2025 Subaru Crosstrek Review

The back-to-basics 2025 Crosstrek boasts ample capability and, unexpectedly, power.

James Riswick | 

Sep 17, 2025 | 8 min read

James Riswick

"Enough with all this newfangled car stuff!" If that sounds like you, then the 2025 Subaru Crosstrek is a great little crossover SUV to consider. Its old-school interior should be a welcome breath of fresh air, while its comfort, build quality, surprising space, and fuel efficiency are widely appreciated traits that add up to a well-rounded small SUV.

Now, there's a decent chance that the Crosstrek's cabin will spur the opposite reaction in people impressed by the design and technology in some rivals. This Subaru can seem dated, but it's also simple to use, and during my test drive the build quality appeared better than most of the competitors I've driven. There's a solidity to the way the Crosstrek drives that's lacking in some competitors, and a capability for hauling people, stuff, and itself off-road that should help it stand out from the pack.

Better yet, the 2025 Crosstrek Premium can accelerate out of its own way. Last year's 2.0-liter four-cylinder with its 152 horsepower is gone, replaced by a 182-hp 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. Additionally, a hill-descent-control system and Subaru's dual-function X-Mode off-roading tech with Snow/Dirt and Deep Snow/Mud settings are along for the ride.

James Riswick

About the 2025 Subaru Crosstrek

The 2025 Subaru Crosstrek lineup includes Base, Premium, Sport, Limited, and Wilderness trim levels. They range in price from the high $20,000s to the mid-$30,000s, including the destination charge. Subaru builds the Crosstrek Base and Premium in Gunma, Japan, while the others roll off the automaker's Lafayette, Indiana, assembly line.

For this Crosstrek review, I test-drove the Premium in Southern California. It had the Option Package: 14, which adds a 10-way power driver seat; blind-spot and rear cross-traffic warning; automatic emergency steering; a power moonroof; and heated seats, wipers, and mirrors. The manufacturer's suggested retail price was $30,725, including the $1,420 destination charge.

James Riswick

2025 Subaru Crosstrek Is Surprisingly Spacious

The Crosstrek's interior is not much to look at, but the materials appear to be of a higher quality than the segment norm, or at least are more consistent throughout. Everything also felt extremely well screwed together. I imagine the cabin will look exactly the same in a decade.

There are a few physical buttons, too (the ones for the heated seats looked like they were left over from the 1990s). Unfortunately, aside from the defrost and temperature controls, every other climate system setting is smushed into the bottom of the touchscreen.

The gauge cluster features an analog tachometer and speedometer with a 4.2-inch multi-info display. While this may seem old-fashioned in 2025, not all modern digital instrumentation panels are created equal. In my experience, those in the Chevrolet Trax and low-trim-level Hyundai Kona models, for example, are plain and offer little configurability. The Crosstrek's gauges appear more upscale, provide more information, and are easy to read.

James Riswick

The front seats are pretty comfy, especially the 10-way power-adjustable driver seat. Back-seat legroom is less generous than that of some rivals on paper (such as the Chevrolet Trax, Hyundai Kona, and Volkswagen Taos), but in practice, I found more room in the Crosstrek than in the Kona, and I suspect it's at least on par with the others.

Cargo space is similarly more practical than the 19.9 cubic-foot measurement suggests. I could more easily fit luggage inside (and in some cases, more of it) than I could in some competitors that boast higher official volumes. Maximum cargo volume measures 54.7 cu-ft, and for anything that doesn't fit inside, most Crosstreks have raised roof rails that make it easy to install your own aftermarket crossbars.

Interior storage disappointed. The cupholders were not ideal. While my 40-ounce jumbo cup technically fit, it didn't go all the way into the cupholder and flopped around. A skinny metal bottle fit but slid around. It also couldn't fit in the doors. The phone bin in the Premium doesn't have wireless charging, but it should at least have a rubber surface to prevent a phone from moving around. Additionally, the Crosstrek lacks clever storage solutions elsewhere. Subaru should do better.

James Riswick

2025 Crosstrek's Tech Is Easy to Use but Unlikely to Impress

The 11.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system features huge icons and big fonts (except for the climate controls) that make it easy to read at a glance while driving. The menu structure is also simple to navigate. It can be a tad slow at times, and it looks comically behind the times, but it's functional.

Wireless connectivity for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is on board. When I tried out CarPlay, it reconnected every time I got back in the car, and while the mirrored display occupies only the center portion of the screen, the Home icons oddly show at the bottom instead of to the left. Otherwise, it works as it should. The Crosstrek Premium does not come with native navigation or voice recognition systems.

Notably, the six-speaker sound system was surprisingly good, especially when compared with the tinny sound quality I've experienced in previous low-trim-level Subarus. Various audio sources and genres sounded crisp, and if anything deserves criticism, it was the excess of bass for certain songs on satellite radio.

James Riswick

The 2026 Crosstrek comes standard with a collection of advanced driver-assistance systems known as Subaru EyeSight. It includes automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, and adaptive cruise control with lane-centering assist. My test car's Optional Package: 14 lineup added, among other things, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and evasive-steering assist.

EyeSight's safety features generally worked well, and I appreciated the ability to adjust the sensitivity settings of some features, ensuring I could keep all the tech active without suffering irksome beeping or hyperactive interventions.

Additionally, the adaptive cruise control performed as expected. The following distances were reasonable, it dealt with a heavy braking event, and it sped back up without delay. The lane-centering assist did a fine job in one direction on the highway (no lane wander and it handled curves well). However, when driving in the opposite direction, the combination of a concrete surface, white lane markers, and the sun overhead seemed to confuse the cameras, and the system kept shutting off. Those weren't unusual conditions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the Crosstrek a five-star overall safety rating and five-star ratings in every frontal and side-impact test. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), however, rated the Crosstrek in two of its crashworthiness tests as Marginal and Acceptable rather than Good.

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Comfy Ride and Efficient Performance for Subaru's 2025 Crosstrek

All models but the base version of the 2025 Crosstrek feature a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that produces 182 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque. A continuously variable transmission (CVT) and all-wheel drive are standard.

When equipped with this engine, the Crosstrek has more standard horsepower than just about every competitor except the Mazda CX-30. Some of Subaru's turbocharged rivals can feel a little more energetic, but the Crosstrek's ample output and eager throttle response effortlessly get it up to speed.

The CVT didn't even annoy me. Its simulated gear changes aren't quite natural (in my experience, the Hyundai Kona's are better), but it doesn't cause the engine to drone, and it didn't yo-yo revs when I was off and on the accelerator pedal while driving in the mountains.

Fortunately, compared with the Crosstrek Premium's previous engine, the EPA fuel-economy ratings are essentially unchanged at 29 mpg in combined city and highway driving. That's typical for the segment. I averaged 28.1 mpg on my 75-mile evaluation route, which isn't bad, given the mountain-road portion usually disproportionately affects small engines. It got 37.5 mpg on the highway portion.

James Riswick

Just as impressive was the ride quality. The Crosstrek Premium is a very comfortable crossover, and not only because of a soft suspension and ample tire sidewalls (those do help). It has a sense of solidity and sophistication that I haven't experienced in most other subcompact SUVs.

The Crosstrek was also more responsive on my mountain-road handling evaluation than I expected. The tires lost grip quickly, and the steering could've used a bit more effort, but the Subie didn't feel as top-heavy or bulky as other models in this segment can. Again, it feels solid and stable.

I also took the Crosstrek off-road, or at least to the extent that a typical owner might. It successfully tackled an extremely steep incline with loose dirt and ruts, an achievement I was genuinely impressed by, given I usually tackle it with more dedicated off-roaders. The ample ground clearance (8.7 inches) also helped clear big rocks and a hill crest that often causes vehicles to high-center.

James Riswick

Is the 2025 Subaru Crosstrek a Good SUV?

The 2025 Crosstrek's old-school charm will be polarizing, and possibly the dealmaker or deal-breaker, given the universal appeal of the SUV's comfort, performance, efficiency, space, versatility, and all-surface traction. It's a well-rounded little crossover for those with aligned expectations.

James Riswick

James Riswick has been testing cars and writing about them for more than 20 years. He was the senior reviews editor for Autoblog and previously served multiple editor roles at Edmunds. He has also contributed to Autotrader, Car and Driver, Hagerty, J.D. Power, and Autoguide Magazine. He has been interested in cars forever; his mom took him to the Toronto Auto Show when he was 18 months old and he has attended at least one every year since (OK, except in 2020). When he's not testing the latest cars, he has a babied 1998 BMW Z3 in James Bond blue, a 2013 Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon, and a 2023 Kia Niro EV.