Comparison: 2021 Mazda CX-30 vs 2021 Subaru Crosstrek

While these days vehicle segments are as nebulous as they’ve ever been, there are still some vehicles that send a clear message as to their station in life, and which can be confidently categorized even if their manufacturers try to blur the lines a little.

For our purposes here, we speak of a car segment – a small one – that I like to call “compacts on stilts” (CoS) because, for all intents and purposes, that’s what they are. They offer the identical powertrain to the compact hatchbacks with which they share a common platform, but they may have a little more room inside and they often have some specialized chassis bits and body cladding to help them better traverse tough terrain.

The segment contains several models, but the two dominant players are the Subaru Crosstrek and the Mazda CX-30. They leave the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Jeep Compass/Renegade behind in terms of sales; the Crosstrek is in fact the highest-selling Subaru in Canada, ahead even of the Impreza from which it’s derived. Meanwhile, the Mazda3 Sport that shares its platform with the CX-30 still outsells its newer sibling.

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As it happens, both the CX-30 and Crosstrek received big upgrades for 2021, so a head-to-head comparison is a natural choice!

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