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Official Announced Return of the Crosstrek Hybrid

4K views 31 replies 16 participants last post by  EFT 
#1 ·
#5 ·
$35,000 for one of these?!? It will suffer the same fate as the last Crosstrek Hybrid, collecting dust on dealership lots until someone who likes the hybrid novelty buys one or the dealership gives it away. I remember having two of these on my lot in Indy and they were the last 2016 Crosstreks to go and we practically had to beg the eventual customers to buy them. You pay a heck of a lot of extra money for marginal benefit, which I think it just perceived benefit in the form of novelty.

But hey you can now get a heated steering wheel on a Crosstrek if you get the Hybrid model with the upgrade package, its only pushing $40,000... FOR A CROSSTREK!!!
 
#14 ·
I remember having two of these on my lot in Indy and they were the last 2016 Crosstreks to go and we practically had to beg the eventual customers to buy them.
These are going to be limited availability.

They learned something last time - so instead of sending them to places like here where the car makes somewhere around zero sense whatsoever, they're going to limit them to CARB states.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
It has a 17 mile electric-only range, coming at a cost increment of $12,000, more or less, relative to a comparably equipped non-hybrid Crosstrek.

And their marketing is pushing that it saves $350 in fuel costs per year. No wonder they are encouraging potential buyers to also look into Federal and state rebates. Do the math.

It's the future. And I even put an EVSE into my home at a time hen Oregon was giving out a 50% tax credit on the purchase/install cost - that was a good bargain, I think, for something that is inevitable.

But on this one and at this pricing, I'll pass.
 
#8 ·
#9 ·
#10 ·
ugh.... 17 miles? is it really the case that people who own Subarus less than 5 years old almost never drive anywhere further than 9 miles from home, that this is the market base they're advertising to? Because they sure can't be trying to compete with more mature hybrid platforms this way...

This is why I'm mad that Chevrolet is pulling the Volt. The plug-in hybrid platform with its 53 miles of electric only should have been converted to more vehicles...
 
#13 ·
17 miles is fine. That really would cover 90% of my local grocery-getting activity, and it still has a flat gasser to get me on all the other trips.

I'm genuinely interested in this car. Yes, @Brucey already warned me about crosstreks not really being good enough to replace a 3rd generation Outback... but there aren't too many other choices out there.

I've become a big fan of the Toyota hybrid power split device, the heart of the original Prius. And I notice that the new Crosstrek hybrid has exactly that, adapted for longitudinal AWD layout. This is a huge change from the previous CH.

Specifically it means:

  • No torque converter
  • No gears (it really is a one-gear transmission, it never shifts, it never couples or decouples anything. This also means no delay when changing directions.)
  • No drums or friction clutches like in a traditional automatic
  • No chains or sheaves like in the Subaru CVT
  • Smoothest implementation of auto idle stop available on the market

I think it's a major leap forward for Subaru in terms of transmission features & durability. Fewer parts, friction clutches used only for the AWD system, it never shifts and it doesn't even have the 4 most problematic parts of the Subaru CVT.

This looks like a real candidate for my next car.
 
#21 ·
I always find discussion about hybrid cars interesting especially about the cost of a replacement battery.

I previously owned a Honda Civic Hybrid for a few years (great vehicle by the way and I would happily purchase one again)

When I went to sell the vehicle it was very difficult to get a decent price from anywhere except a Honda dealer and their price was also not great. I ended up selling it to someone I knew who appreciated what the car was and was happy to pay me a reasonable price.

When I made inquiries as to why the selling/trade price was so low the answer I always got was that no one wanted to purchase a used hybrid as they were worried they might have to replace a battery and that the cost would be around AU $10,000.

So I found out what the Honda part number for the battery was and then rang my local Honda spare parts center to get the cost. To my surprise it was only AU $2,560. Turns out the battery was actually made up of 120 "D" cell batteries so maybe this is why the cost was not so expensive.

Seagrass
 
#25 ·
So I found out what the Honda part number for the battery was and then rang my local Honda spare parts center to get the cost. To my surprise it was only AU $2,560 [and not AU $10,000].
That battery will eventually croak and cost $bundles.
Age kills the battery.
Manufacturers prefer to sell whole battery packs as replacements, hence the perceived cost issues with hybrid batteries. But the individual batteries don't all die at once, just a few cells. And it's entirely feasible to go in and surgically fix just a few cells.

Most of us here wouldn't go buy a new engine when something repairable fails, so why do we think we need to do this with batteries?

And the answer is that some independents have indeed recognized this business opportunity that manufacturers have missed, and now offer this repair. Most major metropolitan areas have a business that either does the repair in place in your car, or they swap the packs at a fixed rate and repair the one they pull out of your car for the next customer:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybr...ve-to-cost-thousands-of-dollars/#ed2e75f3ee9c
 
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