Thank you, great to hear you've had good experience with the Crosstrek. We are long time Toyota hybrid fans (my 2004 Prius is the current 'dog car') and always liked the style and function of the Subarus. I was excited when I heard about the Subaru/Toyota collaboration, but it's been a long wait. We've been through a luxury car phase and decided we'd rather have the best of the economy cars over the mid-range European models with their painful repair and fuel bills. I don't feel guilty at all about indulging in this vehicle. Car and Driver had a review that estimated about 35 mpg.We had a 2021 Crosstrek that we traded on a 2024 Crosstrek that's now 18 months old. And I put a deposit to trade that on the car you are talking about, due in around Thanksgiving. (As an aside, yes, trading cars after just a few years is VERY unBogleheadish. I fully fess. This is one area in my life where I'm a financial fool. Though I do stress over upgrading from the .99cent Apple iCloud to the $2.99 more storage cloud option).
I watched a lot of YouTube videos on this new car. Since I don't have a dog or dogs, I can't answer your main question. But I'll chime in because I'm looking for a buddy to chat about this car. From the videos, the rear room should be similar to same as the non-hybrid Crosstrek. We'll give up a spare tire for a FixAFlat kit. And, fully loaded, the car is almost $40grand, which many find outrageous for a Crosstrek. I do too, but will still do it because we want it. Our 2024 Crosstrek gets just under 25MPG in combined driving, much lower than the 29 that the EPA says it should get. Extrapolating from comparisons of the 2025 Forester with the ICE engine vs this same hybrid engine, the hybrid should get 36MPG combined, which might translate into about 30MPG for us. Not a huge MPG bump for quite a bit more money. The hybrid is a poor value. But we want it. Truthfully a hybrid Toyota Corolla or Corolla Cross or Camry gets much better hybrid MPGs, but they don't have the Subaru boxer engine or the allegedly better Subaru all wheel drive system. The Boglehead way to buy this car is to wait and not be one of the first. But I'll go first because we want it! Supposedly Subaru has been having to discount the hybrid Forester because the market is requiring that.
With regard to the dog ramp, she can still jump quite well and only gets sore on long trips from sitting too long in the back seat. She wears a harness with strap that clips to an anchor point. If she can lay down on her side she should be much more comfortable. We're not getting the car just for the dog, I've had my eye on this car for a long time. We really like station wagons, and this seems like the closest option in the US market.
Statistics: Posted by neowiser — Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:55 pm — Replies 4 — Views 256