Subaru Crosstrek vs. Honda HR-V vs. Toyota Corolla Cross: The Best Affordable AWD Car in Montrose

If you just moved to Montrose, or you're buying your first new car, you've probably hit the confusing part already: almost every crossover in this price range is advertised as all-wheel drive, and almost none of them come that way at the starting price. The billboard number is the front-drive number.

So let's answer the real question honestly, including the parts that don't flatter Subaru.

What is the least expensive new car with real all-wheel drive?

Not a crossover with AWD on the options sheet. One where it's included on the cheapest trim, no boxes checked.

On delivered price, it is the Subaru Impreza. We want to be exact about that, because the two candidates are close enough that the honest answer depends on which number you compare. The Impreza Sport is $26,595 plus a $1,195 destination charge, or $27,790 delivered. The Mazda CX-30 2.5 S is $26,375 plus a $1,595 destination charge, or $27,970 delivered. So the CX-30 undercuts the Impreza by $220 on bare MSRP, and the Impreza comes out $180 ahead once you add freight. The Impreza is the cheapest on delivered price. It is not the cheapest on both, and anyone telling you otherwise is rounding in their own favor.

A caution about the "cheapest AWD" roundups online: several are simply wrong. The Nissan Kicks often shows up near $23,900 with standard AWD. It isn't. Kicks AWD is optional, SR-only, and lands near $29,000. The Mazda3 and the Corolla Cross both charge extra for it. The Kia Seltos is a half-exception worth getting right: AWD is optional on most trims, but it is standard on the SX.

The 2026 Impreza is the cheaper Subaru sibling, and a genuinely good answer if you want the drivetrain without the ride height. One caveat: the base Impreza trim was discontinued for 2026, so Sport is the entry point now, and any article quoting a $24,000 Impreza is out of date.

Do the Honda HR-V and Toyota Corolla Cross come with all-wheel drive?

Not as standard. That is the difference that defines this comparison, because the Crosstrek does.

• Subaru Crosstrek: Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is included on every trim, from the $26,995 base car to the Wilderness. There is no front-wheel-drive Crosstrek to accidentally buy, no option box, and no trim to climb to.
• Honda HR-V: front-wheel drive standard on every trim. AWD is an extra $1,500 on LX, Sport, and EX-L alike. That flat pricing is genuinely the cleanest in the segment, and it is still $1,500 you spend to get where the Crosstrek starts.
• Toyota Corolla Cross (gas): front-wheel drive standard, AWD an extra $1,300 on L and LE or $1,450 on XLE.
• Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid: all-wheel drive is standard. This is the one people miss, and it is a real point for Toyota. It arrives at hybrid money, though, not at the $24,635 the billboard quotes.

The mechanical difference is worth a sentence. Subaru drives the rear wheels at all times and varies how much torque goes back there. Honda's Real Time AWD and Toyota's electric-on-demand hybrid system engage when the vehicle decides you need it. Both rivals are quick and both work; Subaru's edge shows up in sustained low-traction driving, where there's no engagement decision to get wrong.

How do they compare on paper?

Starting MSRP excludes destination and reflects manufacturer figures at the time of writing. Destination charges are additional and differ by brand: Subaru $1,420, Honda $1,450, Toyota $1,450. Corolla Cross all-wheel drive adds $1,300 on L and LE and $1,450 on XLE; HR-V all-wheel drive adds $1,500 on any trim. Crosstrek all-wheel drive adds nothing, because it is already there. Confirm current pricing with Flower Subaru. MPG figures are EPA estimates and vary with driving conditions, elevation, and load. Prices are not an offer.

What does the Crosstrek Wilderness actually add?

At $33,795 (excluding destination), the Wilderness is the version people picture when they picture a Crosstrek, and the upgrades are structural: 9.3 inches of ground clearance, Yokohama GEOLANDAR all-terrain tires, a metal front skid plate, 20.0° approach and 33.0° departure angles, revised gearing including a shorter final-drive ratio for low-speed torque multiplication, a roof rated at 165 pounds dynamic and 700 pounds static, and dual-function X-MODE with Hill Descent Control for steep loose descents. Neither the HR-V nor the Corolla Cross offers a terrain system of any kind, in any trim, at any price.

The headline, though, is towing: 3,500 pounds, up from 1,500 on a standard Crosstrek. That is a 2,000-pound gain, and it moves the car from "small utility trailer" to "teardrop camper or a two-place snowmobile trailer." Neither Honda nor Toyota answers it, because neither publishes a tow rating for these vehicles at all.

The trade is fuel economy, and we'll put the whole number on the table: an EPA-estimated 24 mpg city, 29 highway, 26 combined, against the standard Crosstrek's 26/33/29. Three combined mpg is what the clearance, the tires, and the gearing cost you.

Which one holds the most stuff?

Here is the one row where the Crosstrek finishes last, and we'd rather you hear it from us than discover it in the parking lot.

The Crosstrek offers 19.9 cubic feet behind the rear seats, the smallest of these three by a real margin. The HR-V leads at 24.4 cubic feet; the gas Corolla Cross is right behind at 24.0. The Crosstrek opens to 54.7 cubic feet with the seats folded, but if you routinely haul a dog crate, a stroller, and a Costco run at once, the Honda is the more useful shape.

What we'd ask you to weigh against it: cubic feet behind the seats is a number you notice on the two or three days a year you move something large. Standard all-wheel drive, 8.7 inches of clearance, and X-MODE are numbers you notice from October to May, on the days you did not plan for.

Ground clearance runs the other way. The HR-V's 7.0 inches is the lowest here. That is worth flagging, because a number of dealer blogs still repeat 7.3 inches for this car. It's 7.0. On a graded road that's nothing; on a rutted one in March it isn't.

Which should you actually buy?

The Crosstrek, for a first car that has to survive a Montrose winter without a second thought. Here's the full reasoning, rivals included:

• The Crosstrek if you want all-wheel drive without shopping for it by trim, you'll see dirt roads and unplowed pavement regularly, and you value 8.7 inches of clearance and X-MODE over cargo volume. It's the most capable of the three in the conditions this county produces, and 180 hp from the 2.5L is now standard across the gas lineup. The old 2.0L base engine is gone for 2026. It is also the only one of the three where the cheapest car on the lot is the right car for your driveway.
• If fuel economy is the only thing that matters to you, the Corolla Cross Hybrid wins that number. You get all-wheel drive standard, 196 horsepower, and an EPA-estimated 42 mpg combined, which is an efficiency win by a wide margin and not a close call. What it costs you: 8.0 inches of ground clearance instead of 8.7, no terrain system at all, no published tow rating, and hybrid pricing rather than the $24,635 the gas L advertises. If your commute is genuinely all paved and all plowed, take the mpg with our blessing. If it includes Log Hill in February or a two-track in October, you've optimized for the wrong six months.
• If cargo space and simple option pricing are the only things that matter, the HR-V wins those. Its 24.4 cubic feet leads this group, and $1,500 for AWD on any trim is the cleanest option pricing in the segment. What it costs you: 158 horsepower against 180, 7.0 inches of ground clearance against 8.7, no terrain system, no published tow rating, and front-wheel drive unless you write the check. That's a lot of ground given up for 4.5 cubic feet.

Look at the pattern, not the rows. Both rivals ask you to pay extra for the drivetrain, and neither offers a terrain system at any price. The Crosstrek includes the drivetrain, adds the clearance, and gives you X-MODE on the base car. If you need more than that, the Wilderness takes you to 9.3 inches and 3,500 pounds of towing, which is a conversation the other two can't have at all.

One thing outranks all of it, and it is what you bolt to the corners, not what sends power to them. AWD helps you go; tires are the half that keeps you out of the barrow ditch, and our Subaru vs. Toyota vs. Honda AWD explainer covers the rest. That's also the cheapest advice we give: put a Crosstrek's included all-wheel drive under you, spend the $1,500 you didn't hand Honda on a set of winter tires, and you have covered both halves of the problem for the price rivals charge for one.

Altitude deserves its own line, and we'll be straight about it: by the standard 3%-per-1,000-feet estimate, all three gas engines here give up something like a sixth of their rated output at 5,800 feet, and an electric motor gives up nothing. That is a real point in the Corolla Cross Hybrid's favor. Two things to hold next to it. First, the Crosstrek starts at 180 horsepower, the most of the three gas engines, so it is giving up a sixth of a bigger number than the HR-V's 158. Second, Subaru will sell you a Crosstrek Hybrid if that is the argument that moves you, with the same standard Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive underneath it that every other Crosstrek gets. We work the altitude math out in full in our Forester Hybrid vs. RAV4 Hybrid comparison. Come drive the Crosstrek up Log Hill and see which sixth you actually notice.