2019 / 2020 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid | Subie With A Plug... Finally...

[Music] today we're out here in the rain taking a look at the all-new 2019 Subaru Crosstrek plug-in hybrid this is the first-ever Subaru plug-in hybrid in the United States and their second attempt at bringing a hybrid cross track to our shores some of you may recall that we had a first drive video on the Crosstrek plug-in hybrid down in Malibu but in this video we're gonna be taking a more detailed look at the vehicle because we've had it for a complete week and we've been out here in the Santa Cruz Mountains where it has been absolutely pouring all week long the perfect climate to test a Subaru and of course Subarus first plug-in the crosstrack has two main missions in America to be the most efficient Subaru on sale in this country and to be the top-end trim of their popular Crosstrek and that's why we see features standard on this model that we see optional on other versions of the Crosstrek like the adaptive LED headlamps these steer in the corners we also have LED fog lamps down below other than that and the optional bright blue paint that our particular model has this looks like any other Subaru Crosstrek out there the non hybrid Crosstrek is targeted directly at things like the Chevy Trax the Honda HRV the Jeep renegade etc but when you look at the side profile you'll notice that there's something very different going on here this really is just a lifted up off-road a fied version of the empress' a hatchback so the overall shapes are the same as the impressive hatchback and the overall length is basically the same as well at over 175 inches long this is nine inches longer than a Jeep renegade and really only about five inches away from something like a toda rav4 so in terms of overall size this is actually closer to many compact crossovers than the average subcompact crossover in America but the Crosstrek in regular gasoline form is priced more like the HRV than the CRV of course we're here to talk about the plug-in hybrid Crosstrek and this introduces a slightly different set of comparisons because the plug-in hybrid system definitely raises costs up from what we see in the non hybrid model putting this in theoretical direct competition to new entries like the rav4 hybrid aside from the go anywher cladding the biggest change you'll notice between the Impreza and the Crosstrek is the overall ride height at eight point seven inches off the ground this has Jeep Grand Cherokee lite ground Clarence very much like we see actually in the rest of the Subaru lineup and very different than we see in many of the subcompact or even compact crossovers in America the new Toyota rav4 hybrid is now a little bit higher off the ground than the last model but something like the HRV the Trax the cx-3 etc they're an awful lot closer to the ground moving to the rear we again don't find many changes versus the regular model we have combination LED tail lamps which means that the brake lights and the parking lights you see are LEDs but the backup lights and turn signals are incandescent bulbs and then down here we just have reflectors Subaru has really been focusing on active safety lately and that's why all plug-in versions of the cross track will have the eyesight safety system standard that gives us adaptive cruise control lane keeping assistance and then we also have blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic detection this safety system is named eyesight because it uses two optical cameras right here behind the windshield to perform most of the system functions including the adaptive cruise control function so there's no radar sensor in the front of the vehicle everything is done optically back there there definitely some pros and cons to this type of system the first Pro is that it's less expensive both to purchase and of course to maintain because if you get into a minor fender bender or if you're off-roading and you bash something into the front of the car you don't have to worry about a radar sensor getting damaged because the cameras are doing all that work for you on the flipside if your windscreen is a little bit icy right up top in that area right there if you haven't scraped it completely or if it's a little foggy then the system can't see what's going on in front of you and it won't function that's an important thing to keep in mind if you do drive in an area where you get frost you actually do have to clean the areas right here behind this camera and the one over there on the passenger side in order for the system to function properly under the hood of the Crosstrek in America we find a 2 liter four-cylinder boxer engine regardless of the version that you choose in the non hybrid model it produces 152 horsepower power goes down in the hybrid because of the tweaks they did to the engine in order to improve overall efficiency the non hybrid model gets either a 6-speed manual or a continuously variable transmission but things are very different under this hood right here this hybrid system is actually very similar to what we see in certain Lexus models it's a long 2 to Denault - motor system the similarities between this system and the Todd and Lexus systems are not coincidental tohd owns a minority and Subarus parent company and they've worked together on a number of projects in the past so when Subaru wanted to create a new plug-in hybrid vehicle they went over to the tota parts bin and they were able to access certain components and then design their own transmission and their own drivetrain systems around them so this uses the same electric motors that we find in the Camry Hybrid and the same battery pack in the rear that we find in the Prius Prime plug-in using those basic components Subaru created a unique drivetrain that is true to their brand's values this uses a true mechanical all-wheel drive system and that's a pretty big differentiator between this and the rav4 which uses an electric axle in the back the crosstrack plug-in hybrid is just as capable offroad if not actually more capable because of the extra torque than the regular version of the Crosstrek and that's very different in the rav4 where the hybrid is definitely less capable than the non hybrid model overall horsepower comes in at 148 total which does seem below the regular model but actual performance ends up being better because we have a lot more torque out of this system now Subaru like todah does not give us a total torque number but I suspect this is probably somewhere around 200 pound feet total charging happens via this door right back here on the driver's side we have an onboard 3.3 kilowatt charger that will charge the battery from zero to completely full in about two hours if you have access to 240 volts the battery's nominal capacity is 8.8 kilowatt hours but they haven't given us an official actual capacity I suspect it's somewhere around seven kilowatt hours very much like we see in the tota plug-in hybrid models they're reserving a bit of capacity on either end in order to improve overall battery life the battery is right back here in the cargo compartment when the battery is completely charged this is good for 17 miles of evie only range up to speeds of about 64 to 65 miles an hour so if you do drive at higher speeds you should know that this will not drive in easy only mode at those higher speeds just like most plug-in hybrids out there because of the battery's position the cargo area shrinks versus the regular cross track it goes from 20 point 8 cubic feet down to fifteen point nine it is a noticeable reduction and in our 24 inch roller bag test that meant that we fit one less 24 inch roller bag back here it also means that 22 inch roller bags like this this is the large sighs you can carry on to a domestic flight in the US will fit like this just barely under the cargo cover that's about the tallest thing you can put back here and still have that cargo cover in place due to the overall design of the battery pack this cargo area has an unusual hump over here on the passenger side I'm not entirely clear what that's for but it is part of the pack itself we have a small storage area right here if we flip up this back section you could put the charge cable back here we also have our can of fix-a-flat and a tow hook I haven't been able to get confirmation from Subaru about this but when you take a look at the technical drawings and exploded drawings of the cross trucks battery it appears that the spare tire well is actually still right there under the battery so unfortunately it is a little bit of wasted space down there because we don't have a spare tire and the spare tire well although not occupied is completely obstructed by the battery when it comes to front seat comfort I'm going to give this 9 out of 10 points for the subcompact segment if you were to compare this to something like the rav4 then I would drop this down to 8 out of 10 points because the compact segment has seats that are slightly more comfortable one key thing to know about the Crosstrek is that the seating position is definitely more car-like because of this vehicle's origins as an impressive hatchback so if that's something that you're after this is definitely going to be the vehicle for you personally I do like the combination of high ride height and a slightly more relaxed seating position we have a tilt telescopic steering column with a large range of motion and a power driver seat but we don't have any adjustable lumbar support the main benefit to this being based on a compact vehicle is the overall interior room because this is definitely roomier than the average subcompact crossover in America we have several inches more combined legroom than most of the entries although the Honda HRV does beat this by hair it's really noticeable sitting behind myself where I have about four or five inches of legroom left definitely more than we'd find in something like a CX 3 or the Jeep renegade overall Headroom is pretty good back here my hair is brushing the ceiling but it's not touching the ceiling you have about half an inch of headroom left again better than we find in some of those sub compact crossovers again like the cx-3 it's also noticeable if I move over to the right side of the vehicle where this front seat is all the way back in its tracks I still have about an inch I've had your left if I sit in the middle seat the other advantage becomes immediately and that is the overall width of the rear passenger area this is wider than the average subcompact crossover so again definitely roomy for larger people back here or three people if you need to do that moving to the inside you can see the iSight cameras right there above the rear view mirror this is also where Subaru puts the controls for the system lane-keeping disabled button right over here collision warning and mitigation system off along with the SOS button for the telematics system and the controls for the sunroof the sunroof is a pretty standard sized model goes right there to the driver and front-passenger heads we have 4-way adjustable ratchet style headrests those ratchet forward right like that and then height adjustable shoulder belts for the driver and front-passenger these are two features we don't typically find in a lot of other subcompact vehicles the upholstery is two-tone leather the center section is a dark navy blue and then we have this sort of blueish grey lighter section on the outside and then lighter blue stitching to complement everything the seats are fairly aggressively bolstered which was a little bit of a surprise but one that I like and the seat bottom and back feature perforations in the center section but these seats are just heated they're not actively ventilated moving over to the doors we find over all parts quality that definitely exceeds the average subcompact crossover in America so we definitely find more hard plastics for instance on the doors of the Toyota CHR again that's due to the origins of the cross track moving in for a closer look we have a soft touch upper section soft touch perforated insert right there some faux carbon-fiber around the door release and then this attractive blue trim on the doors that continues on over to the dashboard we also have some contrasting stitching on the soft touch upper section of the dashboard that matches what was going on in the seats and then a fairly typically sized glove compartment I was able to fit a larger iPad in there without a problem thinking out loud here for a moment wouldn't it be cool if you could buy a car like the Crosstrek and then get different colored inserts for these sections if they were easily user removable and replaceable and the manufacturer sold a variety of different colored parts wouldn't that be kind of nifty I also let me know what you think about that down there in the comment section below moving over to the center of the dashboard we have a small LCD on the upper section right there we see that in a lot of other Subaru models that has a variety of different readouts from the weather pulled from XM satellite data the location if you're in the navigation apple carplay readouts whew look etc we also have the status of the vehicles plug-in hybrid system right now it's in charge mode as we're sitting here I can turn it into hold mode etc and when you're driving an IVA mode it would show the power flow just like a pretty typical hybrid below that we find the standard touchscreen infotainment system if you get the regular versions of the Crosstrek then there are smaller screens available but the plug-in just has the one that we're seeing right here it features smartphone integration as you can see right there we also have a factory mapping interface with XM satellite traffic data we click over to the apps option we have all these latest integrated apps from streaming media to the my Subaru app where you can request roadside assistance or make an appointment for service right there within the head unit below the infotainment system we find the engine start/stop button over there to the left and the single zone automatic climate control below the screen below the climate controls we have a storage cubby and then we have a pretty typical console shifter we have drive down here and then b1 mode back B is basically the same as what we find in other hybrids out there it's an increased braking mode using a combination of engine braking and regenerative braking depending on exactly what's going on with the battery speaking of the battery there's a button with a battery icon on it right here that allows us to change the behavior of the plug-in hybrid system we can have it hold the battery charge for later we can have it charge the battery so that way you can use evey driving later or we could put it into normal mode where it will make choices based on exactly what you're asking of the drivetrain we have an X mode button this performs the same feature that it does in any other Subaru model it engages the hill descent control and helps prepare the all-wheel drive system for slightly more rugged duty we have an electric parking brake right here and then the controls for the heated front seats working our way back we have two cupholders right there I had no problem fitting larger take out drinks and then a softly padded center armrest to notice the armrest is navy blue just like the trims on the seats right here but the center console is charcoal I really like the colors going on inside this interior I kind of wish that this was an option in the regular cross track actually if we open this up we have two USB inputs for that smartphone integration right there a 12-volt power port auxiliary input and a reasonable amount of storage space the only major change versus the non hybrid model is that we have a power charge gage right over here on the left instead of the tachometer now one thing that I dislike about this is that there's no real indication about where the easy mode will and based on your throttle application I wish that this display would give you that indications that we would be easier to stay in easy mode if that's something that you were really interested in we have the same speedometer over here on the right and then a color multifunction display in the middle that's controlled via some buttons on the steering wheel it allows us to toggle through things like our trip computer information tire pressure readouts digital speedometer etc the steering wheel is a leather-wrapped three spoke design with sport grips up top I wish this had some regen paddles on the back like we're starting to see in other V's and plug-in hybrid models on the left side of the wheel we have the buttons for the infotainment system the info button over here controls the multifunction display that we saw above the infotainment system and then these toggles down here these three buttons actually controlled the multifunction display between the power gauge and the speedometer you can see that changing right there on the right side of the wheel we have the buttons that control the adaptive cruise control system button to turn on and off the lane keeping system and then these two buttons change the way the throttle mapping works we have intelligent and we have sharp mode just like we see in other Subaru models out on the road this is actually faster than I thought it would be based on our initial experience out in Malibu zero to sixty happened in our testing in eight point three five seconds that is significantly faster than the non hybrid Crosstrek which takes nine and a half seconds to accomplish the same task how is that possible when the hybrid produces fewer horsepower than the non hybrid model well it all has to do with the way the power is applied and of course the added torque from the electric motor we don't have an official torque specification as I said before but this motor definitely is producing a great deal of torque and that really helps out the at least initial acceleration when we're taking a look at zero to thirty times that's where the big difference between this and the non hybrid model happens it's about a full second faster in that initial zero to thirty run because of this overall system design we get a lot of low-end torque and then we have that evey ability as well speaking of the e the ability evey mode tops out at around 64 65 miles an hour and there is no real indication on the instrument cluster about when that is going to happen you're just going to experience it eventually the battery pack is reasonably powerful so we have no problem hill climbing in easy mode as long as you keep the throttle under control but on the downside when it comes to Eva mode operation if you do end up in a situation where you're leaving home you hop immediately on the interstate you set the cruise control to 72 miles an hour then it's going to take about 30 to 35 miles for you to completely exhaust the battery pack not 17 because the vehicle has to turn on the engine due to the overall hybrid system design this is not designed quite like a Chevy Volt and in those situations even though the vehicle is pulling power from the battery pack it's not pulling the majority of the energy from the battery pack to drive the car forward getting back to the numbers in our braking test we stopped from 60 miles an hour back to zero in 118 feet that surprised me quite a lot actually because we have the same sized tires in this that we have in the non hybrid Crosstrek but this stops significantly shorter the big difference is in weight I think because this is about 600 pounds heavier than the non hybrid model and a lot of that weight happens right back there behind me when it comes to our overall handling score I'm going to give this a b-minus basically the same score that we see in the non hybrid Crosstrek even though this is heavier and has the same sized tires that moved a lot of the weight to the rear of the vehicle that actually helps balance out the overall handling feel Subaru models generally tend to be a little bit more front heavy than some of the competition because the entire engine is in front of the front axle and by having the added weight of the battery pack in the rear it helps cancel them out make this a little bit more balanced it's definitely noticeable in neutral handling situations where this doesn't feel quite as front heavy as the regular Crosstrek now all versions of the Crosstrek are still fairly softly sprung so this is not exactly going to be the canyon Carver that the Mazda cx-3 is out on a rougher gravel road like this the softer suspension we find in the cross track is instantly noticeable especially versus entries like the Mazda cx-3 this is going to be an awful lot more comfortable whether you're going off the beaten path like this or whether you're taking this on a longer highway journey and you have to deal with freeway expansion joints etc the other thing you'll really notice when you get off on a road surface like this is the true mechanical all-wheel drive system for instance if I were to stop right here and then just floor the vehicle we get instant traction equal traction on all four tires and that's not what we get in the total rav4 in the rav4 hybrid we get a lot of front-wheel scramble and then we get a gradual progression of a little bit of power to the rear because it just has that electric motor in the rear and no way to send even half of the engine power to that rear axle so this is going to feel an awful lot more sure-footed in those situations and would also apply to ice snow mud any of those kind of inclement weather conditions although the x-mode system does not command a complete locking of the center coupling like we do find in some crossovers out there this is still going to be very very capable in the snow a lot of people have asked me whether Subarus are the best in the snow versus other vehicles out there I would say they're not necessarily the best but they're definitely among the best because of the all-wheel-drive system generally speaking vehicles that can completely lock the sender coupling are going to be able to get you out of stickier situations and we can't do that in the Crosstrek whether we're talking about the hybrid or the non hybrid but this vehicle can't send a decent amount of power to the rear and the overall system is definitely designed for those adverse situations in our cabin noise test at 50 miles an hour this cabin came in at 73 decibels exactly the same score that we got in the non hybrid model when it comes to overall cabin noise a definite difference between this and the non hybrid model are the hybrid noises that we hear from the drivetrain you can definitely hear the electric motor whine when you're accelerating in easy mode and you can also hear the whine of the electric motors and the overall drivetrain systems under there when you reach and braking so there definitely some different sounds going on in this cabin I don't find them particularly obtrusive and they're very very similar to what we see in Toyotas hybrid systems but we don't see the same sort of noises in some of the other hybrids out there like Honda's hybrid systems they're definitely a little bit quieter now let's tackle fuel economy the entire reason that we have a hybrid system in the first place if you treat the Crosstrek just like a regular hybrid vehicle and you never plug it in then you're going to get about 35 to 36 miles per gallon in our tests that's about five miles per gallon overall better than we see in the non hybrid Crosstrek which did exceed its EPA's course in our real-world testing but if you want better fuel economy than this you will actually find it in some of the other options out there like the upcoming rav4 hybrid although it's not going to have the plug-in ability and it's not going to be quite this capable off-road as this if on the other hand you plug the Crosstrek in then you could get overall fuel economy averages between 45 and 50 miles per gallon overall using a mixture of gasoline and the electricity of course it's important to remember that at the speeds that most Americans drive out on the interstate you're not going to be able to stay in evey mode so if you do live out in the country and you're spend a lot of time on rural country roads you may actually get a better overall economy score than if you were driving this in a more urban environment when it comes to pure evie efficiency the score is 90 on the EPA's MPGe scale which makes this one of the least efficient overall electric vehicles in America the main reason for that is the mechanical all-wheel drive system part of what makes this so capable off-road so there are definitely some trade-offs in order to have that off-road ability the combination of the plug-in hybrid system and a mechanical all-wheel drive system is what makes the Crosstrek so unique in America because outside of this you would have to move up into a luxury vehicle if you wanted that combination something like a BMW plug-in hybrid would offer all-wheel drive and the plug-in hybrid ability but nothing else in this segment really will speaking of the e the ability easy mode tops out at around 64 65 miles an hour and there is no real indication on the instrument cluster about when that is going to happen you're just going to experience it eventually before we dive into pricing we should talk about availability because that is a key component for the Crosstrek plug-in hybrid subaru is not going to be selling this in every state in the United States so if you want a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid and you live saying in Texas your options are going to be more limited at least initially Subaru says that they're only going to be selling it in the following states California Connecticut Maine Maryland Massachusetts New Jersey New York Oregon Rhode Island and Vermont basically California and the other nine states that follow California's Zev rules if you live outside of those states you won't find a plug-in hybrid model on your local dealer lot however you may be able to get it serviced if you were to buy one and then drive it back home we haven't received official confirmation from Subaru yet but because the engine the transmission the all-wheel drive system and almost everything else about the vehicle is very similar to the Crosstrek it's likely that you won't have a problem having it serviced locally when creating the plug-in hybrid version of the Crosstrek they decided to make it a range-topping model so it is going to be more expensive than the non hybrid limited trim which is the closest you could get in the regular Crosstrek lineup that non hybrid model starts at twenty-seven thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars and if you add all of the options to that particular model you'll end up at twenty nine thousand five forty five that means that the base version of the crosstrack plug-in hybrid is going to be about fifty four hundred dollars more than the top-end trim of the limited but federal tax credits and state tax credits help soften that blow the plug-in hybrid qualifies for up to a forty five hundred dollar federal tax credit which gets the Delta down to around one thousand dollars and then California and a number of other states will add an extra fifteen hundred dollars on top of that if you qualify that could make the least expensive version of the plug-in hybrid about five hundred dollars less expensive than the most expensive version of the non hybrid but feature for feature the hybrid model is going to be about two thousand dollars more even after all of the applicable tax credits before we move on to competition let's talk a little bit about how it compares to the non hybrid model if you qualify for all of the tax credits then the math actually starts to make a of cents and I would say if you're shopping for that top-end limited trim you should probably get the plug-in hybrid if it's available because even though it's going to be about two thousand dollars more than the non hybrid limited trim we get better acceleration actually notably better acceleration we do lose a little bit of cargo capacity in the back but other than that the cabin is about the same size we don't lose any of the all-wheel drive capability that the Crosstrek is known for as well and even though the regular cross track is very fuel-efficient fuel efficiency still increases and even if you drove the Crosstrek plug-in hybrid as a regular hybrid never plugging it in you should save about 450 dollars at today's relatively low fuel prices that's 450 dollars per year yielding a payback time of about four and a half years or so depending on your driving cycle now obviously that will depend on your ability to charge and of course the route that you take home and to the office because as I said when you get going over about 64 miles an hour or so it will drop out of evey mode it'll still be using electricity to help improve overall fuel economy but it won't be an easy mode without out of the way let's dive right into the options first thing to know when it comes to options is that there really aren't very many vehicles like the Crosstrek plug-in out there many of our followers over at facebook.com slash Alex and autos thought that the most direct competitor to the Crosstrek is actually the rav4 hybrid at twenty-seven thousand seven hundred dollars the rav4 hybrid is about twenty eight hundred dollars less than the Subaru but it's in a different category it actually is a step larger so some might say that's an even better deal versus the crosstrack but remember it's not a plug-in vehicle and it doesn't have a mechanical all-wheel-drive system now tota has really improved the overall programming of the all-wheel-drive system in the rav4 hybrid allowing it to set a little bit more power to the rear axle than the previous version and really improving the overall traction management so it means that it is definitely a little bit more offered capable and a little bit more snow capable than the previous rav4 but it's never going to behave in those situations like the mechanical all-wheel-drive system we find in the Crosstrek plug-in or actually the non hybrid rav4 as well it's really noticeable when you take the vehicle off the beaten path that it's not able to send as much power to the rear axle and you get a lot of front wheel slip before it actually starts to send more power to the rear likely because of the lack of all wheel drive system the rav4 ee all-wheel drive gets 40 miles per gallon combined so it is more efficient than the crosstrack but again there are those trade-offs there we also have slightly less ground clearance in the rav4 8.1 inches versus 8.7 in the Crosstrek and because of the overall size of the vehicle it's not gonna fit in quite as many places as the Crosstrek would the next most logical competitor is the Nero plug-in hybrid now some might say that the Nero is not really a crossover some might say it is more of a hatchback whatever you want to call the narrow it's a plug-in vehicle and it's in a similar price point to the crosstrack the base price is a little bit lower at twenty-seven thousand nine hundred dollars we then have a mid-level trim at thirty one thousand five that gives us most of the features that we find in the crosstrack plug-in and then we have a top model at thirty four thousand five hundred dollars that actually gives us a few features we don't find in the Subaru like ventilated seats when it comes to overall efficiency the Nero is notably more efficient than the Crosstrek the big omission with the Nero is that all-wheel drive is not available at all so if you want all-wheel drive in your plug-in vehicle just cross the narrow right off your shopping list but if you want the best fuel economy you're definitely going to find that in this particular model next up we have the only other all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid vehicle in sort of this general price category although it does go up to $42,000 the mid CBC Outlander plug-in hybrid vehicle to be honest I was disappointed the last time we drove the Outlander plug-in hybrid overall performance and overall efficiency just weren't where I thought they should be although the Outlander does a reasonable job of operating as an electric vehicle as long as you're within that 22 miles of range and you don't need maximum acceleration once you actually turn the gasoline engine on things start to fall apart a little bit because the fuel economy was definitely not where I thought it should be at 25 miles per gallon combined when in hybrid mode that's notably lower than the non hybrid Crosstrek so if you're simply looking for better fuel economy you'll find it in a wide variety of non hybrid vehicles out there now it does have an electric all-wheel drive system that gives us equal power up front and out back for reasonable off-road performance but the overall efficiency of the Outlander plug-in hybrid is definitely very low the Outlander is larger so if you definitely need that extra room in the back this is going to be really the only option in the play in hybrid segments but again I would remind you that in terms of overall cost of operation overall efficiency etc you're going to be better off getting any of the other plug-in hybrid vehicles out there really next up we have mineus plug-in hybrid offering which starts at thirty six thousand nine hundred dollars that's kind of a deceptively low price tag because by the time you add options to it a lot of people love to option and custom configure their mini you could get up to significantly higher price points than we find in the subaru the mini plug-in hybrid system is definitely a mild hybrid system as well we only get twelve miles of range so if you thought the overall evie range in the Crosstrek was low wait till you get in the mini but on the flipside we get more power when everything is operating together 221 horsepower in that model meaning is sort of treating their plug-in hybrid vehicle as a way to shift some of your costs over to electricity but not too much of it and then a way to improve overall performance because that is actually the fastest version of that vehicle at the moment the design of the mini hybrid system is also a little bit interesting we have a separate electric motor in the back very much like we see in the Toyota rav4 hybrid and then we have a motor up front as well and everything works in coordination with one another the downside to this design is that the vehicle cannot send as much power to the rear axle as you can in something like the cross track so the all-wheel-drive system limitations are gonna be very very similar to what we see in the rav4 hybrid bottom lighting Subarus plug-in is actually pretty easy for me I would say if you're shopping for the limited trim and you live in one of the states where the plug-in hybrid is sold you should just get the plug-in hybrid unless you really can't live without your spare tire now I realize that it sounds a little bit silly to have an offer of capable vehicle without a spare tire but you could add one yourself after market you could put it in the trunk you can put it on the roof wherever you want to put it that's probably what I would do because if you're going offroad you could take it with you and if you're not going offroad you do have the improved overall efficiency and the improved overall cost of operation versus the non hybrid model I also actually like the interior tweaks in the plug-in hybrid and the blue paint scheme that our particular model came in so if I was shopping for a Crosstrek this is definitely the model that I would get again there are some downsides however there's that lack of the spare tire there's the reduced cargo area and there's the fact that I think the battery could have been packaged a little bit more sensibly some we're either else in the vehicle or in the spare tire well somehow jammed down in there so that way you could have a little bit more cargo room but to a large extent those gripes are balanced out by the improved economy the improved performance and the lowered cost of operation that we find in the crosstrack PF let me know what you think about all that down there in the comment section below if you were shopping for a Crosstrek would you get the plug-in hybrid model and if you were shopping for any of the alternatives that I've discussed would you get any of them over the crosstrack plug-in hybrid I'm especially interested in what you think about the upcoming rav4 hybrid in the meantime be sure and find us over at facebook.com slash Alex nada so you can see what I'm driving this week and click up there to the top of your screen if you want to support this channel I'll see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Auto Buyers Guide | Alex on Autos

Views: 135,288

Keywords: Alex On Autos, Alex Dykes, Review, Detailed Review, Road Test, Driven, Drive Review, car, cars, auto, 2019 subaru crosstrek, subaru crosstrek, 2019 crosstrek hybrid, 2019 subaru crosstrek hybrid, crosstrek hybrid, subaru hybrid, plug in hybrid, plug in, alex on autos rav4, subaru crosstrek plug in hybrid, EV, PHEV, HEV, Subaru EV, Subaru PHEV, 2019 Subaru Hybrid, 2020, Subaru Hybrid

Id: A7Cl_wpzmTo

Length: 30min 46sec (1846 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019