The New Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness Looks Like a Steal

Subaru says the take rate for its Wilderness models is about 20 percent—one in five buyers going for the most off-road capable version of these generally off-road capable family cars. After looking at the newest Crosstrek Wildnerness, I am surprised the take rate isn't higher.

The big deal with the car is that you only spend about two grand more than the next highest trim of Crosstrek to jump up to Wilderness level. For that you get a significantly beefier-spec'd car, raised, cladded and re-tuned.

The headline figure is that ground clearance is up to 9.3 inches, versus 8.7 for the regular Crosstrek and 5.1 for the ordinary Impreza. The whole car, effectively, is raised by around half an inch, and runs A/Ts on its 17-inch wheels. You get a more dirt-friendly interior with a good bit of plastic covering even on the back of the back seats for when you fold them down. I've seen the car in person and it's chunky and cute. I dig it.

While the 2.5-liter naturally aspirated boxer-four is the same, putting out 182 hp and 176 lb-ft of torque, Subaru reworked the CVT, adding an oil cooler, changing the final drive, and making the car happier in low-speed/high-slip conditions that off roaders love and transmissions hate. From Subaru's press release:

Subaru says that the shocks are the same, but retuned with "longer travel strokes" and "longer dampening compression stroke" for better performance.

There is a front skid plate, but that's all that Subaru could get away with. Subaru product planner Garrick Goh explained that they wanted to put rock sliders on the car, but they would wreak havoc on their side-impact testing, and had similar issues with skidplates under the rest of the car.

If you are curious about exact specs, approach angle is up to 20.0 degrees on the Wilderness versus 18 degrees on a regular Crosstrek; the maximum departure angle is up to 33 degrees from 30.1, and breakover is 21.1 versus 19.7 degrees. I don't know if this is the most capable off-roader on the market, but not being a Jeep is a good thing if you spend more time driving to the trailhead than on the trail itself.

In the end, the MSRP of the car is $31,995 against $29,495 for the Limited. That's not nothing, but it's a good deal for a factory re-tune of a car meant to go off-road anyway.

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