New 2018 Subaru XV/Crosstrek shown at New York Motor Show
As expected, Subaru showed the upcoming 2018 XV/Crosstrek at the New York International Motor Show over the Easter holidays.
Unfortunately there does not seem to be much new information coming forth. I have reviewed all the articles I can find relating to the Crosstrek and the New York Motor Show, but there is nothing much new being said when compared to what we found out from the Geneva release in February.
What we have found out is the Crosstrek will have the highly rated X-Mode hill-climb and hill-descent capability included—brought over from the Forester. Not that this was really required. The Crosstrek already had the most capable off-road and wet road prowess compared to other SUVs in its class.
I am still not sure why Subaru call this new colour 'khaki'. To me, and everyone I have asked this of, khaki is a kind of sand/brown colour. Whereas the Subaru Crosstrek khaki coloured car is clearly more of what I would have called a shiny off-powder blue. It could be that the lighting in the show room is blue, which is quite possible. But even so the colour of this car is still far from the sandy brown of khaki.
A number of the reviews from the New York show commented about the improvements in the cabin. The general view seems to be that the detail and finish in the cabin is significantly improved from the outgoing model, and a long-overdue step up from Subaru's typical style of cabin finish.
I did manage to find some economy figures on the LeftLaneNews web site. Their article gives a highway fuel economy number of 31 mpg based on US gallons. Converted to Imperial for Australia and that give you 37.2 mpg. With a 13.2 Imperial gallon fuel tank that means this car has a range of almost 500 miles or 736 kilometres.
The one bit of performance information that everyone is waiting for is still not available, and that is the 0 - 100 speed. Have Subaru managed to get it under the 10 second mark? Almost all reviews of the previous XV rated it at around 11 seconds for the 0-100 and remarked that the car felt 'tardy'.
Subaru have continued to make vague remarks about improved performance relating to the slightly more powerful motor (an extra 4 hp), the improved gearing of the CVT (especially in the 0-60 kph range), the overall lower weight of the car, and improved engine electronics. But the reality is that there are still no actual numbers available and the sceptics among us are beginning to wonder why these numbers are not being made available.