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Despite the spartan interior and minimalist design there seems to be a lot to like about the way the Crosstrek drives. However, it isn’t all coming up smelling like roses because this Hybrid version seems a little contrived.
Parking and piloting the Crosstrek around tight confines is one of its strong points; the large greenhouse and good turning radius make maneuvering easy and the back-up camera does help. The large side mirrors also offer a good view for heavy traffic situations — I like me a large side mirror.
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Out on the highway the Crosstrek Hybrid is surprisingly quiet with very little road noise or wind noise that intrudes into the cabin. The ride is soft and compliant as well so if you are looking to be isolated from the ruts and bumps of our Canadian roads this may be a good choice.
That soft ride though does have some consequences – I noticed immediately when I picked up the vehicle that the soft ride means that it wallows about a little and can feel like it is going to wobble off the road on larger undulations. It doesn’t feel unstable and you do get used to it, but I prefer a taut suspension more than a marshmallowy one.
The Hybrid powertrain is the really confusing part about this vehicle. The Hybrid system rarely if ever runs in EV mode, unless you are stopped or nearly stopped with your foot on the brake. Release the brake and the engine starts rights back up again and when it does it is rough and very intrusive. At one point I was sitting at a light and the engine shut down and restarted a few times and it felt like someone kept bumping into the back of me as the car swayed back and forth on each stop and start.
So far I am less than impressed by the Hybrid system that seems to be getting no better fuel economy than the standard Crosstrek while offering a very rough idle and annoying start/stop refinement.
