Subaru Crosstrek??

I'm pretty happy with my 2016 Crosstrek, just hit 21,000 miles in 10.5 months. Its taken some getting used to, coming from a Forester with manual trans, but it seems peppy enough for me. The CVT seems to add a little delay, I guess while it figures out what you want it to do, but I tend to not be a jackrabbit anyway. The couple of times I've stomped on the gas, it seems to get going well enough for my taste. Love the mileage, I was getting 25-26 mpg with my Forester, and I'm getting around 31mpg with the Crosstrek.

The 2.0 and CVT are fine about 99.9% of the time, but that 0.1% of the time when they aren't up to the job -- like high-speed merges on an uphill on-ramp -- can be frustrating and even a little scary. Other than that one issue I have mostly good things to say about my Crosstrek. Mine is a hybrid, which gives it a little more responsiveness around town because of the flatter torque curve and slightly better gas mileage than the regular model, but my experience is probably not that much different overall from owning a non-hybrid version. It's surprisingly comfortable even on long trips, the controls are easy to use, and it goes anywhere I want it to go without any fuss.

I got Crosstrek Sport for my wife and she likes it a lot. If you ask her - she'll buy it again in a heartbeat.I drive it occasionally and in my opinion it's a nice car, way better than many others I drove. To me CVT feels very close to regular automatic transmission, I can hardly see the difference. I noticed though that it's quite easy to get it at 4,000 rpm when I want to start fast from traffic light or merge on highway. So if you hit pedal hard it accelerates quite well. On few occasions I drove 4 people and luggage to/from airport on highways - I noticed of course that it felt a little heavy, but it drives well at 120 km/h, it was adequate in traffic and highway mergers and at no point I feelt that it's uncomfortable to drive.I wouldn't hesitate to take it to long road trip.
So I think it's a good car for its class, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it if price is right and you want full wheel drive this size.. I couldn't say that I see any unusual sluggishness in CVT but I'm comparing it with my 4Runner so my impressions could be differentfrom yours: )
I'd say that you have to take a test drive and see how it feels yourself, besides we have 2015 Crosstrek - Subary might have tuned up 2017 differently.

Psinfully slow says both Motor Trend and Car & Driver.

http://www.caranddriver.com/subaru/crosstrek

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/subaru/crosstrek/2018/2018-subaru-crosstrek-first-drive-review/

My wife brougt a 2017 Crosstrek with manual transmission. The car has only 5000 miles and has no mechical problems. That said she is sorry she bought the car. The car idles at over 2000 rpm until the engine warms up which makes it hard to shift smooth. The dealer said that this is normal and nothing can be done. The sideview mirrors are set back and if you are short you will have huge blind spots. The powertrain is load and very unpowered, making passing dicy. Overall not a fun or pleasant car to drive.

I loved my Crosstrek. Bullet-proof reliability for 48000 miles. Never felt it was underpowered and rarely felt left behind at a changine light. Power was totally adequate for day-to-day use, if you want a race car get something different.

My only reason for getting rid of this car was the need to haul seven people on a long trip. I miss my fuel economy and maneuverability!

Only gripe: voice commands for phone were painfully slow to load. Three times nav glitched and required restart of car (to reboot the system).