Anyone own a 2013/2014 Subaru Crosstrek or Chevrolet Trax?
 

Sooooo I've come to the sad realisation that I can no longer afford to pay $300-$400 a month just in gas for my beloved pickup truck on my pathetic wage and attempt to save for well... anything else :(
And it would be cheaper for me to purchase a brand new, or almost brand new compact SUV and finance it, and be safe with a warranty, then continue to burn my money on gas for my truck.

I think I've got it narrowed down between the Chevrolet Trax and the Subaru Crosstrek... I THINK! I had been looking at the Subaru Forrester, and Mitsubishi outlander, Hyundai santa fe sized vehicles but I want even better fuel economy then those slightly bigger ones
Does anyone have one of these vehicles?
What do you like about it? What do you hate?
How has is handled in snow?
What is your gas mileage? (as L/100k, I know what people personally get is always different then what the factory brags about)

Thanks for any input!

I don't own a Crosstrek but I have owned a Forester and the wife had an Impreza. Having driven numerous other 4WD and AWD vehicles the snow handling is much better with the Subarus. I couldn't even do doughnuts in frozen parking lots with the kids without having to take a run and jam on the e-brake. Gas mileage was OK but nothing stellar on either vehicle, granted the Forester was a turbo and my driving wasn't really what I would call gas mileage friendly. Good solid vehicles that will last you many years.

That's my concern with the subarus... Most of the customer reviews online are saying ****ty on fuel economy.
But Subaru and GM always say their own version of what you will get, which is never seems to be on par with reality.
The Crosstrek is a 2.0L 4 cyl and the website claims 8.2 city, 6.0 highway.
The Trax is a 1.4L 4cyl and the website claims 7.8 city, 5.7 highway.

I Haven't test driven the crosstrek yet, but I did try out the 2013 forrester, and the on demand fuel consumption was less then flattering driving around Nanaimo.
The trax wasn't as spectacular as it claims the vehicle will get, getting closer to 12 on my shorter drive on our highway (120km/hr) but had it down to 5 on 1 stretch after a few resets.
Its seriously frustrating... mind you anything better then my truck getting 17.5 between the city and our 120km/hr highway, 21+ in greater vancouver, but I can get it down to 13.3ish or so on highways that average 80km/hr.

One of our vehicles is a non-turbo forester (2011) and we absolutely love it. Perfect size for two of us plus dogs. Gas mileage tends to be around that 9 or 10 l/100km on the highway for us, so not great but significantly better than our half-ton was. I'd suggest that the Crosstrek wouldn't be that much better than the Forester in terms of fuel economy.

I'd agree that the Subaru's are next to impossible to get stuck in the snow, we got some Nokian winters for it and it just goes and goes through anything.

That said, there are a few things we're not wild about that were overlooked when we purchased. Things like interior "luxuries", the Subaru's are pretty basic compared to what you get from competing brands. Coming from Chevy and Ford trucks and cars, little things like the lack of auto headlamps irritate me, and the radio and speakers are junk. The other big complaint I have is the service costs. Factory spec is synthetic oil so regular maintenance just seems to be much more expensive than domestic brands.

All told though, we'd likely buy the Subaru again as the extra cost for service is outmatched by the performance of the vehicle and my wife doesn't seem to care that much about the interior amenities and it's her ride. Plus, you see tons of Subarus out there with obscene amounts of kilometers on them so that says a lot for their reliability. With the sheer number of recalls these days; I wouldn't be in a hurry to be a chevy right now.

If your only reason for ruling the Forester out is the fuel economy, I'd suggest that you wouldn't notice a huge difference between it and the Crosstrack in the real world. Coming from a truck; the extra height and space of the Forester might feel more at home to you.

That's what I was thinking, which is why I ruled the crosstrek out and played around with the forester. However I did have a 2013 forester and crosstrek side by side and the size difference isn't all that much, the biggest difference seemed to be a slightly more rounded ceiling to the cargo area as the crosstrek has a much more curved back end then the forester. But then I played with the trax for a bit that that didn't bug me which now has me going back to the crosstrek.

But yes fuel economy is my biggest concern right now, I think I cried a little inside when gas shot up past 1.50 earlier this summer. Thankfully were back down to 1.37 but still.... 100litre tank in the truck... 1 tank a week... my bank account is crying.

I likely would keep the back seats folded down on either model, give the dogs a bit more room.
Seems the subarus come with more standard like heated seats and fog lights that the chevs don't.

But that servicing info does help. Where I live its a bit of a further drive to get the Subaru to its own dealer for warranty work, otherwise I would take it to the GM dealer for anything else.

To me compact SUVs are just trendy overpriced sedans. They offer little advantage in terms or room or towing capacity. A 4 door hatch will offer very similar interior space, higher fuel efficiency and come at lower price. Most compact SUVs operate on sedan frames and even have the same drivetrain. My suggestion is if you want or need a truck but want to save on gas because you drive long distance is get a diesel. Same for SUVs, my Jeep GC with a 3L diesel does 9.9L/100km with 17' foot boat behind it. If you're not towing or hauling I suggest you look at a car and stop pretending you need a truck like 90% of the truck owners out there, cars will ultimately do pretty much everything better when it comes to actual driving.

If you're looking for AWD there are plenty of options in the car world, for more cargo consider an Audi A3 or A4 wagon. the Quattro system is superior to Subaru in every way. We had a Subaru Outback before and found it very unstable on hi-ways that offered changing road conditions, my wife refused to even drive it on gravel roads as it would pull to the side if you hit a soft spot on the road. When we upgraded to the Audi it was night and day, we just had the A3 and it was an unstoppable monster in the snow and we would drive it in the worst hi-way conditions imaginable.

The trax is just a FWD hatchback, not sure I'd call it an SUV or compact. It's the same a kia soul, small, tall and under powered. Plus anything turbo charged will not reach it's EPA by a long shot. The outlander and the sante fe are bigger but still just cars at heart. You'll find them under powered and they won't offer much more space than an average sedan besides a little more cargo in the back.

I'd suggest you look in the used market, I have a hard time understanding the numbers when saying financing a new vehicle will save you money on gas and maintenance compared to your truck. $30K over 5 years is close to $600 per month and you still have gas and maintenance on top of that. Realistically if you get something really efficient you might save $150 a month in gas.

I just bought a 2014 Toyota Rav4 LE AWD, and I can't say anything bad about it yet. Power is great from a 4 cyl. Fuel economy is awesome. Interior space is fantastic. The sport mode actually feels like you're in sport mode (stiffens the steering, suspension and changes shift points in the tranny). Handles great. And it's cheap as well. I pay $300/month. And all my maintenance is free until 60,000 kms.

I haven't winter driven it yet, but i'm sure it will be awesome.

I would never even think if getting a chevy or domestic. After owning a few... I can say they just don't age well. My 1990 Honda Accord Wagon still dosn't rattle when I slam the door. My 2013 Ford F150 FX4 rattles like a mother and it only has 40,000 kms. Feels like the doors are going to fall off.

I too, like subaru's (no offence steve... I know you like bimmers and audi's). My buddy has an impreza and it's amazing in the winter. Never felt anything more solid on snow covered and icey roads. If you can afford an audi, then go for it, as their quattro is second to none, but for the average guy, there is a lot of good stuff out there from the japanese markets.

Something to think about.
According to consumer reports, a 10km increase in speed above 100kph
increases the gas consumption by 10%
So if you are traveling at 120 then you are using 20% more fuel than you would if traveling at 100
Its always time versus money

Haha our speed limit on the main highway was just raised from 110 to 120 last week. I watch my fuel economy numbers skyrocket every time I get on that highway so there no doubt that's true.

Yeah an Audi is not going to happen... That's nice and all but I don't make that kind of money, and never will. Not all government type jobs actually pay well. 600 a month is more then I pay in rent, I wouldn't be getting anything that requires payments of more then 250 a month, tops. I know what kind of budget I'm working with.

I've just heard great things about the trax and its fuel economy, however mechanically I guess they haven't been out long enough.

Wish somebody actually owned one of these 2 specific ones to get their take on it. Gonna have to head down to Nanaimo and really play with that Crosstrek again.

How big are your dogs?

I agree with most of what Sphelps said regarding picking a sedan or hatchback with the caveat that if you drive with your dogs a lot and they're big enough then headroom becomes an issue in anything smaller than a Forester.

We've got a Sedan as well and if it's just the two of us the Sedan is fine for us + dogs but if we want to throw another couple in the back seat it's really nice to be able to put the dogs in the rear area.

Our two fit perfectly in the Forester's cargo area, we looked at a small hatchback and it just wasn't enough space. Ours are a border collie (50lbs) and Karelian bear dog (60lbs).

Side by side the crosstrek only seemed 2 or so inches shorter.
Ive got a little 50lb pitty and occasionallu have a 50lb husky.
No kids (never...) so the back seats would stay down to give them more room.
Plenty enough room in the back for my pitty with thr seats up. She always lies down while we drive. I could probably fit 4 of her in the back of a Trax with how small she curls up.

I just prefer the height of a smaller Suv over a traditional wagon. At least the crosstrek is inbeteeen.
That is why i wanted the forester at first until i took a closer look at the Trax.

Honestly would prefer the slight fuel economy difference between the forester and crosstrek vs the slight size difference.

We probably will never own another car for this reason. The extra height makes it so much easier to get in and out of the vehicle and extra ground clearance helps in deep snow. Another plus of the extra height is that people (at least here in Alberta) tend to really love cutting cars off and trying to run them off the road, doesn't happen very often with a taller more visible vehicle. My wife traded in her 10 year old Impreza for a Highlander this spring and went from coming home mad as hell every day to having no more driving issues.

I don't know of any new vehicles you can get for $250/month without a good trade in or down payment. If you lease sure, but financing.. The numbers don't add up which is why I suggested going used. The Crosstrek starts at $25K and even the cheap Rav4 starts at $24K so tack on some options and gst and you're back to $500+ plus a month, paying $250-300 a month means you're paying it over 8+ years which, no offence to anyone, is just bad financial advice as the depreciation will exceed your payments. If you can't pay for a car over 5 years then IMO you can't afford it, talk to any financial adviser if you disagree.

Also not to be defensive but I only suggested Audi as it sounded like the OP wanted AWD some something with a hatch. I don't like Subaru so not much else to suggest plus we owned one which we loved. For the record it only cost us just over $20K, bought it used and it was a solid car with basically zero problems unlike our previous Subaru plus when we sold it, it held it's value better than any other car we had so despite the assumption I only like BMW and Audi it's actually not the case. The Audi was solid advice and I rarely recommend BMWs, plus I own a Jeep which is not BMW or Audi. Ultimately I'm into cars, I know what's good and what's not but it's still my opinion so take with a grain of salt.

Well in the first post i said i have a truck
That will be sold before i buy anything.
2013 gently used crosstrek, forester or chev Trax is 21,000 - 23,000.
Ive all ready spoken to my financial institution. Ive all ready been pre approved for the amount I need, over 5 years, just have to wait for my truck to sell and decide what vehicle i want to purchase.
I know my budget and i know what payments i want to work with and i know whats possible. Im looking at 250-300 a month with what im asking for which is perfect.

The bmw and audis are nice but wayyy out of my budget even used.

If you want good fuel economy have you looked at the diesel cars. My buddy in Ontario has a Volkswagen gets on average 1000 km a tank. He drives from Sudbury to North Bay every day for work.

Just cant do a car too small.
No Tiguan diesels available here either, not to mention those are a few thousand more.
Yeah havent seen any compact suvs in diesel but trust me it was on my list.
I know a few folks that get 1200km easy on their vw cars.

Another big thing is how i sit in the vehicle. I find a lot of cars awkward for me. The forester, crosstrek and trax were very comfortable.
The outlander was a bit weird with how the glass angled for me. I hate my dads pontiac vibe. My moms ford edge feels awkward. Boyfriends cobalt again that typical car feel, uncomfortable to drive. The santa fe felt a bit off but wasnt bad. But i really liked how i sat in those first 3 i mentioned.

Sorry I should have mentioned his drive is 122 Kms one way.

My son bought a used Audi A4 and with a very small DP his insurance cost more per month than his car does.

Yeah i try and do my insurance per year vs monthly to get it out of the way.
But i totaled my last pickup on black ice so ive got a nice 75% surcharge for at least the next 4 years, thanks icbc.
SO having to get collision as well as the base insurance on the vehicle because its financed will suck....

Get a Japanese car , better parts , better engineering I work for Toyota and own a Subaru and a Suzuki they are better cars then a gm could ever be . Our used car guy works next to me so I see all the domestic stuff that traded in and you wold be shocked at how much is wrong with a car with only 40k km . audis are great cars but expensive to maintain and repair . Buy used if you can , save the taxes . Why don't you look at like a 2010 4cyl rav 4 , bullet proof cars and it would save you a bundle to buy something a little older .

If you think a car is too small just for fun compare interior space. For example the Trax you're considering is smaller inside than a Mazda 3 hatch back which is I would consider a very small car. The 3 has more cargo volume with seats up and down compared to the trax along with more leg and side room in both front and back. The only advantage the trax has is an extra inch or so in head room which realistically means nothing unless you're well over 6 feet tall. This again is typical of so called compact SUVs, they are actually small cars with a little extra ground clearance and headroom. Now I'm not saying buy a mazda 3 but I bet it's cheaper and has better options plus a better sales and track record. By pursuing only these compacts and making assumptions that cars are just too small you're really limiting yourself to small selection of vehicles which only offer clever marketing. Since you're use to a truck most vehicles won't feel natural at first but people have the ability to adjust and adapt. It goes the other way as well, people use to smaller cars may find trucks uncomfortable at first as well.

Also if your truck has value left in it why not buy a car a little older, perhaps eliminate your loan requirement all together. A ford focus can very economical, a 2013 base can be found for around $13K, that's up to $10K less than you expect to pay for a compact of the same year. Again the focus is basically the same size inside as the trax.

Totally agree with this. I had a Mazda 3 4 door, no hatchback, but it had a ton of room. I drive 500 kms a week - cost me $40 - $60 every 2 weeks to fill up (depending on season). I got 8.5L/100 in the city and 6-7 on the highway. Was a standard 5 speed, bought a set of winter tires (full set with steelies for $1,000) and had no problems getting around. I LOVED that car. I don't get SUV's personally. Don't like trucks. My husband drives a mini van and its worse on gas than his truck. I now get 13.3 L/100 city driving (summer), still 500 kms/week and it costs me $75-$100 per week to fill. Talk about blowing cash....:twised:

If you are set on an SUV - I'd go for the Rav 4 as well. Old boss had one and loved it - you can't go wrong with a Toyota.

I did a lot of comparing today with some wagons and the crosstrek and forester as well as that mazda. Dont think i can give up that ground clearance height i get with the crossover.

Im going to have to go out with the dog i think and compare with her in the back of the vehicle as well.
So the Trax is out it seems. But i still really like that crosstrek. But still have to test drive that one.

My Boyfriends a GM tech and he really likes the idea of the subaru, but its a little hard getting him to come look at vehicles with me lol.

I know i need one with a back cargo area. So a sedan type car wont work either.
I havent used the back seats of either of the trucks ive had as actual seats in years. In my Ram i have now, the one im trying to sell, the back seats stay up and ive shoved a 8"thick piece of foam in the back to make the entire back area a bed for the dogs. I Know my girl is really uncomfortable when she has to sit on an actual seat so thats why the cargo area or cargo plus folded down seats is a must. Now we have driven in the cobalt with the back seats down and allowed the dogs to use that flat area plus the trunk as their bed area while we drove and she was even more uncomfortable.

So its about her comfort. My comfort in the drivers seat. Awd capabilities (ground clearance) they like to not plow around here as well sometimes during the snow haha. Fuel economy.
I feel really uncomfortable being in small vehicles. Ive tried driving cars and wagons. Some like the pontiac vibe is so bad i.get car sick jist driving it, 10x worse when im a passenger in it.

Thanks for the replies so far guys

Another option for something new is the FIAT 500L, bigger than you might think as it's comparable to the crosstek or even a bit roomier. Would offer some good fuel economy with an Italian heritage. The good thing about Chrysler too is I know from experience the major dealers compete on volume and you simply look at the dealer invoice price and offer them 5% below that and get a deal, especially on last years inventory.

Next if you really want to save money on fuel there's the Prius V which I've been told will actually do 4L/100km so basically runs for free. Did I mention it's also in the same size range you're looking at :twised:

Has your boyfriend worked on a Subaru before? The flat engine design means nothing is easily accessible and thus a real pain to work on. It's one of the main reasons I don't like them so much.

If AWD is a requirement then most of my suggestions are pretty useless although keep in mind that some of these compacts aren't really AWD, they are front wheel driven with a tiny shaft that sends about 5% of the power to the rear and there's no intelligence behind it. Basically just uses more gas than anything else.

Yes i believe he has and his biggest comment about the subarus however is that even on the older ones they never seem to need more then their regular maintainence.

That issue with the crappy AWDs is why subaru was at the top of my list. My brother has an 03 wrx and seems to be happy with it. no issues thus far.
In my mind I wouldnt have totaled my Silverado last winter if i had it in 4x4 but the conditions didnt seem to merrit it as the roads were clear. And i think if i had something with good awd that kicked in on its own, that wouldnt have happened.
Our Pontiac Aztek was great for that. Fantastic awd and did great in the snow. You could feel the awd kick in and help. Since then my mother traded that one in for a Ford Edge and she says its awd is nothing in comparison and she misses her aztek.

We have a 2013 Venza V6 awd. Huge amount of cargo space for our two dogs. The awd is great with snow tires, however this thing drinks gas. It does come in 4 cyl, but I don't know the L/100. My folks just bought a new Rav4 and they are very happy with the space and milage. I stopped buying domestics eons ago, they are just garbage IMO. Japanese cars are only second to German made, but as toytech stated, are expensive to maintain... I still don't trust Korean cars yet, but they look like good value.

I've always had great luck with Domestics, lots of miles and I'm not really gentle with them. Maybe I've been lucky. I've also found them to be typically more feature rich for the same price point than imports. Toyotas in particular have been having a rough go of it lately as far as quality control goes, judging on the amount of recall stories you'd hear in the news the last few years.

Toyotas recalls are nothing short of standing by their product. There has been nothing major, and 95% of the recalled vehicles dont have any issue with the "defective product".

Ive worked for many different dealers. And i'll stand by a Toyota product before any domestic. Chevy and ford simply mask their issues and after warranty, you're completely screwed. When I worked for ford, I would have 10 appointments a day with the same problem. Ford recognized the issue but never did anything about it. Toyota on the other hand, realizes an issue big or small, and offers customers support. Better than most other companies for sure.

My wife was also looking at a Crosstrek. I just read the article on how the 2013 Crosstrek plus a number of other models have an oil burning issue that Subaru refuses to acknowledge or fix. I am trying to decide if this will affect my decision to buy from the company.

I was just in another training session and my instructor asked a Toyota engineer when he was in japan why we don't have nearly as many special serice tools as the domestics , he replied why make special tools when we can just make better cars . He was dead serious too , we have kaizan at Toyota it means constant improvement , we don't want to leave someone stranded on the side of the road so we have lots of recalls to fix things before there are problems. That's why I love working here.

It seems like every major dealer has had a massive recall of some sort in the last few years, including Toyota.

Ugh I hate car shopping... I hate being a girl and trying to go car shopping. I hate being indecisive. I miss my old truck.... I miss when I was getting 800k to a tank even with it being a V8 *sigh*

Another thing I was seeing and heard about is the head gaskets on the subarus is an issue sometimes around 100,000km give or take. No guarantee it will happen, but not a fun job to fix. My bf didn't seem entirely worried about it however but they are really buried in there.

Anyone have any input on the Mitsubishi RVR? Seems comparable. Im unsure if their 2.0 or 2.4l engines. Some places say one thing, others say something different, quite a few reviews about ****ty fuel economy however, but people then don't post what their getting! Argh.

I think the Rav4 is just a bit out of my budget :/

Have you looked at the jeep diesels?

List price on a new one is $67K, that's a lot more than an Audi.

Thats an awefull nice house down payment.

Yuup! haha, the new jeeps are nice.. but man are they ever expensive.

I think every vehicle out there is way over priced. I paid almost $70,000.00 for my 2007 GMC 3/4 ton

To be fair the Jeeps do start at $40K which is about right for a full size SUV that actually tow and go off pavement. The catch is if you want the diesel you're forced to go up a couple trim levels. At that point they are in the same class as the ML350, X5d, Touareg and Cayenne and it's the cheapest of the bunch so they do offer good value.