We owned the first year of the Crosstrek (2013) until yesterday and upgraded to the Outback. I did love my car, but really it had no power. The Outback is a dream to drive.
Agree with the others about the Crosstrek. Have you looked at the new Forester?

In terms of safety, the Crosstrek is superior. Subaru uses a type of steel alloy in the A,B,C and D pillars, plus the door sills, that is so hard it's actually difficult to cut with rescue tools. The penalty for all this safety is weight, at 3,400 lbs without a driver. Combine that weight with only 148 hp, and you have a car that is really slow-feeling. Realistically, the Crosstrek needs at least 100 more HP for it to feel "right" for a car of that weight. For example, a Corvette is about 400 lbs lighter than a Crosstrek, and has THREE TIMES the horsepower. That shows you how far towards the "underpowered" side of the scale a Crosstrek is from the powerful cars on other side of the scale. There's a lot of room in between the two. The Crosstrek handles very well, however. It's very balanced and corners extremely well. Always feels solid and planted.

The Kona is lighter, has roughly the same power, but because it's lighter, it's faster. Handling is similar, safety is less than the Subaru because of the reduced weight and lesser quality of steels.

Anonymous wrote:I have test driven a lot of cars the past few weekends. The top two right now are the Crosstrek and the Kona. Please tell me your pros and cons if you have one of those cars.

Damn. I thought you were asking about bikes.

Kona is a solid brand, not only for mountain bikes. Bikenetic specializes in them.

My parents have an Outback. While it was in the shop (the sunroof glass exploded spontaneously), they were given a Crosstrek to use as a loaner.

My dad is nearly 80. We happened to be talking about cars recently and I mentioned that DH likes the Crosstrek. Dad (80) said it has very little power/accelleration compared to the Outback. He thought the Crosstrek was inferior in handling as well.

I came on DCUM a few days later and found multiple people posting the same thing on a different thread about the Crosstrek. So, I'm comfortable concluding that the Crosstrek is NOT the car we will be getting and it's not one I'd recommend to anyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crosstreks are crazy underpowered

I'm the owner of the Crosstrek. I should add that I have no interest in cars and know little about them. So I have no idea what pps post means and if it's something I've noticed

PP is saying it doesn't have power - small engine, sluggish start from the stop,...etc. If you gas it, does it go or does it labor?

Anyone else?

Anonymous wrote:Crosstreks are crazy underpowered

I'm the owner of the Crosstrek. I should add that I have no interest in cars and know little about them. So I have no idea what pps post means and if it's something I've noticed

Crosstreks are crazy underpowered

I have a Crosstrek and live in NH. Car handles the snow/ice wonderfully. Im a nurse so have to drive to work regardless of the weather conditions and Ive always felt safe in the car

I'm at about 110,000 miles now and plan to drive it until it doesn't make sense to. Repairs have been minimal. I just had to get the brakes/belts done this past summer and I put in a new battery a couple of months ago. Other than that, it's just been regular maintenance that you'd do on any car

Biggest con I have is trunk space. It's really not a whole lot which can be frustrating sometimes (granted my last car was a Jeep). I wish I could hold more in the trunk

I have test driven a lot of cars the past few weekends. The top two right now are the Crosstrek and the Kona. Please tell me your pros and cons if you have one of those cars.