There’s now a third way to get your Subaru Wilderness on, and it’s the least expensive entry yet. The 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness is the latest model to receive Subaru’s off-road intensive treatment, following the Outback Wilderness and Forester Wilderness. This little brother in the lineup gets much of the same gear and an alluring price. The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness starts at $31,995 and represents the top of the lineup for the Subaru Crosstrek, which just entered its third generation for the 2024 model year.
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That money buys the more powerful — and recommended — engine, plus adventure-ready hardware like an upgraded suspension, specialized bumpers with integrated tow hooks, and all-terrain tires. And like other Wilderness models, this wilder Crosstrek has increased ground clearance — 9.3 inches, vs. the already impressive 8.7 inches on every other Crosstrek. Notably, upgrades to the transmission also increase towing capacity from the standard and relatively paltry 1,500 pounds to 3,500. That’s enough to pull a small boat or camper.
The Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness looks excellent. We wouldn’t argue if you stated it’s even better looking than the Outback Wilderness. The proportions work even better on the Crosstrek, which has that lifted, wagon-esque design.
Interior materials
In addition to the extra off-road hardware and exterior bits that announce to the world that your idea of fun involves sweat and dirt, this Crosstrek gets a Wilderness-specific interior treatment. Upholstery is Subaru’s
FUJHY,
StarTex vegan leather, with unique details like copper color accents sprinkled about the cabin and front headrests embossed with the Wilderness logo. The aesthetic choices have practical purposes, too. Subaru reps tell us they specially chose a black headliner because anyone who’s ever loaded a bike or other such gear into a car knows how easy it is to mark up the ceiling. Been there, done that.
Speaking of roofs, this one is rated to support a 700-pound static load (and 176-pound dynamic). So go ahead, mount that tent.
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But can it actually wilderness?
Now you might be wondering, can the Crosstrek Wilderness take you into, well, the wilderness?
The 2-word review goes like this: Oh yeah!
If you’d like more details, thanks for staying. We’ve got ’em. We had the opportunity to take the Crosstrek Wilderness into territory as scenic as it was challenging. And we did far more intense off-roading in it than most will likely see, even in the hands of an ardent adventurer.
Our day behind the wheel was spent in and around Zion National Park, a glorious natural playground with scenery that stuns with every curve of the road, especially when those roads aren’t paved.
Most times, when an automotive company launches a vehicle with off-road aspirations to the media, the majority of the drive takes place on ordinary asphalt. Not this one.
We spent hour upon hour on dirt roads and trails, primarily on Bureau of Land Management land.
At the midpoint in our journey came the most intense off-roading, at a course Subaru set up at an off-road park. We’ve driven on dozens of such courses, but this was legitimately impressive for this vehicle. We went up and down so-steep-you-only-see sky hills, through deep ruts and mud, and over moguls. In other words, territory that the average Crosstrek Wilderness buyer might avoid. Newsflash: You don’t have to. We ran the course three times, and the amped-up ‘Trek didn’t blink.
With X-Mode engaged and the vehicle set to a specific dirt drive mode, the Crosstrek Wilderness scrambled around like a mountain goat.
For a vehicle not built for hardcore, conquer-all-territory off-roading, the little Crosstrek Wilderness is legitimately impressive. Even more so is that we drove back to our campsite right after the off-road course without so much as a hose off.
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It will commute, too
The Crosstrek Wilderness is a quiet and comfortable crossover on paved and unpaved roads. You don’t pay the price with noise or ride harshness even with the all-terrain tires, and the seats proved as supportive and comfortable at the end of the day as they did at the beginning.
Whichever roads we roamed, the Crosstrek Wilderness’ 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine felt capable with its 182 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque. You won’t be burning down roads with those numbers, but neither will you dread short freeway on-ramps. Another positive with this upgraded engine over the standard 2.0-liter in base Crosstrek models is that the 2.5-liter seems to play better with the CVT transmission, feeling more refined and like a traditional automatic.
Two small gripes
Our positive impressions far outweighed our nits, but we do have a couple of notes that we shared with Subaru reps on how to make the Crosstrek Wilderness even better. The first would be to at least offer the option for onboard navigation. Yes, we know most people use maps linked from their phone, as we did on our journey — until we didn’t. No cell service, no maps. For a vehicle meant to go places where cell service might be limited, as we did, this could be an issue. The Crosstrek Limited does include built-in navigation, but Subaru reps told us that, in the end, product planners prioritized other aspects. Nothing is getting cheaper, including the hardware, software, and licensing needed for onboard nav systems.
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The second wish would be a front-facing camera. This would have come in handy several times on our adventure and could just as easily help a commuter park in a narrow garage as it would an adventurer winding through a tricky trail.
Otherwise, our first blush with this vehicle was an utterly enjoyable one. The Crosstrek Wilderness is a dual-nature vehicle that can act as a weekday runabout and weekend warrior.
This story originally ran on KBB.com.
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