Should You Buy a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek? Thorough Review By A Mechanic

hello and welcome to the car car reviews Channel and welcome to the 2024 Subaru cross Trek first Subaru on the channel and a very interesting one Subaru is a very interesting company we're really glad that we're given the opportunity to review their cars so here it is in today's video we're going to do a proper technical review under the hood underneath the car we're going to look at the outside the inside some things we like some things we do not like and everything in between right after this [Music] let's start our technical review under the hood now the Subaru cross trk could be optioned with two engines almost identical engines the first one is a 2 L boxer engine now Subaru with boxer that's their signature that is their thing first one is the FB 20 2 L boxer engine the second one is the fb25 boxer engine 4cylinder engine so let's talk about their mechanical construction cuz they're very similar there are a few differences here and there which we're going to highlight in this video the fb20 and the fb25 mechanically they're similar we T start with a cylinder head they both have plastic valve covers this is something that got updated the initial version of this engine didn't have it now we do this engine has dual cams you can't say overhead because it is a boxer it's on the side so this has four cam shafts basically because you have two cylinders here two cylinders on the other side the cylinder head is a two-piece cylinder head very familiar design with a lot of auto manufacturers except it's a boxer setup so you have the cylinder head itself which has the valves and the springs and everything and then kind of a cam cradle or Cam Tower or holder that has the cams in it and they have sealer in between between them then this engine has something very curious and something I don't quite understand why they do it this way this doesn't have hydraulic lifters this actually has valve adjustments now mind you the engine has to come out for these valve adjustments I hope that's not a common thing but the way they construct this is in my eyes they have it exact same setup as a Toyota believe it or not so they have a roller rocker a little cap that sits on the valve that cap is actually a shim that you can get them in multiple sizes and that's how we adjust the valves and then what looks like a hydraulic lifter looks exactly like a hydraulic lifter out of many popular Toyota engines it's actually just a pivot point it is not a hydraulic lifter so I feel like they could have with a revision of this engine they could have added hydraulic lifters they didn't we still have the shim design which is okay moving on to the block and that is the biggest thing with boxer engines this is a two-piece block so two pieces come together and the crank is in the middle something interesting about this engine you can remove the rods without disassembling the block halves and that is something that they did with the BRZ that you can't you have to split the block to get the Pistons out which is something just not good they didn't do that here and that is very good now moving on to the fuel system of this engine this engine has direct injection only and for reasons unknown to me I mean you did the BRZ with Toyota you took the awesome d4s system I wish they would have implemented it in all their cars but they didn't understandable you know they didn't want to take somebody else's system to their mainstream cars but this has direct injection only the way this is made because this is a boxer so the direct injectors sit right here they're right on top and they go straight into the cylinder head they're not like where the spark plugs would be or anything they do have a high pressure fuel pump right here in the front it's actually a very good area for for it very accessible this is relatively a simple system but in the future this might have carbon buildup issues and because the boxer orientation they're not known for heavy carbon buildup issues but still under certain driving conditions is very possible now this engine has the world's largest front timing cover because it's a boxer it's a huge engine it has a very large front timing cover and behind that front timing cover there's two timing chains one for each bank because you have two Banks here for the boxer two tensioners surprisingly the oiling system in this engine is very prehistoric is the word I'm going to use here because the oil pump sits in the front at the nose of the crank this is where the oil pump is pretty simple design it's actually a good design but then most of the oil travels through this massive front timing cover to go to the block first and then the left cylinder head and the right cylinder head just a little too much cuz service with this engine you got to be very careful because the way the this engine is orientated you got to be very clean because you can actually clog some of these passages and cause major damage so heads up if you're working this engine internal you really need to be very very clean Subaru sealer is another interesting one it's a very strong sealer so cleaning it creates a lot of debris and that's the other issue here moving on to the cooling system and this is where the fb20 and the fb25 the two engine options they do have a slight difference this in this particular model is an fb20 this is a 2 L has possibly one of the most basic cooling systems mechanical water pump all the way at the bottom of the engine and then you have just simple thermostat hoses going in the heater core that's about it and the fb25 though they have a coolant distribution valve so kind of a thermal management it can block coolant for growing certain parts of the engine so you can have rapid warm-up it's just strange that they didn't do it with the fb20 but that's what they deem necessary and that's what they did now let's talk about this engine from a different perspective from a mechanic's perspective I do have some experience with this style engine from my time with Toyota's technician working on the F FRS and currently at my shop this engine is a boxer boxers have their advantages and their disadvantages some of the advantages here is it is simple to work on believe it or not you look at this looks super complicated but it is actually not because pulling this engine out of this car for example is very simple and then the way it's packaged especially in the cross track you have a lot of room usually with boxers spark plugs are difficult here you have a little bit more room and the way they package this entire thing I think they did it better than the previous version they thought of a few things for example this engine in the the past in the previous Origins had a tendency when you take sharp corners for a long time they pull all their oil to one big void in the valve cover well in this engine they actually fixed that they put a little baffle that took up that space so now oil won't pull on one side they did a lot of Provisions to this engine to make it even better but serviceability remains not complicated that front timing cover is extremely difficult to remove especially with all the sealer around it I guess labor cost wise if you're going to do anything to this engine in the future they're not super high but you have to have a specialist work on it because that sealer is very difficult and there's a lot of it and this engine tend to have Delicacies with oiling because of the way it's orientated and some will ask do we still have head gasket issues folks that is a little bit old for Subaru things are getting better boxer designs have come a long way I am not a subar specialist but I do have some experience I haven't really seen a lot of head gasket issues in the modern ones especially the this series engine but time will tell but they are however from the front time and cover they're notorious for oil leaks it's a pretty difficult front cover to do in the car without pulling the engine pulling the engine is not a big job on this engine on this car now let's talk about the transmission choices for this car and they chose one there's no more manual transmission they only have a CVT some people will dislike that and look folks cvts are complicated Transmissions this is happens to be one of the better maj ones but they still compared head-to-head with a regular sixspeed 8speed whatever the case this is more complicated so problems in the future they're just more with cvts that's just the reality of it something that comes standard in all Subarus they're awesome symmetrical all-wheel drive folks most cars in this segment you get an all-wheel drive it's not pretty all-wheel drive when you slip it starts to assist a little bit and when you get to a certain speed it just disengages and that's it that's how they work this however is a Subaru signature it's a true all-wheel drive system all the time all the time that you're driving this car all four wheels are driving regardless of Drive pavement slipping or driving normally that's the best part about this and they really do this very well it is trouble-free it is very reliable and rugged and it works very well but something else that it does if one wheel does start to slip it actually can send less power to it not huge where it cuts it out but it sends more power to the rear if the front wheels are slipping for example to help push you out of situations it's a very clever system and it works really really well and the best part about it is it doesn't add all these complicated components it's just engineered well things that are engineered well they're not complicated because the complication was in the design not in the execution and this is one of those systems so both models your 2.0 and 2.5 5 will have the same CBT except one change the torque converter on the 2.5 is different than the 2.0 and then they will both have and this is the case with almost all Subaru's standard symmetrical all-wheel drive which is just epic in my opinion but the last thing they did here that is very interesting see this engine used to have a vacuum pump on the other side direct injection engines will have low vacuum so they need to have a vacuum pump to assist the vacuum operator power brakes well here you actually have a blockoff plate for that it is still there cuz this engine was designed with a vacuum pump you have a blockoff plate and the reason for that is they got away from your grandpa's vacuum booster they have an electronic one beautifully sits right here works very well and the feel of brakes in this car are immediate this is not a like a hydraulic booster that is electronically controlled this is actually a very clever system that they used here limit ating your vacuum pump it's very simple it works very well and you do feel it when you hit the brakes they just feel more immediate and that is a very good change that they did let's take a look underneath the 2024 Subaru cross Trek starting with everything is covered up at least in the front they do however give you a little opening here for your train plug oil filter at the top pretty simple so this is not people always dislike covers covers are actually there to protect things and this is a good thing let's talk about the front suspension and brakes so you have a steel lower control arm the ball joint is kind of upside down from what you normally see it is in the knuckle but it is separate from the knuckle you can replace it separately which the knuckle is steel it is not aluminum then you move around here two piston caliper and the front design is a typical mcferson design pretty rugged pretty simple no thrills nothing really over the top then we look at the transmission this is the I don't want to call it the deal breaker for some people but this is what worries some folks folks this is the CBT transmission the lineartronic transmission what superu calls it it is a massive unit simply because this also has the front differential remember this has a very cool all-wheel drive setup and we'll talk about it a little bit here aluminum pan you notice it's not plastic this is actually an aluminum pan folks in my opinion this is a good CVT but cvts in general they're very complicated they have a lot of stuff going on and generally if you don't maintain these you drive them in certain driving conditions they're not the most reliable that's just the thing with cbts but this is a good CVT it is at least from all my research and kind and I'm making sure that this information is correct this is made inh house by Subaru and his parent company this is not made by for example jatco or somebody else that is what I found in my research but if you look at the little details you look here here's a shifter cable super accessible not buried on top of the transmission or somewhere where you don't want it to be and also integrated with it is the front differential which is right here you see the axles coming out of it little harder to see but if you look here you'll actually see one of the axles coming out of it that's how this system works and it's a pretty cool one you notice it is a rear wheeel drive configuration with the front wheels being driven but unlike many other cars they don't have a transfer case that turns the power around and sends it to a separate front differential this is designed to be this way and that's what makes this system Superior to anything you're going to find in a car like this short of a truck with four true four-wheel drive now the exhaust exhaust on Subarus are typically decent decent quality and it shows I like that they have Flex Flex joints right here they don't have flex pipes and as we move around to the back you see the drive shift right here that goes not from the transfer K it's straight from the transmission into the differential now the differential it is a little cute differential because even though this is symmetrical all-wheel drive it is not meant for heavy Offroad like you're not going to go rock colling with this differential or pull a giant boat behind you but it is if you notice cast iron in the body which makes it a lot stronger even though it's small it is a lot stronger unit because to me this is as good of an all whee drive as you're ever going to get in any other car looking at the rear suspension pretty interesting rear suspension you have a double Wishbone set up at the top and then a few arms at the bottom it's a pretty simple setup and you notice how much room you have it's not busy with a lot of arms and a lot of complication it's pretty simple suspension works pretty good you do have the shock right here with the spring right on it it's not two separate things make service actually better you look in the back single piston caliper with the integrated electric parking brake which I think it's a brilliant design then we look in the back and you notice something here The superu that I like single Muffler goes out the side nothing really about it negative flux joint here which is very good you want to see these more in cars and then look at this they actually attempted to cover the sides not 100% covered but they attempted a little bit same thing on this side they didn't just leave it wide open let's take a look at the outside of the cross track starting with the front this car is a kind of a practical functional car so it's not going to have the best looks in the planet but I feel like there's a lot of kind of copying perhaps from other manufacturers because this headlight reminds me of this car now the front grill is typical Subaru there's not much going on there is not a radar sensor behind the envelope and that is something a Subaru kind of did very special and very different if you look here you not only have one camera actually have three and that's what they do here this is called the eyesight system works very good and it's this is where Subaru occasionally will want to do things their own way the Subaru way if I would put it in one way just for you guys if you're not familiar Subaru is the Volvo of Japan they always does things their own special way and unlike Volvo most of the time they do things well and that is one of them this is a brilliant system that actually works much better your cameras are up here not in the front you get in a front little accident you don't have to calibrate radar sensor and all this mess they're up here that's the cool thing about that the hood is a very really featureless Hood does have a little dip here does have a little very minor line in it but this car is not over styled it's not really meant to be a showstopper looks-wise but function is where they did it good look at that look how high that bumper is off the ground for most folks they're not really into cars they just need a car to drive around and light Offroad and whatnot this is very good they didn't overstyle the front bumper and then make it super low to the ground where you hit it on everything it's very high same story on the side I mean the side is very high when you compare it to many cars that are similar to this and this Gap is not huge they didn't just lift the body they actually designed it this way and that's the cool thing but something curious here this is how should I say it not the fastest car in the planet it's actually quite the opposite of that it's one of the slowest cars in the planet we have very elaborate brake vents over there and here I guess they deem that necessary but it's a little overkilled but that's okay brakes are actually pretty big on this and they feel great as we talked about it this has an electronic booster and that is pretty cool then and this is very objective but this is just my opinion I don't like that these have a strange shape just to emphasize the arch it's just a very strange shape and I like symmetrical thing and this just doesn't doesn't rhyme with me and for some reason the mirror is a different color than the rest of the car it's okay they ran out of blue paint but I'm not into that stuff again this is very objective it depends on taste now this car does have a smart key or keyless entry deal you only have it in the front you do not have it in the back at this price point no complaints because this car we'll talk about it in a little bit when it comes to price point things are very well this is an optional ladder style thing on the top here looks very odd and I feel like it adds a little bit to the wind noise cuz you have this so unless you really have a heavy use for this don't get this option just thought I'd mentioned that as we wrap around we have the same situation here again objective it's kind of an odd look that it's not a round circle then we move to the back it has a very typical Subaru look but it also if you look at this exact line right here doesn't it remind you of this car and then if I cover this part doesn't also remind you of this car feel like you know they're all Japanese companies they all like to share their designs and they're good designs I think this is not offensive that's the best way I'm going to put it it's not a showstopper but you drive this every day you're not going to look at it one day and go like this is an ugly car it's not looks good it's functional and speaking of functional this matters look at this space it's a decent space for a car that is not super big it's very easy to drive this is a lot of space and the other thing is that I love you got a spare tire cuz they're not going to go with the trends and not give you a spare tire so that is something very good you notice there's no power back door it's very simple CU you don't need it this is a very light door you don't need the complication and now the price start going up and up very simple you want to fold the back seats now you have a lot of room I I like the functionality of this car as you see more when we talk about the interior let's take a look at the interior of the 2024 Subaru cross Trek and the first glance when you get in this interior it's very basic and that's the whole point of this car this car at this price point is actually a lot of car and that I feel like was objective of this car let's start with the gauges there are two mechanical gauges with a screen in the middle works perfectly fine gives you enough information that you need no gimmicks no thrills works very nice then the steering wheel the only thing I have about the steering wheel is it's a little busy there's a lot of buttons and I understand that with modern cars it is laid out okay the drive mode is on the steering wheel which is something I haven't really seen in a lot of cars then we move in the middle here mechanical shifter as we looked when we looked at the cable underneath the car beautiful mechanical shifter works perfectly fine doesn't really no thrills about it very easy to operate heated seats in this particular model that has it physical button high and low not 17 settings just very simple electronic parking brake which is right here very simple as well plenty of storage this center console is actually pretty large which is nice then we move into the middle where we have a massive screen here something to be said about the screen it's very big so when you put it in reverse for example only a little bit shows up that's usually the problem with big screens and then at the very bottom of the screen you have your hvc controls which I wish the word here I feel like there is some oversights here for example your auto buttons on the side that's actually customizable you can add things but I feel like we have a lot of empty space where you could have added more features like the AC the auto we only are confined to choosing one that appears that's okay but then the brake hold me we have all the space we could have put the break hole button right here no instead you have to go to car settings then turn on the brake hold very distracting when you're driving if you want to just turn it on that is a small oversight in a perfect world this would have been a smaller screen and we would have physical HVAC controls right here but they didn't do it that way and that's okay seats are very comfortable and this is something to be said about older Subarus they typically don't have the most comfortable seats in the planet that is something of a Subaru thing these seats I was pleasantly surprised that they're super comfortable they're fabric nothing wrong with that they work pretty well again at this price point this is a lot of car for this money I mean this interior it's not exotic materials and everything is super nice leather and whatnot but Everything You Touch it's plastic but it's well-made plastic it doesn't feel like cheap and rattly no it's actually pretty wellmade and that is the good part now driving this car it is very loud to be expected this is not a luxury car in any way shape or form it is decent the engine is pretty loud and adding a CVT to that and under underpowered engine uh this is pretty loud but again for a basic car at this price point it is a lot of car for the money and then again on the overside part the last thing if you look at the door handle on the door panel it is kind of a different material they're trying to make it a soft touch but if you touch the end of it just this squishy little thing that just feels like just not nice doesn't feel like a soft touch material I don't know what kind of material it is it just feels like a not a good attempt at making a soft touch material I we wish it would have just been the same typical plastic would have been fine let's take a look at the back seat of the Cross Trek I am 5'7 this is my driving position I have decent knee room decent head room pretty comfortable here knees are a little bit up but that's how it is with newer cars this is a comfortable place to be even for adults you do have some USB and USBC right here things are good I like this back seat it's actually a functional back seat pretty comfortable place life is good let's talk about some things I do not like about the 2024 Subaru cross strike starting with the infotainment system and the HVAC control situation so the infotainment system it's a nice large screen and that's very good a little bit laggy a little bit slow that is also okay but I feel like they removed the physical controls for the HVAC and they put them at the bottom of the screen and it's always there and that's also good but I feel like they could have done this a little better I mean you can customize which switches you want out but I feel like there's space at the bottom that you could have put all these controls visible where I don't have to go into the screen to change which buttons are always visible that could have been done a little better and the other thing is certain physical buttons got removed into the screen for example your automatic brake hold or automatic vehicle brake brake hold basically you have to go into car settings turn it on which if you don't hit it just right it'll just not do anything that could have been a button cuz I'm driving and I'm stopping a traffic light you want to activate something like that you have to go on the screen that should have been a physical button would have been made made it a lot better but moving on from the infotainment system the biggest thing with this car is it is slow it is extremely slow I mean usually when cars have a CVT they will Roar and Roar this is very underpowered and even if you drive the 2.5 ler version it is still slow it's a little better but still if you are the kind of person that have a heavy foot this will really get in your way and merging into traffic you will notice it the thing is struggling to go that is one of its downsides it's too slow so the 2024 Subaru cross Trek folks Subaru is a unique company they do things the Subaru way not the way the automotive industry is is going the automotive industry is going in a way where every car has to be flashy basically everybody is expecting these cars to be a hot Ferrari on Wheels but what that's doing is it's raising the prices of these cars this one however doesn't suffer from that it's a basic Transportation car that is wellmade is not the most reliable car in the world but it is up there in reliability and the other thing is you step into this interior it is easier to operate easy to work no flashy exotic materials no everything is rugged and wellmade but the biggest reason you would buy a car like this is is this beautiful all-wheel drive system folks every single SUV and crossover in this size or this segment if you would they don't really have an all-wheel drive system per se it waits for you to slip then engage or it is disengaging as soon as you get to a certain speed this has four-wheel drive all-wheel drive symmetrical all the time I see the buyer for this car like this a young family that likes The Great Outdoors not all the time we're not going to drive to the top Mount Everest and bag every other day but we're going to go some off-roading light off-roading even a little bit heavier off-roading than you would think this will take it will take it because it's really that good the allhe drive and the other thing is because Subaru is a sensible company they don't make things following Trends they make things to Subaru way that ground clearance is excellent because they didn't overstyle the bumper to make it all the way to the ground this car though is not perfect no car is there's good and there is bad some of the negative stuff about this car it is slow hopelessly slow I mean this is not a car that you're going to be winning any medals for Speed and the best thing about this car is if you are a parent and you buy this for your young child they will not get in trouble even if they try to I guess that is a good thing of that and the second thing is the entainment system could use some work I feel like they're heading in the right direction but there are certain things if they do it and I see them as simple software changes it will make this even better now the lack of physical buttons on the interior for certain things that are important that is the only place where they crossed into the modern times and didn't do it physical button they actually went on the screen but at least they laid it down where it's always there and I guess that is a good thing folks I hope this video was helpful informative I hope you learned something new if you like it consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some my other videos until the next video folks may the Lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut Reviews

Views: 462,031

Keywords: Subaru crosstrek, subaru, 2024 Subaru crosstrek, should you buy a subaru, Subaru engine, subaru cvt transmission, Subaru reliability, car mechanic, car review, Subaru awd, best Subaru to buy, mechanic reviews car, 2024 subaru, 2024 car review, suv, suv review, cvt transmission, reliable car, the car care nut, car care nut, scotty kilmer, car wizard, TCCN automotive, savagegeese, Doug demuro

Id: RfDBqq2L4Gc

Length: 30min 7sec (1807 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2023