Subaru Outback

Overview

THIS YEAR marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Australian debut of the Subaru Outback as a lightly lifted and clad version of the versatile and all-wheel drive second-generation Subaru Liberty (or Legacy, overseas).

The intervening years have woven a tight bond between the local market and the Outback, and Subaru has enjoyed three decades of strong and stable sales of its raised wagon product in the market that gave this car its name.

Pearl is the traditional gift marking 30 years together—and in the new seventh-generation Outback, launched this month in and around Bathurst, New South Wales, Subaru almost delivered Australia a pearler.

Looks-wise, the jury’s out. The new Outback, being longer (4880mm), wider (1880mm) and considerably taller (up to 1735mm) than the previous version, appears to some more like a large SUV than a station wagon.

Designed mainly to appeal in North America—Subaru’s most commercially important and sensitive market—the bullish and bluff new Outback has a tall and imposing bonnet, though the classically long roofline and stand-off type rails still evoke wagon-like proportions.

Sitting pretty at the local launch was a tidy example of that first-gen Outback that, on a limited budget, grew up and out of the handsome Liberty. The modern car is a different proposition, being a larger and more practical alternative to the Forester midsize SUV.

With sales of the outgoing Outback having slipped a tad from the typical 10,000 p.a. level to 8384 units last year, Subaru locally expects regrowth from the nameplate, which has split into three standard variants and two distinctly-styled and further-lifted Wilderness trims.

Locals loved the return of the turbocharged XT engine to the superseded sixth-gen’ Outback halfway through its life but Subaru Australia has made an unusual change to the range by limiting the desirable and beefed-up 194kW/382Nm 2.4-litre turbo Boxer four-cylinder to the Wilderness.

The standard Outback (simply badged AWD), plus the Premium and high-end Touring specifications, are saddled with the very familiar 2.5-litre naturally aspirated flat four-cylinder that produces a comparatively anaemic 137kW/245Nm. Both engines have a CVT automatic.

With kerb weight up, to between 1705kg in base form to 1802kg in top-end Wilderness Apex trim, braked towing has been cut from 2400kg (in the old XT) to 2100kg (Wilderness 2.4T) or 2000kg (2.5-litre models).

Pricing is up, too, by around 10 per cent in base trim. Now more than $50K all told on road, the $48,990 (plus on-road costs) Outback AWD gains new infotainment with 12.1-inch touchscreen and 12.3-inch instrumentation plus black PVC seating replacing cloth.

Otherwise, 18-inch alloy wheels, power tailgate, X-Mode AWD, wireless smartphone mirroring, leather shifter and steering wheel, roof rails, auto LED lights and wipers, dual-zone climate control and eight-way power driver’s seat all remain standard.

From there it’s a step up into the Premium ($53,490 + ORCs, adding heated front seats/wheel, power passenger seat, navigation and sunroof) or the Touring ($56,990 + ORCs buys nappa leather with driver’s memory, cooled front/heated rear seats, and Harman Kardon audio).

Options are limited to exterior colour (Crystal White pearl and Crystal Black mica are no-cost, other hues—including handsome blue or green command just $660). Touring buyers have a choice of black or brown nappa hide, but all other models have black vinyl seating.

Unusually, the Wilderness models do not represent a step up from the Touring. Instead, the ‘ordinary’ Wilderness ($59,690 + ORCs) builds on the equipment of the base Outback AWD.

Wilderness brings the 194kW 2.4T to the table plus a 20mm lift (to 240mm), plus electronically controlled dampers, two-mode X-mode, water-repellant seating, copper accents, heated front and rear seats, wireless charging and unique styling.

Finally, the Wilderness Apex ($62,490 + ORCs) brings the sunroof, sat nav and Harman Kardon stereo to the table—but it misses many Touring features, including nappa leather, cooled seats, driver’s memory, and the power passenger seat.

Onboard safety includes nine airbags, forwards/reversing autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise, lane centring, and a 360-degree camera on all bar the base grade. Driver attention monitoring is added and is, sadly, very sensitive indeed to the point of being annoying.

Servicing for both engine types accrues to around $2350 for the first five years/75,000km, with annual/15,000km intervals. Warranty remains five years with unlimited mileage.

With a fuel tank measuring 63 litres, both engines accept 91 RON fuel. Subaru claims 8.1L/100km combined for the 2.5-litre models (777km range), or 9.7L/100km for the 2.4-litre turbo Wilderness grades (649km).

Driving impressions

Dynamically, Subaru sought to achieve two goals that appear opposing with the new Outback: improving its on- and off-road capabilities simultaneously. In quite a feat, it mostly achieved its targets.

We commend Subaru’s ride and handling engineers, who have managed to further strengthen the departing sixth-gen’ car’s Global Platform chassis and impart it with more feel and verve on the blacktop thanks to improved damping and steering quality.

Central to the effort has been a deft retune of the MacPherson strut-type front suspension and double wishbone independent rear suspension which benefits from new dampers. The focus was on reducing body lean and improving bump absorption and compliance.

A back-to-back drive of the ‘standard’ Outback AWD and the Outback Wilderness grades from Sydney’s west to Mount Panorama—via patchy back-roads and fire trails—revealed that it is the Wilderness, with electronically-controlled dampers, that comes nearest the target.

The entire range rides on sensibly-sized 18-inch wheels with plenty of tyre profile (Bridgestone Alenza measuring 225/60 R18 all-round) but the single-mode adaptive suspension of the Wilderness manages to damp out rougher edges and minor imperfections alike.

Driving the standard Outback reveals similar improvements in composure and reductions in roll but a touch more fidget is detected coming up from road surfaces that look smooth.

A dual-pinion electric power steering system with rack-mounted motor, borrowed from the WRX range, has improved the directness of the Outback’s turn-in with feels keener and more natural but not too fast.

Off the beaten track and onto barely-maintained gravel fire trails with moderately difficult ascents and descents—a pretty honest test—and both Outback variants impressed us with the precision and speed of the X-Mode AWD system, which finds traction quite well even on road tyres.

If you will be doing any kind of off-road work more than a groomed gravel path the additional 20mm clearance of the Wilderness will make a difference, but both versions of the new Outback make light work of simple trail driving—they’re better than you may expect.

To that end, Subaru executives are interested in trying to lure buyers of the Ford Everest and Toyota Prado into an Outback Wilderness, especially if most of their time is spent on-road where the Subaru’s tarmac dynamics are superior.

At some point, the good news had to end, and it does so here.

The tragedy of Subaru’s thirtieth anniversary Outback is that the decision to exclusively bequeath the Wilderness cars with the turbocharged engine has driven a stake through the desirability of several trims.

Quite simply, in an age of affordable Chinese-built plug-in hybrid SUVs, the real-world performance of the standard Outback engine (recalling it is a minimum $50K+ proposition now) falls well below expectations in 2026.

With at least 1700kg aboard plus passengers and cargo, the 137kW 2.5-litre petrol feels listless and lethargic and it sounds pained—especially with your crew aboard or when trying to make urgent progress: think overtaking or accelerating up a long hill.

When the previous Outback launched in 2021 with the same engine (but a few more kilowatts!) it was already a touch awkward. In 2026, it has a distinct feeling of Subaru resting on its laurels and relying on the loyalty of existing customers.

It is, indeed, a different story in the Wilderness grades, with the 2.4-litre turbocharged ‘four. With considerably higher power and torque (+57kW/+137Nm) on tap, the turbo engine feels comparatively energetic, muscular and ready for action no matter the context.

Even the turbo, with all that torque, never really settles in the rev range as Subaru’s mandatory-take CVT automatic moves the engine speed around constantly. A relaxed eight-speed auto would be better.

So, even if the 2.5-litre is clearly insufficient, can’t you just upgrade to the turbo Wilderness and be done with it?

Well, going turbo is neither as simple nor as affordable as it once was. The old Outback let you substitute the superior 2.4T for the 2.5NA in the outdoorsy Outback Sport or luxurious Touring grades for $5000.

By comparison, splashing into the Wilderness means spending more like $10K extra once specification is accounted for. It also means accepting the lurid Wilderness styling package and foregoing conveniences like cooled seats and real leather which are 2.5 Touring-only exclusives.

It’s a bizarre product planning miss that results in a more confusing line-up than before and one that particularly leaves Outback Touring buyers out in the cold, with the best luxury-tier cabin but a serious lack of motivation under the bonnet.

We hope Subaru Australia finds a solution. In the United States, several ‘non-Wilderness’ trims can be optioned with the turbo engine. We think that would be an easy answer here.

Inside, it is business as usual for Outback—plenty of oddment storage, supportive front seats and good Japanese-sourced build quality—with an interesting change made to the human-machine interface.

The vertical touchscreen lasted just one generation with the new Outback reverting to a conventional landscape 12-inch unit with snappier and more modern-looking software. Climate controls have been relocated from on-screen to a discrete panel of buttons beneath it.

Combined with (potentially a slight overuse of) physical shortcut buttons on the steering wheel, the Outback strikes back against the screens trend and for the most part, it’s a positive development. The crisp 12-inch digital instrument cluster is pleasant and legible.

As foreshadowed above, our only major concern with the interior is the broad use of black vinyl seat trim in most variants (except the Touring) which was not temperate and causes perspiration on warm days. The old base Outback had cloth: not so family friendly, but breathable.

Closely reflecting similar testing of the previous Outback, both engines of the new generation settled around 10.0L/100km on a mix of suburban and country roads, for a realistic range of around 630km.

We’re fans of the new Outback—at least the way it presents inside, and the way it rides and handles. If Subaru Australia can correct the planning of the line-up, unlocking the turbo engine for the appealing Touring grade, it will result in a clearer and more convincing line-up as a whole.