Meet our rugged looking, all-wheel driving and very green, 2014 Subaru XV 2.0i-S – week 3.

Run By: Isaac Bober
Travel: 1103km
Fuel Consumption: 7.0L/100km (7.0L/100km official)
List Price: $36,990 (+ORC)
Service Costs: Nil
Week Ending: 1 August.

Read our full review of the Subaru XV

JUST THIS MORNING I moved from counting on my fingers to my toes the amount of people who have stopped me to ask whether I like our Subaru XV. Why? Because most of them have just gone out and bought one, some are considering buying one and the odd one or two already own one.

Most people seem to stop me outside my son’s school in the morning (plenty are wondering whether it’ll be usable as a family car), or at the service station when filling up with fuel. Indeed, it was a service station attendant this morning who caused me to tip over from my fingers to my toes – he’d just bought one, ruling out a Mazda CX-5 because of its looks.

Looks aside, the one thing that’s impressed me this week is the Subaru XV’s rear doors and back seat. And that because, despite it’s tiny-tot dimensions, the XV is able to swallow my son’s booster seat and my daughter’s childseat. It’s also, because the backs of the front seats are scalloped, offers plenty of legroom for them, without my wife and I having to push the front seats so far forward we might as well be sitting on the dashboard.

Indeed, I’d go so far as saying there’s just as much room in the back of the XV as there is in our family Skoda Octavia wagon – although, the Octavia is a little wider. One of the XVs other tricks which parents will love, but those without kids might not even notice is that the rear doors open right up to almost 90-degrees. And that’s excellent for loading and unloading kids from the car, but it’s especially good for adults – six-footers will have no problems getting in and out of the back.

I thought the wide-opening doors might be a problem in supermarket car parks, but even with the doors opened only part-way it’s still a cinch to load my daughter into her childseat and there’s enough room for my son to climb into his seat. It’s because the door opening itself is huge and there really is plenty of room for either kids or adults in the back. And, I think, once my daughter is in a booster seat there would even be enough room for an adult to sit between the two kids.

In other news, the XV has just racked up its first 1000km and, I’ve got to say, it’s loosened up beautifully. I’ve also managed to get my head completely around the way the CVT works. See, you can’t just drive the thing like a conventional auto and, for that matter, you can’t even drive it the way you do a DSG-equipped car. Indeed, you’ve got to be more sensitive to your inputs, your action on the throttle has to be more progressive as speed builds.

Mash the throttle into the carpet and the CVT will drone and hesitate. But, concentrate on what you’re doing, as you should whenever you’re behind the wheel, and the CVT comes off as smooth as cream and as responsive as you could hope for. I haven’t spent too much time playing with the paddles, but I will be over the weekend and will report back next week … I’m also hoping to take the XV out onto some dirt and see how it handles one of our test tracks, but with a BMW 235i also parked up outside the house this week, it might have to wait.