Motor City Car Show presented by Sellers Subaru

Motor City Car Show presented by Sellers Subaru

Today was the annual Motor City Car Show presented by Sellers Subaru. This year's show included Rally driver Chris Atkinson. This is my third time to the show, which is heavy on modified WRX's, plus other performance cars, import and domestic. 

Sellers Subaru is the dealership located in Northern Macomb County. They have a really friendly staff, are involved with the leader dogs for the blind, as well as other pet initiatives. Today's car show was with Michigan Medicine's Rogel Cancer Center, where proceeds from t-shirt and water sales wen to the center.   

Although most of the vehicles at the show were of the sporty variety, there was one pretty cool modified Outback for outdoor activities.

 Enjoy the pictures.

 

Crosstrek Hybrid Crossbars

Crossbars for the Crosstrek Hybrid

Now that I'm getting used to the Crosstrek, and that SUmmer is in full swing, time to put some crossbars on for the Kayak and stuff and head on out for an adventure.

When it comes to crossbars for the roof, you currently only have one choice, the Thule crossbars for the CrosstrekHybrid. I got my set from my local dealer, and you can see them at this link.

The crossbars were delivered to my dealer within 4 days, so availability seems to be pretty good. 

Their quality is the same as any other Thule product, which is to say pretty darn good. They do not add wind noise when driving (unless you don't put the rubber channel filler in the bottom)

Installation was straight forward, less than 30 minutes total, with the most basic of tools. Speaking of tools, the Allen wrench provided is a pretty soft metal, I'd use a regular hardened steel one if you have it.

Crosstrek Hybrid Crossbars for roof rack

Below is what you will find in the box.

Box contents

And the clamps assembled.

Clamps for crossbar set

Front and side views with the Crossbars on.

Mileage

Adding crossbars will reduce mileage, but so far I have no idea by how much.

Tips

There are small rubber pieces that plug the channel in the bottom. These need to be cut to size once you have the crossbars on the car. If you do not install these, the crossbars will make a loud whistling noise as you drive.

And how do they work?

The bummer I did not realize is that the Kayak carrier and clamps from my Impreza are Yakima, and those clamps do not fit a Thule bar. I need to get a new kayak carrier to go with the crossbars. So another week to wait, and another thing to spend money on.

I hope this blog helps provide some useful information to you in some way. Comment if you have any questions, or have done the crossbars yourself.

Installation Instructions

Below are the installation instructions, so you can see what you are getting into:

Crosstrek Hybrid Mileage - Part 2

Mileage - Part Deux

In our last post, we looked at what is mostly highway mileage for the Crosstrek Hybrid. On a trip from the Buffalo, NY area to the Detroit, MI area, the highway mileage was 37.4 mpg. That's pretty good considering the regular Crosstrek is rated at 33mpg highway, and the hybrid weighs about 500 pounds more.

What about the mileage after a couple weeks of use?

Around Town Mileage

Mileage just around town will really depend on how far your trips are, and how complete your battery is charged. For me, my office is 15 miles from home, part of that is freeway, and part is surface streets.

For the week of June 2-8, I did normal driving. To the office, to activities around home. For the week of June 9-15 I had to go to a conference in downtown Detroit. This location is about 38 miles from home. 

All told, for the two week period, I put on more miles than I would normally drive, 
562 miles. During that time I used 7.89 gallons of gasoline. Which works out to an average MPG of 71.23, which is pretty damn good. 

At the price I paid for gas, I saved $35.36 in gas compared to an average of similar sized AWD crossovers. I'd like to figure out how much the electricity to charge cost, to get a more realistic value of the savings.

Charging in the City

However, much of my charging was free. Where I was going, I would have to pay for parking. I did find a parking garage across the street from Cobo Hall which had free charging stations in it. Best part is that parking at Cobo was $15 a day and the garage was $10 a day, and I got to charge my Crosstrek.

The GM World Headquarters, otherwise known as the Detroit Rennaissance Center, has four free charging stations out front, if you get there early enough to plug in before the Chevrolet Volts start showing up.

Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid Charging at GM World Headquarters

GM World Headquarters / Rennaissance Center

A Subaru at the GM headquarters is not as weird as it may seem. GM once invested about $1 billion dollars into Subaru's parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, taking approximately a 20% share. This was around 1999.

Remember GM once wholly owned Saab as well. They bought about 50% in 1989, and bought the rest in 2000. Their investment in the two companies is how the Saab 9-2x came about. This car was basically a Subaru WRX in some Saab clothing.

Saab 9-2X

Of course, GM sold their stake in Fuji Heavy Industries in 2005. They really missed the boat on what more collaboration with Subaru could have done for them. GM's bankruptcy pretty much forced them to offload Saab too. 

So seeing a Subaru charging at GM is not completely weird, they were once friends.

Want to track the mileage over time?

On the right-hand column, there is a link to a Google Sheets page that I'm using to track the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid's mileage over time. Feel free to check it out from time to time.  Here's the link too. Google Sheets for tracking Mileage