Hello, I'm looking into purchasing a used car. One of the cars I'm noticing in my budget is a 2010 to 2015 Subaru Crosstrek with anywhere 100 to 150 thousand miles. I'm usually a Honda Toyota guy so I know a good amount about those vehicles but I don't know anything about Subarus.
What are y'all's experience with these vehicles?
How is reliability?
I'm no master mechanic by any means but I know my way around the vehicle and can fix them myself. Are they easy to work on?
Assuming the car has been maintained properly is it realistic this could get to 250,000 miles?
Any other information you feel like sharing please do
Thank you!
With a manual transmission you have a shot at a long
One of the cars I'm noticing in my budget is a 2010 to 2015 Subaru Crosstrek ... I don't know anything about Subarus.
The Crosstrek was not introduced to the U.S. until the 2013 model year so you'll have a little difficulty finding one on the older side of the age range you indicated.
Scotty has reviewed Crosstreks. See "Vehicles reviewed by Scotty" near the bottom of the main page. You can get an idea of failure trends on sites like carcomplaints.com.
The flat-four engine can be a pain to work on for things like changing spark plugs due to its width and limited space. On the other hand Subaru AWD systems are excellent. However understand that if you have one tire irreparably damaged you have to replace all four. (That is common to all permanently-engaged AWD systems.)
Your best bet for long life would be a model with manual transmission. Subaru CVTs, particularly the older ones, have a relatively short lifespan especially if the fluid is never changed. (Not as bad as the awful Nissan Jatco CVTs but not as good as late model Toyota CVTs.) I would not expect an older, unmaintained Subaru CVT to last a lot longer than 100K miles or so.
@chucktobias Thanks for the insight!