.

04:19 This all looks a little bit complicated

04:21 with all the screens here,

04:22 but I suspect they'll end up going down the path

04:24 of what they've done in the new Outback

04:26 where you get that big sort of portrait screen.

04:30 Not loving all the piano black.

04:31 It's here, here, along here, around there,

04:34 and as you know, piano black marks pretty easily

04:37 and is a little bit difficult to keep clean at times.

04:39 Now, what about all the touch points?

04:40 So on the center here, that is super soft,

04:43 and then you have soft on the doors there too.

04:46 How soft is it?

04:47 Well, we've got our durometer.

04:48 We've tested the main surfaces in this car.

04:50 If you wanna see how this compares to other cars

04:52 that we've tested before, use the link in the description.

04:55 And what about build quality?

04:57 Yeah, look, that all feels pretty nice and solid.

05:00 I might as well call out while I'm here

05:02 the faux carbon fiber along the doors there.

05:05 Very sporty looking.

05:07 Let's talk infotainment.

05:08 So this is an eight-inch color infotainment system.

05:12 We have a detailed review of this.

05:13 If you wanna click up here, you can watch that,

05:15 but today I'll take you through a brief overview.

05:18 Let's start with the basics.

05:19 That's your home screen there.

05:20 You have some shortcut buttons directly beneath it,

05:22 and then you can customize these menus

05:24 in terms of what appears

05:25 and which shortcuts you have on display.

05:28 On the radio front, you have AM, FM, DAB,

05:32 plus digital radio, so full coverage there.

05:34 And in terms of smartphone mirroring,

05:35 you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

05:38 This is what Apple CarPlay looks like.

05:40 Full screen integration, nice and high resolution,

05:43 and fairly quick as well.

05:45 Let's have a look at what Android Auto looks like.

05:48 There it is there, it looks nice and sharp.

05:51 Yep, all very straightforward.

05:53 In terms of other features you've got,

05:55 you also have inbuilt satellite navigation

05:57 and voice recognition.

05:59 Keep in mind as well that the voice recognition

06:00 will forward commands through to your phone as well

06:02 for smarter interpretation.

06:05 Now, in addition to the infotainment screen,

06:06 you've got another screen at the top there

06:08 that contains things like the safety systems.

06:10 You've got Trip Computer,

06:11 what the all-wheel drive system's doing.

06:14 It's an interesting way of doing things.

06:16 So normally you would just integrate all of that

06:18 ahead of the driver on the infotainment screen,

06:19 but they've moved it up there.

06:20 It seems to work fairly well,

06:21 and it gives you all of the information you need

06:23 whenever you need it.

06:24 That's also where you're going to find

06:26 some of the extra cameras

06:27 that I'll run you through shortly.

06:28 Okay, moving on to safety technology.

06:30 So you have low and high speed autonomous emergency braking

06:33 with pedestrian detection.

06:34 You have a blind spot assistant built into the wing mirror,

06:38 radar cruise control, a lane keeping assistant,

06:41 rear cross traffic alert,

06:42 and then you also have a litany of cameras.

06:44 Instead of a 360 degree camera,

06:46 this does it in a slightly interesting way.

06:49 Let me show you.

06:49 So if I push the view button on the steering wheel,

06:52 I get to cycle between cameras on the top screen.

06:56 And that's pretty handy 'cause it means

06:57 that I'll be able to figure out where I'm going

07:00 without having to be in reverse.

07:01 And then when you do select reverse,

07:03 you get the side view,

07:05 which helps you with not curving your wheels.

07:07 And then down here on the main camera,

07:09 you get this full reverse screen.

07:10 Now this is a really high quality camera.

07:12 As you can see there, it's quite high definition.

07:14 You only get rear parking sensors though.

07:16 There's no front parking sensors,

07:18 which is a bit disappointing,

07:19 but you do get those guidelines there.

07:20 So it is a pretty comprehensive package.

07:22 And I think this is a better implementation

07:25 than a 360 camera, which generally isn't very high quality.

07:28 This is far more usable.

07:30 And I think that drivers are going to prefer

07:31 this kind of setup.

07:32 Okay, so I'm gonna interrupt the video just for one second.

07:37 Subaru owners that are watching this,

07:38 tell me in the comment section below,

07:41 what is Subaru ownership like?

07:42 Is it good?

07:43 Are you happy with them?

07:44 Are they doing everything you want them to do?

07:46 What could they do better?

07:47 I'm keen to hear from Subaru owners.

07:49 I wanna know what the fuss is about the brand.

07:51 Moving on to comfort.

07:53 So I forgot to mention earlier that Apple CarPlay

07:55 and Android Auto are both wired,

07:56 so not a wireless setup.

07:58 Terms of connectivity though,

07:59 you have two 2.1 amp USB ports up the front here

08:03 with an auxiliary input.

08:05 You also have a 12 volt outlet.

08:06 And then if you dive into the center console,

08:08 you have another two 2.1 amp USB ports

08:11 and another 12 volt outlet.

08:12 So you are fully covered here

08:13 in terms of your power requirements.

08:15 Ready to store your things.

08:17 So your phone can easily fit in the cup holders

08:21 and then it fits down the front there as well.

08:22 There's like a gripped tab to hold it in.

08:25 Coffee cups.

08:26 You gotta be careful.

08:29 Even though you've got teeth,

08:30 they sort of sit quite high

08:32 and it means you might take the lid off as you go,

08:34 grabbing that and spill coffee everywhere.

08:37 Bottle storage.

08:38 Bottle easily fits in there

08:40 and then the little retractable lips

08:42 stop it from coming out.

08:44 Then inside the door,

08:45 you also have storage for a bottle

08:46 and other odds and ends as well.

08:48 The center console itself is massive.

08:50 It's really nice and deep.

08:51 And you also have plenty of room in there

08:53 to put your bits and pieces,

08:55 although that won't quite close,

08:56 but it is quite a big compartment.

08:58 And then down here you have the glove box,

09:01 which is fairly decent sized.

09:03 Let's talk comfort.

09:04 So you have dual zone automatic climate control.

09:07 You have heated seats for the first row.

09:09 You have electric seat adjustment

09:11 for the driver with memory as well.

09:14 In terms of the seats themselves,

09:16 I reckon they're really cool.

09:16 So the design I love,

09:18 you've got those perforated sections in the center.

09:20 That stops you kind of sticking to the seat on hot days.

09:22 You also get that contrast stitching.

09:24 The seats themselves hug you in nicely

09:26 and they're really comfy when you sit in them.

09:29 Steering wheel as well,

09:29 you get that orange highlight in there with the paddle shifters.

09:33 It's quite a sporty looking steering wheel.

09:35 All of these controls are easy to reach from the drive seat.

09:37 And you have a big old sunroof here

09:39 on the top spec as well.

09:41 We're in the backseat of the XV.

09:43 Let's talk about space.

09:44 So I've got a pretty decent amount of knee room,

09:47 heaps of toe room and headroom is okay.

09:50 It's a little compromised off to the side there,

09:52 but keep in mind, this seat's quite far back.

09:54 So I'm surprised at how much leg room I actually have here

09:57 compared to some of the small SUVs on the market.

09:59 In terms of creature comforts, let's have a look.

10:01 So you've got a center armrest there

10:03 with two cup holders.

10:04 Pop your bottle in there.

10:06 You've also got bottle storage in the doors as well.

10:09 There's no center air vents or USB charging here,

10:12 which is a little bit disappointing.

10:14 You do get mat pockets or mat pocket rather just here.

10:17 I was expecting to see one there.

10:18 Now, the interesting thing here is,

10:20 yes, you have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats,

10:22 but you have to construct this seatbelt yourself basically

10:27 for the center passenger.

10:29 So I don't love that system.

10:31 I just wish they had like a normal seatbelt setup.

10:33 And it is also worth pointing out,

10:34 you get that same seat design.

10:36 So you get those perforations

10:37 and also the highlight stitching just here.

10:40 One of the downsides to this not being an SUV

10:42 is that you don't get a great deal of cargo space,

10:45 no power tailgate either.

10:46 Just here, you've got a little over 300 liters

10:49 of cargo space.

10:50 And visually you can tell that there isn't

10:52 a huge amount of room there.

10:53 So I'll show you what it looks like

10:54 with the bags in a sec.

10:55 Now you've got a little light on the side there.

10:57 You've got some hooks.

10:58 And then beneath the cargo floor,

11:00 you have a space saver spare tire.

11:03 Let's drop our bags in.

11:06 See what that looks like.

11:08 There's one.

11:09 So that doesn't fit long ways,

11:12 but sideways it fits in.

11:14 And then if you do need a little bit more room,

11:16 you can ditch that.

11:17 Look at that, I've made that completely dirty.

11:19 My wife would be unimpressed.

11:23 You can drop this then.

11:25 And that expands the space to just over 750 liters.

11:31 So what is the Subaru XV like to drive?

11:35 We'll start off with what is powering this.

11:38 And it is a two liter naturally aspirated petrol engine.

11:42 It makes 115 kilowatts of power and 196 newton meters

11:47 of torque.

11:48 Now, if that doesn't sound like much,

11:49 that's because it isn't much.

11:51 So the reason I laugh a little bit there is because

11:53 one of the biggest issues we've had

11:54 with this car previously is that it was always

11:56 just a little bit gutless.

11:58 And that's kind of what's happening here.

12:00 It's all made it to a continuously variable transmission,

12:03 which means it has no defined gears.

12:05 Yes, you can put it into a manual mode

12:07 where it has a set number of gear ratios,

12:09 but for the most part, if you nail it,

12:10 it will just make a whole bunch of noise

12:12 and sit within its peak torque band.

12:14 If I do that now.

12:15 Yeah, I think it's safe to say that the speed is leisurely

12:21 rather than fast.

12:23 So you're not really going to notice that

12:24 when you're in the car on your own,

12:25 but if you do have friends in the car

12:26 and you've got it loaded up with gear,

12:28 it's probably going to become a little bit more evident.

12:30 Subaru claims a combined fuel economy

12:33 of seven litres per 100 Ks.

12:35 Let's see what we're sitting at.

12:37 7.3, hey, that's not too bad.

12:39 So that's pretty much bang on the official claim.

12:43 Yes, it is a smaller engine,

12:44 which means it's not going to have as much punch,

12:46 but the upshot is that you're not going to use

12:48 a great deal of fuel while you're driving around.

12:50 You've only got two drive modes to pick from

12:52 and you select them here on the steering wheel.

12:53 You have your standard mode and then one push of that button

12:56 puts it into SI drive.

12:57 So you can see the revs climb immediately.

12:59 Then when I get on the throttle,

13:00 it's more eager to jump up and give me more revs.

13:03 So that is an easy transition between those modes.

13:06 Subaru claims a zero to 100 time of 10.4 seconds.

13:11 We put it up against our stopwatch and this is how it went.

13:14 (car engine roaring)

13:17 Let's move on to ride.

13:29 Now, this is one of the things

13:30 that I praise the Subaru Outback for.

13:33 Now, if you want to watch our Subaru Outback review,

13:35 click up here to watch that one.

13:38 I praise the Outback for its ride

13:39 because it was just really well-tuned,

13:42 really nice and compliant and just handled country roads well.

13:45 It's a similar story here in the XV.

13:47 It just feels nice and compliant.

13:50 It's not too firm, it's not too soft.

13:52 It's right there in the middle

13:53 and it means that when you are psyching up

13:54 some country miles like this,

13:56 everything feels nice and comfortable.

13:58 There is though quite a bit of tire noise

14:00 and you'll notice it more

14:01 when you're on the course chip sections of road.

14:03 It just comes into the cabin

14:04 and it can be a little bit unpleasant,

14:06 but if you turn the stereo up,

14:08 it drowns a little bit of that out.

14:09 Let's talk handling.

14:10 So, it sits a little bit higher,

14:12 but it doesn't really affect its handling.

14:14 It tucks in nicely through corners.

14:16 And the big advantage of this car

14:17 over some other cars in this segment

14:19 is that it's permanent all-wheel drive,

14:20 which means you get that little bit of extra traction

14:22 compared to an on-demand or a front-wheel drive car.

14:26 Turning circle comes in at 10.8 metres.

14:29 That's actually pretty decent for a permanent all-wheel drive.

14:33 And it means that with a bit of luck,

14:34 you won't have to be doing any three-point turns

14:38 anytime soon.

14:39 On the visibility front,

14:40 I can see clearly down the front there,

14:42 I have the blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror.

14:45 Visibility out the rear is excellent.

14:46 It's a really big envelope there,

14:47 so there's clear vision out the rear.

14:50 And for the most part,

14:51 this is easy to park thanks to that camera setup

14:53 that pops up on the screen there.

14:54 That's gonna come in really handy

14:56 if you're not entirely confident with parking.

14:58 Okay, so I thought, given it's an XV,

15:00 we should do a little bit of light off-roading in it.

15:03 But I'm not gonna send it down the rocks

15:05 because every four-wheel drive we take down there,

15:08 it hits beneath it.

15:10 And I think that it might just rip

15:12 the whole sump out of this

15:13 and we'll end up with a Subaru XV that doesn't really work.

15:16 But I've got this little course here.

15:17 So it's got a seesaw that'll send us up 25 degrees.

15:20 And then it has an offset mogul,

15:21 which will test how the all-wheel drive system works

15:23 and test whether traction control can manage itself.

15:26 Now, in terms of the actual stats,

15:28 you have ground clearance of 220 millimetres.

15:30 You have an approach angle of 18 degrees,

15:32 which is the angle of the face you can approach

15:34 before you hit anything.

15:35 That's actually quite little

15:37 compared to something like a dual cab ute,

15:39 which is also part of the reason

15:41 you don't wanna be doing anything too crazy in this,

15:43 'cause you will hit all of the plastic on the front there.

15:45 But the departure angle of 27 degrees

15:47 is actually pretty reasonable.

15:48 If you want a better idea of what all those things mean

15:51 and how four-wheel drive controls work,

15:53 click up here to watch a video we recorded previously

15:56 that explains it all to you.

15:57 And given this is a permanent all-wheel drive,

15:59 it should actually handle this fairly easily.

16:02 You do have X modes as well.

16:04 So these are drive modes for off-road driving.

16:06 So I've popped that onto snow and dirt.

16:09 We've got all of our things set up there.

16:11 I can actually feel the hill descent control

16:14 has automatically activated.

16:16 Let's see how we go here.

16:18 Nice little bit of tilt there.

16:20 I'm liking that.

16:22 It's actually, it's funny 'cause it feels like

16:25 I'm gonna fall out of the car here.

16:28 Okay, here's our crossover.

16:29 Old car's seesawing there as we roll forward

16:34 and then go up the other side.

16:36 Now at the other end of this,

16:37 when we get to the offset mogul,

16:39 we're going to have two tires effectively in the air

16:43 and it's going to try and use the traction control

16:46 to give itself enough movement to get out of there.

16:49 So right now we have a tire completely off the ground.

16:52 I'm just gonna lay into the throttle gently.

16:54 That is so cool.

16:58 That's actually getting out of there without any dramas.

17:01 Fantastic.

17:02 That is a sign of a really good all-wheel drive system.

17:04 I can see how it's responding to it all up the top there.

17:08 Even dual cab utes,

17:10 when they don't have the rear diff lock running,

17:12 they struggle to get out of situations like this.

17:15 So really impressive there that the XV can do,

17:18 light off-roading,

17:18 but stuff that could see some dual cab utes stuck

17:21 if they don't have the four-wheel drive modes

17:23 and diff locks activated.

17:24 So really impressive for a standard vehicle.

17:27 So you're probably gonna think I'm weird

17:31 for liking the Subaru XV as much as I do,

17:34 but I don't know,

17:35 I'm just really impressed

17:36 that you can drive it in and around the city.

17:37 And then if you do a little bit of off-roading,

17:39 it can do that as well.

17:40 The off-road system and the, sorry,

17:42 the all-wheel drive system rather is really capable.

17:45 It has 220 mil of ground clearance,

17:47 which means it has about as much ground clearance

17:49 as most dual cab utes do as well.

17:51 So you're gonna be able to clear

17:52 most of the things that they do.

17:53 And because it's permanent all-wheel drive,

17:54 you've got that reassurance

17:56 that it's not really gonna get stuck in anything

17:58 that I guess isn't too serious.

18:00 And you can do a lot of mods to these as well

18:02 to bring them up a little higher,

18:03 fit them with all-terrain tyres

18:04 if you do wanna do something a little more in depth.

18:06 But it is let down by one critical feature,

18:10 and that is the engine.

18:11 The two litre just, I don't know,

18:12 it's okay if you're on your own,

18:14 but the second you load it up

18:15 and put your things on the roof

18:17 and whatever you wanna do,

18:17 it starts getting a little bit sluggish.

18:19 So I would love to see this available

18:20 with the two and a half litre out of the outback

18:22 or even a turbocharged engine.

18:24 I think that would make this such a compelling package.

18:27 Don't bother with the hybrid.

18:28 It is pretty much as bad as the Forester hybrid,

18:30 which we're really not a fan of.

18:31 But if you can get away with the engine

18:33 and you're not too fussed by that,

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18:37 of the comments section below.

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