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hybrid quickly please, Subaru?
2026 Subaru Outback evaluation: Great interior, improved drive, dissentious appearances
The latest Outback stays with the script; that’s no bad thing if you like Outbacks.
Subaru won lots of fans with previous Outbacks. Let’s see how the brand-new one does.
Credit: Jim Resnick
Subaru won numerous fans with previous Outbacks. Let’s see how the brand-new one does.
Credit: Jim Resnick
When station wagons headed for the exact same retirement community as the vinyl roofing and the opera window, Subaru took a look at its reasonable Legacy wagon and had a various concept. Raise it a couple of inches, cover the lower body in plastic cladding, name it for the Australian bush, and rural households would drive to soccer practice while envisioning themselves fording streams and climbing up dune.
In bring to life the Legacy Outback in 1995, Subaru basically developed the design template for the modern-day, adventure-minded, off-road-themed crossover. By the 2000 design year, the Outback had actually finished from trim level to standalone design, and it has actually been paying the bulk of Subaru’s expenses since.
Today, the 2026 Outback marks a brand-new age in the design’s history. The wagon shape that specified 6 generations has actually paved the way to a sharpened two-box shape that’s far more in your home parked beside an upright Forester or Ascent. High, square, and a lot SUV-like, the brand-new edition will not win any appeal contests, however type follows function more than ever in the Outback.
More crossover than wagon, the brand-new Subaru Outback is not the very best it has actually ever looked, a minimum of as far as the outside is worried.
Credit: Jim Resnick
More crossover than wagon, the brand-new Subaru Outback is not the very best it has actually ever looked, a minimum of as far as the outside is worried.
Credit: Jim Resnick
Requirement four-wheel drive throughout all 6 trim levels(beginning at about$ 36,000 to simply under$49,000, consisting of the needed $1,450 location)makes sure all Outbacks have comparable poor-weather and poor-road capability, though the Wilderness variation trips 0.8 inches (20 mm) greater off the ground and includes more devoted all-terrain tires. My Limited test automobile stickered at $43,165.
Much enhanced interior
The brand-new Outback isn’t quite, however invest a week driving it, as I did, and you’ll rapidly care less about the external skin than the inner ability. The additional height over the 2025 variation pays for much enhanced traveler and freight space. There’s one caution, though: The brand-new interior actions threateningly near to superior quality, and a brand-new infotainment system and electronic devices plan pull daily functionality and benefit up the ladder by a sounded or more.
Climb up in and close the door, and you’ll discover the control panel cleaner than in the past, with environment manages luckily provided as concrete knobs and buttons instead of the sometimes-lethargic digital makings of the previous Outback. The only demerit here is the mesh material covering the upper door panels and part of the control panel. This product looks a bit inexpensive and can be pulled like a t-shirt, making the pattern askew.
The brand-new interior is an enhancement.
Credit: Jim Resnick
The brand-new interior is an enhancement.
Credit: Jim Resnick
While the front seats use great deals of legroom and adjustability and are really comfy even on multi-hour drives, the rear seat uses a lot more area and shoulder space. The seatbacks do not recline, as in numerous SUVs. Ingress and egress from both front and rear seats is likewise exceptional. The Limited trim consists of heated outboard rear seats. Thoughtful shopping bag hooks and tie-downs in the freight location come basic, and there’s likewise significant under-floor storage back there, too.
On the innovation front, a brand-new 12.1-inch infotainment system reacts quicker and shows simpler to browse, with big, extremely understandable icons. You can likewise more quickly check out the brand-new 12.3-inch, hi-res, and configurable digital instrument cluster. Numerous USB-A and USB-C ports come basic front and back, and there’s cordless charging up front.
My Outback Limited’s Harman Kardon audio system (12 speakers, 576 watts) replicated sound much better than I prepared for, whether I was piping in Miles Davis, MC5, or Mahler. The leading Touring trims consist of a hands-free highway driving system that bridges the adaptive cruise control and lane-centering currently aboard the Limited test car.
ADAS requires work
A couple of words about active driving helps. The generous list of basic lane-keeping, lane-centering, and adaptive cruise functions worked well, it was difficult to value them since the DriverFocus Distraction Mitigation system’s functions were so self-important. Avert from the roadway dead-ahead for more than a 2nd– even to glimpse at the infotainment screen– and you get an electronic finger-wagging that you’re not focusing.
Go here to fine-tune the sophisticated motorist help systems.
Credit: Jim Resnick
Go here to modify the innovative chauffeur support systems.
Credit: Jim Resnick
With lane-centering and adaptive cruise engaged, the Outback consistently scolded me to put my hands on the guiding wheel– when my hands were on the guiding wheel. And after that, when I purposefully released to attempt to wake the system up and re-gripped the wheel with the firmness of a General Patton handshake, the system took about 5 seconds to sign up the re-grip.
Naturally, you can disable the DriverFocus system, however you ‘d require to disable it on every reboot of the vehicle. Yes, Subaru laudably has actually put security at the leading edge, however I quit driving with my mom 40 years back.
Below the brand-new blocky sheetmetal, Subaru prevents transforming what currently worked. The test Limited’s basic 2.5 L flat-four-cylinder engine establishes 180 hp (134 kW) and 178 lb-ft (241 Nm) of torque. That’s appropriate zest, however it’s barely vigorous when lugging around the Outback Limited’s 3,741 pounds (1,697 kg).
The turbocharged 2.4 L engine of the XT variations, making 260 hp (194 kW) and 277 lb-ft (376 Nm) of torque, provides power that the base engine can just imagine (if engines might dream). No hybrid variation is readily available yet, however I think a hybrid Outback will show up for 2027, likely with a variation of the 194 hp (145 kW) drivetrain presently utilized in the Forester Hybrid. For those searching for something completely electrical, the brand-new Subaru Trailseeker is marketed in other areas as the E-Outback and is close to, if not similar in, measurements.
Both engines couple with Subaru’s continually variable transmission, which carries out sufficiently in sedate, daily driving however stumbles when pressed and can generate some droning when climbing up long highway grades and speeding up hard.
In the meantime, there’s an option of 2 engines.
Credit: Jim Resnick
In the meantime, there’s an option of 2 engines.
Credit: Jim Resnick
Behind the wheel
More excellent is just how much more fine-tuned the brand-new Outback feels when not asked to carry out like a sports automobile. The Outback hushes wind sound, smooths bumps and cruelty on the highway, and appears to dispatch dirt roadway roughness with almost the very same ease as it does on the highway. Twisty back roadways are not truly on the menu. I ‘d conserve that for the BR-Zs and WRXs of the world.
No off-road match for a Jeep Wrangler, the brand-new Outback does whatever the previous generation did when the roadway ends, indicating rather a lot provided natural restrictions. Both old and brand-new Outbacks supply the very same 8.7 inches (221 mm) of ground clearance (though the brand-new Wilderness variation yields 9.5 inches/241 mm).
Different traction-seeking functions come basic on the Limited, like X-Mode Traction Management, which softens the throttle opening to prevent a preliminary loss of traction; variable torque split, which assigns basically power to the wheels with more traction; and hill descent control, which controls downhill speed so the motorist can concentrate on guiding on slippery downslopes. In addition to additional ground clearance and knobbier all-terrain tires, the Outback Wilderness includes selectable snow/dirt and deep snow/mud settings to the X-Mode system.
Fortunately, it’s not an all touchscreen user interface. There are a lot of buttons.
Jim Resnick
No matter traction-seeking software application and hardware, I discovered the Outback Limited efficient in managing anything I tossed at it on the off-road routes I utilize in Arizona, within factor. Cliff-climbing and bouldering are plainly out of the concern for the Outback, and like a professional athlete getting on in years, you need to understand your automobile’s constraints before dedicating to off-road heroism. Your oil pan, ball joints, and differentials will thank you.
The Outback provides 34.6 cubic feet (980 L) of freight area behind the rear seats and 80.5 cu. ft. (2,280 L) with rear seats folded. That’s a bit lower than class freight leaders like the massive way-back in Honda’s Passport, however the Outback is adept. Plus, the Outback take advantage of a lower rear load-in height, so carrying heavy things within will show simpler.
There’s storage aplenty for little products, consisting of carpeted area in each door pocket for a huge 32-ounce water bottle, plus different little pockets around the interior for other ornaments. The center console isn’t substantial, however it’s rather deep.
The EPA rates the Outback Limited’s fuel economy at 25/31/27 mpg in city/highway/combined driving (9.4/ 7.6/ 8.7 L/100 km). In my own mix of rural and highway driving, I saw 28.4 mpg (8.3 L/100 km) over a week, marking down the off-roading session; that sort of driving is not similar with typical driving or economy scores. The Outback can likewise tow approximately 3,500 pounds (1,588 kg), adequate to pull a little trailer or boat.
Still not a looker.
Credit: Jim Resnick
Still not a looker.
Credit: Jim Resnick
While the brand-new Outback’s styling will likely trigger the loudest arguments, after a week in the motorist’s seat, it’s clear that Subaru has actually kept the automobile’s objective undamaged. The current Outback stays loyal to its reputable raison d’être as a tool for browsing your vehicle life, be it in the carpool lane throughout heavy traffic or riding along the spinal column of the Continental Divide at daybreak.
A veteran of journalism, item preparation and interactions in the vehicle and music area, Jim reports, reviews and lectures on automobiles, music and culture.
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