The last of the first generation and one of the calmest years here — one free recall and a transmission covered to ten years, but check the hood latch and the battery.

A recurring thread across this year and the next two: the car sits for a few days and the battery is flat. Owners trace it to the DCM — the Data Communication Module, the telematics box behind Subaru's Starlink connected services — which keeps drawing current after the car is switched off. One owner reports buying a new battery, taking the module update, and finally pulling the module's fuse, and still finding the battery dead. Another was stranded repeatedly at 37,000 miles. Subaru's bulletin file for this model year holds a warranty extension for the module covering 2016 to 2018 cars, though the summary does not state the years-and-miles terms, so ask the dealer to confirm eligibility against the VIN. Practical test on a used car: ask when the battery was last replaced, and if the answer is 'recently, twice,' that is the pattern.

Several owners report the valve body inside the CVT — a continuously variable transmission, which uses belts and pulleys instead of fixed gears — being diagnosed as defective, usually announced by the A/T oil temperature, hill-assist, ABS and traction lights coming on together. The saving grace on this exact model year is coverage: Subaru extended the CVT's powertrain warranty from the original 5 years or 60,000 miles to 10 years or 100,000 miles, and the bulletin is explicit that this was goodwill rather than a response to a specific defect. One owner in the federal file had a transmission fail at 87,500 miles and be covered by that extension. Independent mechanics are consistent that Subaru's 'lifetime fluid' claim is wrong and that serviced units last a long time, so ask for CVT fluid service records and treat a car with none as a car with an unknown transmission.

The one recall on this year, and it is worth closing. Recall 19V149 — Subaru's own code WUE-90 — covers a brake-light switch that can malfunction after exposure to certain contaminants. The obvious symptom is brake lights that do not come on, but the switch also gates two other things: keyless-ignition cars may refuse to start, and automatic and CVT cars may refuse to shift out of Park. The scope is broad, covering 2013 through 2017 Crosstreks along with several other Subaru models. Dealers replace the switch free. Confirm it shows closed by VIN, and note that it overlaps symptomatically with the separate stuck-key complaints on these cars — see a 2017 car's file for that one.

Several owners report the horn going dead from the steering wheel while still sounding from the key fob — the classic sign of a failed clockspring, the coiled ribbon connector that carries power through the steering column to the horn and the driver's airbag. One owner discovered it during a near-miss. Because the same part feeds the airbag circuit, a dead horn on one of these is not a cosmetic problem. Test it on the drive: press the horn pad in three or four different places on the wheel and check the airbag warning light behaves normally through a full start cycle.

Two Subaru reputations that do not describe this car. The famous oil-consumption powertrain warranty extension to 8 years/100,000 miles, and the class-action settlement that went with it, cover model years 2012 to 2015 only — and the 2014 to 2015 portion was manual-transmission cars only. The programme stops one model year before this one. More to the point, when we searched every 2016 through 2023 Crosstrek complaint payload for 'oil consumption', 'burning oil' and every related phrasing, we found no matches at all. Separately, the head-gasket story belongs to Subaru's older EJ-series engines; a mechanic who pulled an EJ engine for exactly that repair says on camera that by the time the FB engine arrived around 2015 the problem was gone. Buy this car on the hood latch, the battery and the transmission records, not on those older stories.