“Japanese” who could. Sat behind the wheel of a Subaru XV and was pleasantly surprised

Hello dear audience!

In December, I had a very peculiar car #subaru xv for a long test

In this article I will share my impressions of the interior of this car.

I already wrote about the Subaru lineup recently, (the link will be at the end). And the XV is no exception here – it is a thoroughbred “Japanese” with permanent all-wheel drive and a boxer engine.

About the engine and transmission – next time. Today I want to talk about the salon, because he surprised me a lot.

Usually Japanese models cannot boast of high-quality materials and interesting design solutions in the cabin. As it turned out, the Subaru XV is a pleasant exception!

Let's start with the doors. Not only are they heavy (which in itself no longer looks like a Japanese car), but also the door cards are decorated with sophistication:

On the armrest – soft leather with a noticeable stitching:

Lovely plump steering wheel, which you just want to grab:

The photo above clearly shows that there are a lot of buttons on the steering wheel. Someone will say that this is no longer a trend. And I will answer: the Subaru XV has a lot of buttons not only on the steering wheel, but also throughout the front of the cabin.

And, you know what? I don't care about these trends! Most importantly, this solution is incredibly convenient!

In a couple of days you get used to their location, and then almost blindly you can press the desired button without being distracted once again from the road.

The seats really pissed me off. It's no secret that often in Japanese cars they are designed for undersized people. I have an average height – 176 cm – and in many Asian models I encounter the fact that sitting is uncomfortable. Either the pillow is too short, or there is not enough reach for the steering wheel, or something else.

The Subaru XV is doing very well with this. The seat was very friendly. The length of the pillow is not the longest (I compared it with my personal Korean – it has a pillow 1.5 cm longer), but due to a separate adjustment of the rise of its front part, the problem of knees hanging in the air was solved for me by almost 100%. The reach of the steering wheel is sufficient for me.

The control of the driver's seat is fully electrified, which cannot be said about the passenger seat – everything is manual there, and, unfortunately, the seat height cannot be adjusted.

I drove the Subaru XV twice in 800-kilometer trips on the highway. I drove more than 600 km in one run – I didn't feel any particular fatigue in terms of landing behind the wheel.

By the way, the leather on the seats also went to me. No matter how strange it may sound, but in the winter cold it is comfortable. Perhaps this is due to its quality (not the polyethylene that the Koreans, for example), but perhaps due to the fact that the seat heating starts very quickly here, although it is turned on with buttons from the 19th century Nissan.

The XV cannot have a virtual tidy, the scales here are classic, between them is the on-board computer screen, designed in the colors of Toyota:

In the center of the front panel is an eight-inch (in two higher trim levels) display of the multimedia system.

What I want to praise her for is the excellent touch screen and … the presence of a CD drive! Unfortunately, many auto brands are now abandoning it, and you can consider me a retrograde, but, no matter what anyone says, listening to music from an Audio CD is always more pleasant than from an mp3 file.

In addition to the two screens described above, the Subaru XV also has a third one – in the center, at the top of the front panel:

It is very functional, has as many as 9 sections. It can display current information from the built-in navigation system, data on the operation of the all-wheel drive, on-board computer indicators (duplicated from the BC screen), hours, etc. The top line constantly shows the climate control parameters and the temperature outside.

And to change sections, the Japanese even developed a whole steering column module:

I don’t know if it was worth bothering with this additional screen, when all the same can be displayed on the main multimedia screen (as many do now), but I liked this solution. Moreover, a sheet of A4 format fits perfectly on the pseudo-shelf in front of this very screen and does not even fly away from there when turning. ?

A few words about regular navigation. But first, the question is: does anyone use it at all now? Unsubscribe in the comments.

So, the XV has navigation (only in the older configuration). And at first glance, it works well. But, as is often the case, the maps are outdated. And when you receive an incoming call, the card disappears from the multimedia screen forever. So I used the navigation on my smartphone…

Inside the Subaru XV, I was pleased with the attention to detail. For example, power windows slow down in extreme positions. Or here's another: on the button for turning on the heated rear window, not only the glass itself is depicted, but also the mirrors:

Mirrors, by the way, are able to automatically fold, and the interior mirror can be automatically dimmed.

Therefore, the front of the Subaru XV interior left me with the most pleasant impressions. And here's the back row…

Passengers in the second row, this car is not particularly pleased. Even the pocket in the backs of the front seats – and that's the only one. No heating, no air ducts, no USB …

So, the Subaru XV is, first of all, a car for front riders, whatever one may say. But how pleasant, comfortable and functional the Japanese made this front part of their younger model, I personally was very pleased.