We have two CX5 s in family (ours and daughter's), and love them. But I need a car after my old Lexus RX 350 had a catastrophic transmission failure.

I'm looking at a Subaru Crosstrek 2.5 and am going to trst drive a CX 30. I want something AWD, room off the ground but lower roof so I can more easily get my kayak on and off car (I'm a 5'4" female with 11' bass fishing kayak). I'm in Pennsylvania, so hills here and there, but I won't be lugging anything in winter. We also have a 2010 CRV with 215,000 miles that has served us well, and that's another choice (newer), but again, higher roof.

I feel like the Crosstrek is the better choice for what I need, but I do love our Mazdas, so trying to weigh whether CX-30 might do what I need. I'm not off-roading, but will be on some dirt roads here and there.

Thoughts? Thank you in advance.

 

I have a 2021 CX-30 which I'm quite satisfied with it. If I had to do it again, I would have purchased the Crosstrek.

 

my bro in law bought a crosstrek a year ago and likes it...i just bought a cx-5 after having a '13 subaru legacy...i will say that i loved my legacy when it was in the lower mileages...don't remember when the oil consumption began but before i got rid of it at 244k miles, it was consuming oil at a rate of 600mi/1qt and my catalytic converter was clogging up and choking the car out (stalling)...i had replaced the cat and it took a year before it started to get sufficiently clogged again to stall...i was running bottles of cat cleaner through it and driving around with a 6 pack of oil in the trunk at all times...other than that i had to replace the throttle body due to a faulty solenoid and some other minor repairs...it served me well but i didn't want to deal with the oil consumption issue again, otherwise i would have went for an outback...good luck

 

New guy here. I am a subaru fanboy and just bought my first Mazda CX-30. I owned a crosstrek for 3 years. I will take the Mazda any day of the week. The crosstrek sits too low for me. It is a good vehicle and it you are comfortable the way it sits...go for it. It will probably handles better than the CX and it WILL probably go in the snow there the CX won't. B ut again its the CX for me.

Full disclosure. I own an '18 Forester with the turbo. I have Michelin CrossClimate 2s on it. They are great in snow.