2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness Up Close: Into the Wild
The new 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, unveiled at the 2023 New York International Auto Show, is the third Wilderness model in Subaru’s lineup, and it follows a familiar formula seen on the Outback Wilderness and Forester Wilderness. The off-road-oriented Crosstrek Wilderness has special design cues, more exterior body cladding, different grille and bumper styling, greater ground clearance and all-terrain tires — but the Crosstrek wears the off-road-ready look better than them.
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If you’ve seen the Outback and Forester Wilderness models, you may have noticed their extra ground clearance makes them look like they’re on stilts, with exaggerated openings between the tops of the tires and the fenders. The Crosstrek Wilderness has 9.3 inches of ground clearance, but there’s less of the odd wheel-well gaps.
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Otherwise, the Crosstrek Wilderness’ exterior adopts familiar cues like gold accents, extra body cladding and Wilderness badges. There’s an aluminum front skid plate for underbody protection off-road, but there aren’t skid plates aft of it to protect other delicate components, though Subaru expects to offer them as accessories for those who plan on tackling especially challenging terrain.
The Crosstrek Wilderness also has matte-black 17-inch alloy wheels with Yokohama Geolandar all-terrain tires. The SUV’s spare tire, however, is a skinny temporary tire under the cargo floor — better than a space-saver tire or emergency inflation kit, but still not ideal if you get a flat far from civilization. (The Forester and Outback Wilderness include full-size spare tires.)
Despite having a relatively small exterior footprint, there’s enough room in the Crosstrek Wilderness’ cabin for adults to sit comfortably in the front and rear seats at the same time. Subtle interior changes include a gold accent on the steering wheel and embossed Wilderness logos on the head restraints. A standard 11.6-inch vertically oriented touchscreen is the focal point of the dashboard, and the infotainment system includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity.
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Subaru has spent a lot of effort burnishing its image as an outdoors-capable brand, and the expansion of the Wilderness range with the new Crosstrek version furthers that effort. While its approximately $33,000 starting price puts it at the top of the Crosstrek range, it’s still relatively affordable as far as new cars go, making it a good value for off-pavement enthusiasts.
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