Purchased the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i Premium in August 2018 as I live in the Pacific Northwest and love to venture out to the mountains to ski and hike. Vehicle was great up until I actually had to utilize the AWD system.

In February 2019 at 3,150 miles, we had about 3-4 inches of snow in the Seattle area and my job requires me to be at work no matter what. I was prepared, I had an AWD car and snow tires, so this should have been effortless to get to work. I had started my 6 mile journey to work and it takes me up a very steep hill, but with proper driving and momentum, a vehicle should be able to climb the hill no problem in snow.

The Subaru was doing great and I was almost at the crest of the hill onto the flat plateau when my vehicle's check engine light and AWD light came on and the vehicle stalled. I was just about to gently press the brake as the vehicle started to slide backwards on the hill and I had no power, so the vehicle kept spiraling until I collided with the guard rail and slid about 500 feet to the bottom of the hill into a ditch.

When I got to the bottom, the vehicle started back up but only the front wheels had power, no power was being sent to the rear wheels at all to free the vehicle from the ditch it put itself. Thankfully the Bridgestone Blizzaks were able to claw with only FWD power. As this was all occurring, I was being passed by Honda CRVs, Mazda CX-5s, and even a Prius with snow tires.

As soon as this occurred, I contacted Subaru and they said that they heard some other similar issues from customers in the snow but they brushed it off.

I immediately took the car to Honda the same day with the damage and traded it in for 2018 HR-V AWD and that got me through the next week with snowstorms without any problems. I actually passed another Crosstrek that was stuck in slush and couldn't gain traction on that same hill.

Subaru of America did announce that they are suffering sever quality issues since 2017 during there recent press release for the brake switch recall, but that is no excuse for the dangers that this car posed. An AWD car needs to be able to handle snow when it is equipped with proper snow tires. There is no reason that the car shut off.

I did find out later from the dealer I traded it to that a lot of warranty work was completed. I believe the CVT transmission was replaced under a warranty extension as well as the rear differential and drive shaft.