2020 Subaru Crosstrek

[MUSIC PLAYING] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Few vehicles are as synonymous with a singular purpose as the Jeep Wrangler is with off-roading. But with several new off-road ready versions of standard vehicles on the market, there's lots more to choose from these days. And we're wondering if you really need a Jeep to fill your outdoor dreams. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Hi, I'm Travis Langness. CALVIN KIM: And I'm Calvin Kim. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And we are here standing in the Sequoia National Forest. CALVIN KIM: We're about to start an epic 20 mile off-road adventure with this new Jeep Wrangler. TRAVIS LANGNESS: But we didn't just bring the Jeep. We also brought this. TRAVIS LANGNESS: That's the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek, Subaru's smallest SUV, and basically an Impreza Hatchback with a bit of a lift. We're here to see how it stacks up against Jeep's most iconic nameplate, the Wrangler. TRAVIS LANGNESS: The Subaru Crosstrek, it's based on the Impreza, and that means it's really pretty good at what it does. What we're trying to figure out here is, is it worth it to buy that Wrangler? I mean, yeah, sure, it's got all that off-road heritage, and the real four-wheel drive system. This is an all-wheel drive system, even though it's got the X-Mode. And it's got plenty of ground clearance, so I think this Crosstrek is going to do pretty well. CALVIN KIM: I'm in the Wrangler Sport. You get power door locks, power windows, a head unit with navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, air conditioning. The big thing for most buyers is going to be how it drives on the road because the reality is, is you're not going on the Rubicon Trail every day. And if you are, bravo. If you find the lack of razor edge steering uncomfortable, you probably don't want a Wrangler. There are a lot of other SUVs out there that are 90% as off-roadable but way more streetable. And I think that's the compromise that you have to ask yourself. TRAVIS LANGNESS: This Subaru, I think, is 150, 152 horsepower. And it's, honestly, not the best. The passing power is not very good. Going up grades it's kind of sluggish. CALVIN KIM: The engine in this is the V6, and it has a tremendous amount of power, yeah, more than this Wrangler has any business having, which is kind of cool. It gives you a lot of performance, a lot of on-road acceleration. But, again, it comes at a price because the faster you go, the more noise you hear, and that is a direct correlation. TRAVIS LANGNESS: It's so quiet in here compared to the Wrangler. Also, this car has a lot more features for the price. Fully topped out with pretty much every option you can get, it's about $31,000. Now, Calvin's Wrangler, if it had the manual in it with a base Sport, starts around $28,000. But with the options he's got on there, that Wrangler is $39,000. It doesn't have adaptive cruise control. It doesn't have lane keep and blind spot assist-- [CAR DINGS] --like this car does, oh see, lane assist. It doesn't have heated seats. And it doesn't have a moonroof, sure it's got a convertible top, but you got to get out fold that down. There's a lot going on there. This is definitely a much more well-equipped car. He's got cloth seats. I've got full leather. I've got this gorgeous dual-screen display. CALVIN KIM: It doesn't have heated seats, ventilated seats, or anything like that. It's noisy inside of here. A lot of SUVs that have fairly good off-road capability, they have those creature comforts at that price point. You're asking for a vehicle to go off-road. Understand that the Wrangler is really, really, really good at that, and that's what you're paying for. Jeep did the bare minimum to make it comfortable enough, streetable enough, and competent enough on the road, so you can get to the trailhead with ease. And that's exactly what the Wrangler can do. Compared to the Crosstrek, this Jeep will obliterate it on the trail, but that's obvious. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Now, that Wrangler may have it beat when it comes to off-roading when we get there later on on the trail. But when it comes to on-road comfort, and what I'd want to drive on a daily basis, this is the one. CALVIN KIM: Let's take a look at what makes the Wrangler so good off-road. Probably, the biggest thing is going to be right here, this approach angle. Most cars have this fascia that prevents you from really attacking terrain, like rocks and inclines. Not the Jeep, the axle's pushed all the way forward to give a lot of clearance to the wheel. Basically, if the front wheel can touch it, it can go over it, which is awesome. But that's not all it has. Behind both wheels are solid axles front and rear, which are a lot stronger and more durable than independent suspensions. And of course, the suspension that supports the axles are also super beefy as well. The body on frame construction is also really strong. It allows the body to flex a little bit without getting into the chassis. And of course, it's got the selectable four-wheel drive system, so that you can just drive rural drive to help save gas, four-high for when you just need a little bit more traction, or four-low when you really want to do off-roading. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So now that we've gone through the litany of items that make the brute force Jeep Wrangler so good off-road, let's take a look at something with a little bit more finesse, the Subaru Crosstrek. Sure if you look at the side profile, it looks pretty much identical to an Impreza, which it's based on. But the Impreza also has Subaru's impressive asymmetrical all-wheel drive system. That's what makes the Impreza such a good all-weather vehicle. And what they've done with this particular one, the Crosstrek, is given it some additional ground clearance, which is almost as much as that Wrangler. And it's the same as the rest of the Subaru SUV lineup. So what Subaru has done, basically, is take a car that's already impressive on-road, and adapt it to be just as good off-road. So now that we've looked at the outside of the vehicles, we're going to take a look at the inside off-road. We drove up here, and this Subaru was really comfortable. It was great on the highway. I'd take it on any road trip, not a problem. And I'm following Calvin here, and there's nothing I haven't made it over yet. But, basically, what we're doing here is cruising over some rocks. I'm hoping I don't scrape, and I don't. That was less deadly than I thought it was going to be. CALVIN KIM: Here out on the trail, it's a different story all together. All the issues with noise, and steering, and suspension go out the window completely. Now, even though I'm getting jostled, it's not uncomfortable at all. There's absolutely no shock load going into my body. Now, that's because everything is working as planned. That same ball suspension that causes so many street guys consternation is absolutely wonderful out here on the dirt. You get good feedback from it, and you know what the front wheels are doing. And it doesn't react negatively to being bumped. TRAVIS LANGNESS: This Crosstrek is meant for this kind of stuff. It's not just an Impreza. It's an Impreza with a lot of capability off-road, you know? The wheels and tires are meant for this stuff. And the X-Mode right down here is meant for slow speed crawl stuff. I mean, it's smart. The asymmetrical system that Subaru has is really well sorted out, even if I can't sort out that bump. Now, I got to be a little bit more careful than Calvin in here because he can just kind of go over some of this stuff. And I'm going to engage X-Mode, and let it do the hill descent control for me. Now, all I got to do is steer. I'm not touching the pedals here. It's doing most of the hard stuff. As you can see on this little thing here, I'm at about a six degree angle. Oh, the break over there was pretty bad on that rock. CALVIN KIM: I'm just kind of mobbing through this little mini rock garden that's not even that big of a deal. I'm still in two-wheel drive mode. And honestly, I don't know if I'll even need four-wheel drive because we're going into a meadow, this-- which is pretty flat. We're picking our way through a much larger rock garden now. And that's-- again, the suspension, the solid axles, and the steering all work really well. The ground clearance is adequate. I haven't touched anything down on anything hard yet. And I'm not really paying attention to my line. I'm just kind of exploring what the Wrangler has to offer, and so far it's quite a lot. TRAVIS LANGNESS: And it's letting me get over most of this stuff without too much damage. Now, that stuff back there was serious-- couldn't have made that in an Impreza. This Crosstrek's extra ground clearance did it justice. And I didn't need the approach or departure angles that I thought I would need either. So while Calvin is getting some of the places a little bit quicker. I'm sure he's still a little bit less comfortable in that Jeep. And I'm still liking this Subaru quite a bit. So it was a pretty long day yesterday. We made it up the mountain, set up, got to camp out last night. How did your Jeep do? CALVIN KIM: I mean it's no surprise that the Jeep did really well out here. All the issues that people have with noise, drivability, steering, all that on the road, totally gone, and not an issue off the road. You can really tell the compromises that Jeep made for off-roadability. Now, if you're the type of person that's OK with that, then the Jeep's probably A-OK for you on a daily basis. But then again, the Subaru made it up here just fine. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, it did, you know? I used that X-Mode a couple of times going up the really rocky sections, coming down the really rocky sections. Hill descent and ascent control worked really well. It was like the Subaru was working smarter, not harder. You were able to use a little bit more brute force in the Jeep and kind of go at obstacles head-on. I might have had to avoid one or two. But if you're asking the question, do you need a Wrangler to go off-road? Do you need it to explore places that say they need four by four and high clearance? I mean, a lot of the time, I'm going to say, no. The Subaru can hack it out here. It's got plenty enough ground clearance. And in my book, that's the one I'd buy between these two. CALVIN KIM: I completely agree. TRAVIS LANGNESS: For more videos like this, go to edmunds.com, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.