Subaru Crosstrek?
 

Hiya, my sister is moving from Seattle to Austin, TX and needs a car for her and her beagle. I am a Subaru fan (bias) and always liked the Crosstrek. She wants something like a small SUV and this seems to fit the bill.

Does anyone have any experience with them? I found some 2018s around here with ~20k miles for $24k. That seems pretty good for a premium model.

Is her Beagle unusually large?

I bought a 2019 Crosstrek for dog duties and have 0 regrets. Highly recommend it. Pick out a car seat cover for dogs off Amazon and you’re good to go.

I had a 2019 for about 18 months while I focused on my move back to AZ and getting settled into my new career field.

Was perfectly content with it. The CVT wasn’t the best, but livable. A bit more grunt would’ve been nice too, and luckily the new ones have it. But for practicality, it was great. Put as much fuel in it as I did my 2016 STI I owned prior but instead of 91 octane, I used 87; and instead of 300mi on a tank, I could pretty easily get between 420-450.

Also was able to haul quite a bit on the back when needed. I’d consider another one down the road maybe.

My wife's car is a 2019 Crosstrek. She absolutely LOVES it. It's her favorite car she's ever had in her life. Her sister was so impressed with it that she also bought one, a matching 2019.

It's not a 'fast' or 'performance' car by any stretch of the imagination. But it doesn't need to be. That's not its mission. It's very comfortable (we've taken it on 1500 mile (pre-pandemic) trips). The ergonomics are excellent. It's practical, big enough to haul people and things (unless you need to carry 7 people or barnyard animals), is quiet, refined, and gets excellent mileage (36-ish mpg highway). It's fast enough for real-world driving by sane people. It's not meant to be a track car or drag racer. I drive it regularly, and have never felt any lack of power in passing or on the highway (again, normal real-world driving, not trying to set Nurburgring lap records). The EyeSight safety package is nice, and a major reason I'm glad she liked it (check out the comparative reviews of safety systems on line). Yet, it has some style, character, and personality that many other similar crossovers don't (but then, most Subaru's have character, which is why we like them).

In short, it's a perfect daily driver for someone who wants something a little fun, a little different from the rest, that's comfortable and practical. We've had zero issues with it. You can even get it with a stick, which is what her sister bought.

I insisted on comprehensively shopping with my wife when we were looking for her car a couple of years ago. We looked at all the usual small-ish crossovers, RAV4, Mazda CX3 and CX5, Honda CRV, HRV, and Passport, Nissan Kicks and Rouge. She would have been OK with any of them, but as soon as she sat in the Crosstrek, within a minute she was all excited and exclaiming 'This is the one!'.

As with any car, your sister should go for test drives, preferably more than once. Things will probably rule themselves in and out pretty quickly.

Thank you so much for all the input. I think a Crosstrek is going to be the route. We just need to find one to test drive now

You might investigate the Crosstrek Sport. I think it's the only model with the 2.5 liter FB25 instead of the 2-liter.

You can't beat a few more horsepower.

Echo’ing the comments on how great the Eyesight system is and the recommendation for the 2021 sport or limited to get the 2.5. Better mpg, more power, etc. I got such a good deal on my 2019 limited though it’s hard to want to take the new vehicle price hit.

Crosstrek is a raised 5-door/hatch Impreza with slightly less cargo capacity and poorer fuel economy. Unless she needs to go off-toad then just get the Impreza. Best thing about the Crosstrek is the 5/6 speed manual transmission option.

One of my sisters out west got a 2019 Crosstrek and
is quite happy with it as well, but finding that her
oils loss is a bit more than she is use to. She was
coming from her old Impreza ownership and ancient Honda’s.

She had to chase down one with a manual option as her
local Subaru dealer told her flat out he does not /will
not carry manuals as no one buys them! Finally had to
get one at the next closest dealer 500Km away, and her
friend bought a manual as well at the same dealership after
triing out her car.

I'm going to go against what the others have said. I know changes have been made over the years but I really disliked my first year Limited model. The drivers seat sucked, maybe it just didn't fit me but my back would get achy after an hour or so. It was a slug and the tranny was annoying on a good day. The handling was acceptable until you needed to turn. The fuel economy was decent but it was a struggle to get 30mpg and it burned a quart of oil every 1500 to 2k miles. I traded it for the BRZ because it thoroughly bored me and because the drivers side rear hub bearing was shot at 63k and I couldn't replace it in the driveway in the winter. I traded it in and the next owner had it seize and trash the axle and damage the rear diff two weeks later.

It might not be as bad with the bigger motor and my brother thinks the suspension tweaks made a huge difference between his 15 and the 20 he has now so maybe... Just be sure the drivers seat is sufficient and fits her well, take the car for a long test drive to find out.