Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness is made for off-roading fun and it shows.
In the USA there exists a separate line of vehicles under the ‘Wilderness’ family. These are versions of their popular SUVs and crossovers that have been given real off-road enhancements. The latest in the family is the Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness. The Crosstrek is the North American market’s equivalent to the XV, so in a way this is an off-road enhanced version of the latest XV.
The Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness comes with a revised drivetrain, elevated ground clearance, exclusive body cladding and X-Mode as standard. Powering the Crosstrek Wilderness is the 2.5L boxer 4-cylinder with direct injection. This engine has an output of 182hp and 241Nm of torque. To improve off-road performance, the Lineartronic CVT has been retuned and the differential gear ratio has been revised.
The final drive ratio is now 4.111 instead of 3.700, which lends the Crosstrek Wilderness better climbing ability. The new CVT tune has better traction at low speeds and on slippery surfaces. They’ve also added a transmission oil cooler, which increases the vehicle’s towing capacity to over 1500kg.
Exclusive suspension components add over half an inch of ground clearance to the Crosstrek. These components include longer coil springs and shock absorbers. The shock absorbers feature longer travel strokes and a longer dampening compression stroke.
Besides an increase in ground clearance, the approach angle has been increased by 2 degrees while the angle of departure has been increased by almost the same amount. The ramp breakover angle has gone from 19.7 to 21.1 degrees. The Crossover Wilderness also comes with Yokohama GEOLANDAR all-terrain tyres that wrap unique matte-black 17″ alloys.
Moving on to looks – the Wilderness model comes with exclusive front and rear bumpers, a new front grille, larger wheel arch claddings, a metal front skid plate, unique LED fog lights, anti-glare hood decal in matte black, a body-coloured roof spoiler, black side mirrors, and Subaru Wilderness badges. The vehicle is available in the Wilderness-exclusive ‘Geyser Blue’ colour.
This is the kind of functional and aesthetically enhanced trim variant that enthusiasts can get behind. In the USA, there are enough customers to justify a ‘Wilderness’ version of the XV/Crosstrek. In Malaysia there are barely enough Subaru customers left to even launch a new generation of the XV on schedule. Last week, the brand launched the facelifted Subaru Forester in Malaysia without even releasing a press release.
