OLD SCHOOL CHARM

Renowned for years as arch exponents of making cars with real genuine off-road capabilities, including their award-winning Impreza rally car, the Subaru people have quietly gone on in their own way of keeping their tradition with more updated models which next year will now include more electric cars.

- BY DAVID WARD

In the meantime it's quite refreshing to still find a small, family orientated Subaru SUV that in many ways is quite old school with its go-anywhere-anytime off-road ability that will obviously be favourite with those motorists living and working in more rural areas.

Certain the Crosstrek as it's now called - it was previously known as the Subaru XV - does exactly what it says on the tin to coin an old phrase as both versions available have a rugged, proper permanent all-wheel-drive system that at the press of a simple button on the infotainment screen moves out of normal road driving into the serious task of coping with true cross-countryside driving.

Here, with its handy ground clearance of 220mm and extra black body cladding it seemingly slips over severely rutted and deep rain-soaked farm tracks with ease and minimal fuss and then press the button back into normal for on-road driving and again it’s smooth enough coping well with the many potholes on our roads (along with those irritating speed humps).

The Crosstrek sits up quite tall so there's good all round vision for the driver which again helps when negotiating the real hard stuff off-road whilst on on normal roads, including at motorway speeds, it;s remarkably quiet and the ride is really comfortable.