Subaru has long been building a reputation as a purveyor of practical cars with off-road utility. Some models even have Wilderness trims that are quite capable when the road goes away.
But not every buyer wants to get that wild. Enter cars like the 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid.
The Crosstrek Hybrid I drove last week is very different than the 2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness I drove earlier that same day. One is meant to challenge the mountain — the other is meant to give you a bit of fun on the paved road that takes you to the mountain.
That doesn’t mean the Crosstrek Hybrid can’t go off-road, but it’s not quite built for the rougher stuff. We’ll get to that.
(Full disclosure: Subaru flew me to Portland, Oregon and fed and housed me for two nights so I could drive these two cars. I didn’t take home the water bottle or puffy jacket — forgot to mention that one in the Wilderness review — but I did avail myself of the spa, courtesy of the brand. I also availed myself of a notebook, pen, and some in-room snacks.)
The hybrid system here uses a 2.5-liter horizontally-opposed “boxer” four-cylinder engine and two motor generators. One of those starts and stops the engine and charges the high-voltage battery using engine power. The second one drives the all-wheel drive system and also charges the battery via regenerative braking.
Total system horsepower is 194.
A dual X-mode drive-mode system with hill-descent control is available. The transmission is a continuously-variable automatic with six-speed automatic mode.
The AWD system is symmetrical, so power delivery to all four wheels should be consistent.
Fuel economy is listed at 36 mpg for all three categories, and the Crosstrek Hybrid retains the same 8.7 inches of ground clearance.
Outside, the changes are limited to new hybrid-only paint colors, hybrid-specific badging, and 18-inch wheels that are, yes, unique to the hybrid.
Upper trims have animal-free upholstery and digital gauges, and the suspension tuning is revised. Sound deadening is improved over the non-hybrid, so Subie says.
Subaru also changed the packaging of the electric components to lower the cargo floor.
We didn’t do the type of gnarly off-roading that we did in the Forester Wilderness, but we did hit some rutted, gravel roads and the car managed to damp most of the bouncing well enough. There was still some gravel roar, but like with the Forester, voices need not be raised to conversate.
On road, the Crosstrek was a sharper handler than expected. A sports wagon it is not, but it is engaging enough to avoid being a mind-numbing commuter. The only real flaw is some body roll.
Overall, the ride was smooth on paved roads.
The powertrain has some pep, but not a ton — you’ll need more beans to make passing easy, but there’s enough grunt for most street driving.
Engine braking from the CVT was adequate while coming down the mountain.
Some wind — and gas engine — noise intrudes at freeway speeds.
Hybrid transitions were smooth and not felt — I had to use my ears to know when the gas engine had kicked on.
The seats were comfortable enough for the slog from Mt. Adams, Washington to the Portland, Oregon airport, and the large Subaru infotainment screen remains easy to read — especially with Apple CarPlay active — but it can require too much menu diving. It was also at times slow to transition from nav to satellite radio.
Standard features include Subaru’s EyeSight safety system with automatic emergency steering, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, 10-way power’s driver seat, digital gauges, LED active headlights, LED fog lamps, 18-inch wheels, 8.7-inch ground clearance, navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto, wireless cell phone charger, and an all-weather package including heated front seats.
That was all for $33,995. Add $1,420 in D and D and my test ride rang the bell at $35,810.
I was more charmed by the Crosstrek Hybrid than I expected. It’s got more handling verve than I expected, the fuel economy is tough to beat, and it’s pretty well equipped for a reasonable price.
It’s not perfect — it could use some more muscle and Subaru needs to update its infotainment. But for a practical wagon that has a bit of off-road chops and hybrid fuel economy, you could do worse.
Talk about finding a sweet spot.
[Images © 2025 Tim Healey/TTAC.com]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
