Meet our new team member, the rugged looking, all-wheel driving and very green, 2014 Subaru XV 2.0i-S – week 2.

Run by: Isaac Bober


Travel: 528km

Fuel Consumption: 6.8L/100km – tested (7.0L/100km official)

List Price: $36,990 (+ORC)

Service Costs: Nil
Faults: Nil

Week ending July 25.

Read our full review of the Subaru XV

IT WAS AN EASY WEEK for our new recruit – no long commutes into the big smoke (back to normal next week). And that gave me time to get a little more comfortable with the Subaru XV and find out what it’s like on shorter trips to the shops, the school run and in all kinds of weather.

Obviously, shorter, sharper runs have meant my fuel average is higher this week than it was last week (7.8L/100km vs 6.8L/100km), but as I wrote last week, the car’s still not properly run in so I’m not too concerned about fuel use just yet. And I haven’t been driving for economy, rather I’ve been driving to run the thing in properly – yep, it’s still important to properly run in a new car.

One thing that’s particularly excited me about the XV this week is the quality of its reversing camera and the field of vision. I’ve never been a fan of displaying the reversing image in the rear vision mirror – I find the images my eyes/brain have to process a little too fussy. So, I’m glad our XV has a big multi-media screen. The reason I noticed the reversing camera was because I’ve been doing the school run all this week and manouevring around kids outside of a school means you’ve got to have eyes in the back of your head; you’ve also got to keep your eyes open for parents keen to escape the madness of pick-up time.

As you can see from the picture (see above), the Subaru XV’s reversing camera offers a nice wide spread and the quality of the picture is impressive, even at night (see below). You can see each corner of the car and so there’s absolutely no chance of not seeing a small child or object close behind the car when reversing. One thing I can’t work out is how to get an audible warning while reversing to sound… I’ll have to check the owner’s manual to see if it even has an audible warning. No real biggie if it doesn’t.

With my parents reaching retirement age, my mother took a keen interest in the Subaru XV. She’s owned a Subaru Outback for more than 10 years and is keen to get something new when she retires. She lifted up the boot and remarked on the size of the boot, thinking it looked a little small – “would it handle a weekly shop?” she asked. Bless her.

Well, mum, if you’re reading this, yes, the boot of the XV will handle a weekly shop. And while it hasn’t copped a proper workout, I’d suggest the 310-litre boot would be able to hold all of the stuff our family needs for a trip away. As long as we left the little one’s stroller at home… isaacb@practicalmotoring.com.au