Hey Scotty,
What are you thoughts on the 2014 Subaru Crosstreck? I’ve got one with 95,000 miles and it looks and drives like it’s brand new (been taken really good care of). I bought it from a dealership at 88,000 miles in May. I’m in college and I drive it every day to go surfing. How long do you think it’ll last and what are some maintenance things I should know. I do a lot of highway driving with it, sometimes 100 miles a day. On top of that I’m a very conservative driver.
Thanks for your input!
Errett
Clarification: Which transmission do you have?
I’ve got the CVT transmition. Subaru has never come out with a verdict on fluid changes and when to do them for these transmissions.
That’s a lot of miles you didn’t put on, so it’s hard to say. That was an early year, so it isn’t going to be perfect. But for what it’s worth, my daughter’s 2018 crosstrek has 80,000 miles, and my son’s 2017 crosstrek has 50,000, all with no major issues.
For sake of discussion, I’ll assume it’s a CVT and you don’t have detailed maintenance records. So up front, I would change the CVT fluid and front and rear gear oil. Going forward, I would repeat every 30,000.
Check the coolant and brake fluid and consider changing those, too.
Oil and filter is every 5,000 miles.
If you don’t know when the plugs have been changed, do that now, too. Use iridium; not only it is OEM, but will last longer than cheap ones (plugs on a crosstrek is a big job, you don’t want to do it too often). 60,000 miles is a good interval.
The brakes might still be original, and may be nearing end of life. If the rotors vibrate when braking at high speed, or the pads are getting thin, I would replace the front pads and rotors together (rear might still be ok for a while).
Other than the CVT, most or all of that is DIY stuff. Nice thing about a crosstrek is that it’s easy to work on yourself.
to answer your question, if it has really been well maintained and never used for towing, 150,000 might be a good target; 200 if the CVT holds.
ps: don’t let anyone scare you about head gaskets. Crosstrek head gaskets don’t go out any more than any other car.
Thanks so much for such an in depth review! When I bought it, I believe they did a full fluid change, although I’m not sure what the verdict is on Subaru cvt and when to actually change it. New breaks and break fluid were on the car when I bought it. Could you explain fear oil? That’s a new one for me. What does it do and what’s it’s importance? I know that a lot of the cars mileage is highway miles going from Florida to Colorado To Virginia and back several times based on when and where the car was owned. Still runs like a dream. Thanks so much for your input!
Sounds like a lot of highway miles, which is a good thing. Scotty’s “10 miles on the highway is equal to 1 mile of city driving” might be a little exaggerated , but the concept is very true
As far as gear oil: that’s same as differential fluid. Easy DIY project, just do your homework.
Here’s the story on CVT fluid: it was probably not changed. Subaru calls it a “lifetime fluid”. What they mean is that they expect it to go 100,000 miles and don’t care what happens after that. Do a search for “Subaru CVT fluid” at the top of the page. You can find lots of opinions, but the consensus is: change it
@dad2pwd is spot on, Subaru has definitely improved on the crosstrek and I think the newer ones are great vehicles. The early models the CVT is without a doubt the weakest part of that vehicle so beware.
best way to maintain any vehicle…
FLUIDS!!!
whenever a part wears or breaks replace it.
any rotted or cracked rubber replace it.
check the vehicle out once in awhile, check oil and coolant, do a walk around and see if there are any leaks or something wrong.
read your manual.
