Small cross-over SUV functional for adventuring?

[rholbrook]

Our Honda Pilot takes us anywhere we want to go. Get what is affordable and reliable, and take that as far as you can. Most of your driving will be on the highway so it makes sense for your only car to be biased to the street.
A 2WD car with good AT tires will go to 90% of the places you want to be.
AWD with good tires will take you another 9%.
If you want to play in the rocks, go for a hike!
Don’t worry about IRS, lack of lockers, or low clearance.
Pretend you’re not an overlander, get what makes sense for you and your family, then take it overlanding! Clear as mud?


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[southpier13]

I H8 Mud!

 

[calicamper]

Impreza = Crosstrek
Legacy = Outback
Basically half of their vehicles are just a slightly lifted and modified version of their hatchbacks and wagons.
Why Subaru dropped powerful engine options for many of their vehicles never made much sense to me, but it could be because of CAFE or something. Why there isn't a WRX version of the Crosstrek for example.

In 2013 wife was cross shopping Elantra GT and Impreza, and the lack of power and CVT were why we went to the Elantra.

Subarus engine parts quality has been terrible from 2012-2019. That likely had some effect but they also do not have a high mileage plugin to help with CAFE numbers so thats a big factor.
Subaru brass has admitted to investors that they had to increase spending on parts quality to address on going quality issues. They ran the highest profit per vehicle sold in the industry for many years but they cut the Quality focus too much in favor of stock performance and profits. Its shown with lots of serious costly issues with the engines and cvt’s

 

[T-Willy]

For what it's worth...

I have a 2013 Crosstrek with about 85k miles. I have only once used it for multi-day remote dirt touring, in Baja. While its payload exceeds that of a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, the Crosstrek's build is in my opinion not robust enough for loaded dirt touring. Despite its AWD and ground clearance, it's still a car. Even that single trip left permanent squeaks and rattles. It shines in its versatility -- as a snow buggy, for occasional dirt road forrays, on pavement, and in its efficiency, but I fear lots of dirt touring would come at the cost of longevity. Unlike others here, I have had no problems with the CVT in snow, and the car spent three years of its life high in the mountains of Colorado where it saw snow for a majority of the year. Reliability has been excellent. There were two recalls, neither of which ever caused problems, and last year the front speakers failed (but I listen to a lot of dub reggae, so that's typical). Literally no problems beyond the speakers.