One of Subaru’s best-selling crossovers, the Crosstrek, got a brand new look at the Geneva Motor show this morning.
The design borrows heavily from the XV Concept that the company showed at last year’s Geneva Motor Show with flowing body lines and front and rear lights that echo the concept’s. The new Crosstrek gets more rugged looking under-cladding and newly designed aluminum wheels as well as two new colors, “Cool Gray Khaki,” and “Sunshine Orange.”
The popular crossover is the first to be built on Subaru’s new architecture known as the Subaru Global Platform. Subaru says the new platform will enhance ride, comfort, agility and safety. The same platform underpins the redesigned Impreza that Subaru began selling in 2016.
The European version, unveiled today as the XV (in the states it will be known as the Crosstrek, a change that took place in 2015) gets a 2.0-liter horizontally-opposed 4-cylinder engine, symmetrical all-wheel drive, and Subaru’s EyeSight safety features as standard, as well as X-mode, which, according to Subaru, is designed to improve handling on rough roads by manipulating the all-wheel drive system (torque vectoring), braking, and engine. The system will also offer hill descent control that helps maintain control in downhill driving. In its European form the XV will get 154 hp and 144 lb-ft of torque. It will be married to Subaru’s updated Lineartronic 7-speed continuously-variable automatic transmission that can mimic a manual mode should you so desire. Subaru says that the revamped Crosstrek will also get a lower center of gravity and an electronic parking brake rather than a mechanical one.
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The Crosstrek took its first bow on the global stage here in Geneva back in 2012. Since then, Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries — which announced today it is changing its name to Subaru Corporation — has hit major sales records. Chairman and CEO Yasuyuki Yoshinaga says Subaru sold more than a million vehicles worldwide last year, a first for the company. Yoshinaga said crossovers make up more than 70 percent of that number. The Crosstrek is the second most popular crossover that Subaru makes, behind the Forester.
“People don’t just buy our cars,” Yoshinaga said during the press conference, “they own them.” It’s no secret Subaru owners tend to hang onto their vehicles for a long time. According to Subaru, 96 percent of the Subarus registered in the last six years are still on the road.
The U.S. version of the Crosstrek will make its stateside debut at the New York Auto Show in April.