It's the often hated Auto Stop/Start "feature". Look for a button near your left knee that turns it off. However, you will have to remember to push that button every time you start the car. AS/S is explained in your owners manual.

Here's a permanent solution: 2020-2021 Subaru Crosstrek Autostop Eliminator

 

I had the simple Autostop Eliminator installed in my 2021 Crosstrek Sport by a local car stereo shop and it works as advertised. The default is now that the engine will remain on until you shut it off. Subaru should provide the owner with this default option, but it does not. And,yes, it was extremely annoying.

 

There’s a lot of this in Subaru’s lineage. The forever hated “cruise control needs to be turned on every time you want to use it” feature is another.

 

I don't get this one. Of course you have to turn it on to use it? What am I missing? Our Hyundai Elantra is the same. It has been a while since we had our older cars but I'm pretty sure the Lexus and Honda were the same.

 

I'm sure you are right about "on" being the regulatory default. AS/S is simply a way that auto manufactures "game" CAFE standards. It saves a miniscule amount of gas compared to what the AS/S adds to the cost of a vehicle. Although AS/S may reduce emissions there is an environmental impact of more robust AS/S batteries and starters or more frequent replacement thereof.

 

Have I mentioned hydrogen? 😺

 

It a great feature on a Prius when you have a battery to get you going immediately then as you are rolling the engine kicks in. Subarus have A boxer engine is a bit grumpy when it turns on. If it bugs you now it will continue to wear on you. Buy an Auto stop electronic disabler $100 ish. Money well spent.
John

 

I took the Crosstrek today for the first time in a while and played with the cruise control. It's exactly as I expected. There's a button on the steering wheel, top right, to activate it and then a toggle to increase or decrease the speed. Since it's active cruise control it also works in the heavy freeway traffic here and will even come to a complete stop, keeping the appropriate distance from the car in front, that can be set. It will then start up again, unless it has been stationary for a few seconds, in which case you just flip the toggle to get it going again. I can't think of any improvements I would make...

 

If you press the brake (hard) then the engine will shut off, but if you just press lightly it will not.

 

Sorry, I don't see the problem. The time it takes to restart once you take your foot off the brake has to be less than 2 seconds. It's an incredibly minor issue what with increasing gas prices. I guess it's personal preference as I happen to like it.

 

It means the engine is restarting numerous times per day compared to once or twice for a normal car. So a lot more wear to save a fraction of a gallon of gasoline.

 

I just had a 2022 Outback loaner for a couple of days. It had the on / off feature. Car had 17000 miles on it. When the car shuts off, there is a display to tell how long, cumulatively, that the car has been stopped and how much gas saved. For this car, just under 4hrs of stopped and nearly 2 gallons of gas saved. what I have read is that you can not permanently disable this. It will be activated the next time you start the car. One thing I did not like was that if you instinctively hit the gas when the light turns green, you can get jerked real good as the car has to restart, then it jumps. The trick is take your foot off the gas, wait a second, then hit the gas.

Regarding the cruise control, the wifes '17 CRV has the type where you just hit the set button to activate and set the CC. I find this far superior to Subaru's method.

 

My only experience was with an Audi rental car in the UK. I hated it. Especially when trying to merge into roundabouts and the engine would die...

 

I definitely agree that there are a few usage scenarios where the AS/S feature makes environmental sense, but I think that the number of Crosstreks that actually operate in that sort of setting is really in the minority. If you have a long commute in a horribly-planned megalopolis like LA you might have to occasionally suffer through ten 90-second traffic light stops in a day, but for most of us it's going to take a heck of a lot longer for that to happen. And even that wouldn't mean that AS/S would be active for all or even most of those 15 minutes, since there are a wide variety of conditions that keep it from triggering. Mine activates less than half the time that I'm stopped at a light, and on an extended red-light stop the car will usually inexplicably start up on its own long before I start lifting my foot off the brake.

Most of the times when I've checked little car's little savings calculator, the AS/S function isn't saving me much more than a hundredth of a gallon of gas per tank. At that rate, there's no way the function will come close to paying for itself over the life of the vehicle, either financially or environmentally. It's a ridiculous thing for my car to have, and I say that as a strong and committed environmentalist.

 

You're assuming that L.A. was planned to be horrible. The history is actually pretty interesting and there was very little planning but a lot of competing interests. At one point the "resort" where we live was intended to be the major port but it's now the San Pedro and Long Beach complex, the largest port system in the U.S.

 

The Topic Drifter strikes again!

Not at all assuming that it was preemptively planned to be horrible, but I'm definitely saying that the result is horribly planned. The civic leaders and corporate interests who held sway there in the mid-20th century made a long series of horrifically poor and self-serving decisions that will impact the lives of the poor souls who live there for generations to come.

 

I was on topic with every post until someone brought up the planning of the L.A. metro area...