2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness First Drive: Hitting the Rocks

•    Auto123 gets in a first drive of the 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness

Sedona, AZ – The Crosstrek, otherwise known as the Impreza on Stilts, is the star player on the Subaru roster in Canada. The Outback and Forester are certainly popular models, but the wee Crosstrek currently accounts for some 35 percent of the brand’s sales here.

It’s not hard to figure out why. The city-friendly small SUV offers a comfortable on-pavement ride and all-wheel-drive reassurance for a relatively affordable price.

But there was a gap in the model range, in the view of Subaru. The mantra for the company in producing this new Wilderness version was to offer customers ‘A Crosstrek for Everyone’, making the model as omnipresent on auto shoppers’ short lists as the cacti and healing vortexes found in this beautiful corner of Arizona.

To prove the worthiness of the new Crosstrek Wilderness edition (the Forester and Outback already have their off-road ready version), we would have a small amount of time on the pavement before taking it for a large amount of time on a back-bruising off-road road (level 3, we were told). Sure enough, the model showed us it can do things most owners will never ask of it. But still, to know that it can do those things is nice. If ever.

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