WHEN Subaru launched the first version of the XV back in 2012, it seemed to almost fly under the radar. The small SUV class was only just starting to show signs of morphing into the sales monster it would eventually become, the Forester was the leading light in the Subaru stable for compact dirt track-capable wagons, and the rest of the baby crossover pack were little more than puffed up hatches.

The XV, meanwhile, slowly grew its sales bank month by month, helped by improving trade and currency conditions as the small SUV segment grew and grew.

Fast forward to 2017, and Subaru has spent a very, very large sum on a new modular platform that will underpin every car the Japanese car-maker will build well into the next decade.

After the Impreza launched in late 2016, the next cab off the Subaru Global Platform rank was the similarly sized XV.

To say that Subaru hasn’t strayed far from the formula for the second XV is like saying water is only a little wet.

In fact, it’ll take a trained eye to pick the two apart from the outside, but under the skin, it is a different story.

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