Yahoo Autos 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness First Drive Review: Practical, Capable Overlander
There’s no single best adventure vehicle. A dialed-in Land Cruiser can cross continents, but something like my old ’70s Scout makes every drive feel like an epic expedition. The 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness kind of splits the difference, focusing on an angle that’s underrated in the off-road scene: Practicality. Cool-looking, versatile, and not outrageously expensive, this compact crossover is pretty neat.
Subarus have long been popular among outdoorsy types for their utility and rough-condition readiness. The brand’s Wilderness trim leans into that, adding some clearance and cladding for the look and some functional features to back it up.
2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness Specs | |
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The Basics
The Subaru Crosstrek, in its third generation for 2024, is a small wagon, chunky hatchback, or compact crossover depending on who describes it. It’s Subie’s smallest five-door and generally a good-looking get-around car for people with moderate cargo needs and modest budgets who are also not in a rush (there’s no turbo option).
This new Wilderness spec has unique suspension lifting the vehicle 0.6 inches higher than other Crosstreks, along with a few other features to enhance its rough-terrain driving capabilities.
Subaru has already done a Wilderness version of the Outback and Forester which got largely the same treatment: Small suspension lift, meaty tires, a few extra supporting mods, and most importantly, tough-looking bumpers and cool gold accents.
The gold trim on the emblems, tow hook covers, and roof racks is now Subaru’s signature “off-road variant” aesthetic cue. It’s unique and great-looking, though not a nod to Subaru’s rally history (which often had cars sporting gold wheels). The anodized gold was inspired by the finish on high-end outdoor equipment, like this carabiner:
Exterior and Interior Design
The standard Crosstrek is just distinctive enough to have some personality while remaining largely inoffensive. A few pieces of plastic cladding do most of the work to make it stand out, but it’s totally decent-looking among normie cars in showrooms today.
The Wilderness variant manages to look a lot more interesting with minimal substantial changes. The addition of a more black-colored body cladding along with a mean stance on knobby tires gives the car just the right amount of “let’s do this” energy that makes it fun to look at without inducing eye rolls.
I think it kind of looks like a near-future space pod. Subaru was clearly going for a top-shelf-at-REI image with this car but I think it’s kind of giving some NASA punk, especially in white on Utah’s Martian-looking landscape.
Inside, Wilderness touches are once again minimal but meaningful. Some more gold accenting adds some pop and Subaru’s non-leather StarTex water-repellent upholstery feels great while bringing the outdoorsy look inside. The “Wilderness” emblem itself is a little goofy to me, but the all-weather floormats feel good.
The interior in general isn’t expansive but there’s room for four and their duffle bags. The design of the dashboard is excellent. Some bold shapes carry over from the doors and across the console while two friendly, familiar analog gauges (tach and speedometer) keep you company ahead of the steering wheel.
As in other modern Subarus, the infotainment screen is vertically oriented, making it more phone-like than the widescreen ones. It’s tucked nicely into the dash.
Crosstrek Wilderness Off-Road Features
There are a handful of worthwhile upgrades the Wilderness gets over the standard Crosstrek, which I’ll run through and contextualize.
A modest 0.6-inch lift is achieved with longer springs and dampers. Suspension travel is the same as the base car, ground clearance now measures 9.3 inches, which is a lot. More than some Land Rover Defenders. More importantly, I felt the Wilderness’ suspension did a nice job of providing consistent response on the road while being remarkably compliant over deep corrugations and rocks, but we’ll talk about that soon.
Also under the car is an engine skid plate (always nice to have factory-designed armor), a supposedly more robust rear differential (Subaru R167 instead of R152, for the nerds), and an extra pressure sensor in the continuously variable transmission. Subaru’s people explained that that sensor would allow the CVT to react more quickly and appropriately in low-traction or sticky conditions. Subaru’s X-Mode traction control setting also helps the car keep moving through rough stuff, extrapolating for conditions and applying power as best as it can.
Speaking of the trans, Wilderness gets a transmission cooler that the standard C’trek doesn’t as well as a higher-output radiator fan for better engine cooling.
The tires, however, are probably what’s responsible for the most appreciable improvement in capability over other Subarus. The Yokohama Geolandar all-terrains that we gave an honorable mention as one of the best SUV tires available felt good to me. We didn’t really put their puncture resistance to the test, but I felt like I had fine traction in soft sand and through rock gardens. Noise on the road was minimal.
Interestingly, the diameter of this tire (27.6 inches) is actually slightly smaller than the standard Crosstrek’s. That was probably done simply due to tire availability, though the smaller size should also slightly mitigate the performance penalty brought by the added weight of the chunky all-terrain treads.
Otherwise, the car also has a couple of little features that are genuinely useful. In the cargo area, there are two huge cupholders, for tailgate-party or post-exercise recuperation situations. There’s also a switched light on the inside of the cargo hatch for nighttime cargo loading. And my personal favorite—the rear door jambs are designed in such a way that there’s an easy place to put your foot when you’re trying to access something on the roof.
The low roofline is itself a solid reason to go for a Crosstrek instead of a taller SUV—it’s much easier to get stuff off the roof of this thing than my Montero. I’m six-foot and I never actually put anything on my truck’s roof rack because it’s too annoying to reach. But with this car, even a much shorter person would be able to access a bike, boat, or ski box that might be up there.
Realistic Off-Road Capability
Every review of this car is going to declare that the Crosstrek Wilderness exhibits “all the off-road capability you really need” or something to that effect, so I’ll do my best to be more specific.
Fire roads, unmaintained roads, and those tiny, wild-track roads you need an old map to find—in conditions like that, the Crosstrek Wilderness would shine. With its clearance and short overhangs, I think it would even surprise some people in a rock-crawl situation. I could see it completing the easier Moab slickrock trails in the hands of a capable and patient driver.
