2021 Subaru Outback vs 2020

What's the difference?

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring does its intended job of balancing city and suburban duties with having more than enough dirt-driving ability to take you to your favourite National Park campsite, within reason, of course.

This adventure wagon is nice to drive, comfortable, has improved safety tech, and it also manages to carry on the Subaru tradition of being practical without pretensions.

The Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium is exceptionally good in terms of value, practicality, its design and build quality, safety and in the way it drives. Many might overlook it as just a station wagon and go for a tall SUV instead, not realising that the Outback is exactly what they need.

Comment call to action: Is the Subaru Outback the perfect anti-SUV SUV? Tells us what you think in the comments below.

This new Outback looks suitably and unmistakably like an Outback – it’s adventurous-looking and inoffensive enough to satisfy those who prefer their high-riding SUV-wagon with a touch of low-key styling.

Design changes are generally subtle, but the use of LEDs (in the daytime running lights, self-levelling headlights, front fog-lights, and rear brake-lights, as well as inside), as well as roof rails incorporating stow-away roof racks are nice touches.

Is the Subaru Outback a wagon or an SUV? Well, it’s sort of a cross between them and it could be the perfect vehicle for people who don’t want an SUV but still want the elevated ride height, extra ground clearance and practicality of a sports utility vehicle.

The Outback shares much of the Subaru Liberty sedan’s underpinnings and this is good for its ride comfort and handling, but more on that in the driving section below.

I’m a fan of the Outback’s tough plastic wheel guards and chunky side skirts, oversized fog lights and hardcore looking roof racks. The seriously dark privacy glass to the rear and back windows looks great and so does the roof top spoiler.

What are the Outback’s dimensions? The Outback is large at 4820mm long, 1840mm wide and 1675mm. Ground clearance is 213mm. Regular cars normally have around 170mm and the Toyota RAV4’s is 195mm.

'Crystal White Pearl' was the colour of my test car, but there are 10 hues to choose from including 'Crimson Red', 'Wilderness Green', 'Dark Blue' and 'Crystal Black.'

The 2.5i Premium’s cabin feels sumptuous with soft-touch, high-quality feeling materials and an excellent fit and finish.

There are hints that the cockpit is starting to age from a styling perspective and the new generation Outback coming by 2021 will surely see the interior move to a more modern look.

To those new to Subaru it can be a bit confusing working out where the Outback fits into the brand’s SUV range, which can look a bit samey. So, what you need to know is that the XV is the small SUV, the Forester is the mid-sized one and the Outback is the large SUV-ish station wagon.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has five seats, two in the front and three in the rear. 

There’s plenty of room in the front and in the rear, in terms of being able to actually stretch about a bit and roll your shoulders without feeling cocooned.

The driver's seat is eight-way power-adjustable with dual memory; and the front passenger's seat is eight-way power-adjustable. 

The rear seat is a 60/40 split folding configuration and is equipped with three child-seat anchor points, and two ISOFIX child-restraint anchor points.

The interior, in Nappa leather trim, looks and feels pleasant.

The new multimedia system’s 11.6-inch touchscreen dominates upfront, bringing to mind the portrait-style unit of a Tesla, or even a Ram 1500 Limited I recently tested. It’s easy enough to use after you get your head around the fact you have to operate buttons on the screen and off of it to keep everything working to your satisfaction.

Connecting my Android Auto smartphone was simple and we experienced few issues with this set-up in the time I had this Outback.

Charging facilities for your devices include four USB ports: two upfront, and two in the rear.

Storage spaces include a small shelf under the multi-media screen, a shallow grippy, textured shelf for the front passenger, a lidded centre console, cup-holders between the front seats, as well as the usual bottle holders in the doors.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring's cargo capacity, with five seats in use, is listed as 522 litres. With the second row stowed away, cargo capacity increases to 1267 litres.

And most of the cabin’s handy life-friendly additions I reckon are in the load space and those include cargo hooks, flip-down tie-down points, cargo nets, cargo cover, and a power socket.

All in all, the interior is a pleasant mix of practicality and comfort, with a nice premium feel about it. 

The Outback is a spacious five-seater wagon with excellent head and legroom in the second row. I’m 191cm tall and could sit behind my driving position with about 40mm to spare. Space up front is good, too, with plenty of elbow and shoulder room.

Cabin storage is great, with four cupholders (two up front and two in the second row), large door pockets, a deep centre console storage bin, map pockets in the seat backs, and a covered area in front of the shifter which houses two USB ports and a 12-volt outlet.

There are two USB charging ports in the second row and directional air vents. Another 12-volt outlet is located in the boot.

The cargo capacity of the boot is 512 litres with the second row in place, and 1801 litres with the rear seats folded down.

Large, tall and wide opening doors along with the raised ride height makes getting in and out a breeze, and also means putting little kids into their seats is easy on the back.

The roof racks are standard on all Outbacks and their toughness (I’ve danced on them – see the video) and design means they’re more than just for show.

Take a look at the front and rear door sills, too . They’ve been widened for you to stand on while loading your kayaks/mountain bikes/queen-sized mattress onto the roof.

Under the boot floor is a full-sized spare alloy wheel, and this pleases me big time. Many SUVs seem to promise adventure but only come with a space saver spare which will limit you to 80km/h and a few hundred kilometres at the most.

Finally, here’s something that not many people know about the Outback – you can lock and unlock it without a key, using a PIN number. To find out how watch my video above. You’ll also see me lock myself out of the car while the keys are on the dashboard.

The 2.5i Premium sits in the middle of Subaru’s Outback range with its list price of $43,940. The standard features list is extensive and includes an 8.0-inch screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat nav, digital radio, six-speaker stereo, CD player and Bluetooth connectivity.

Also standard are leather seats in 'Ivory' or as in our test car black, power adjustable and heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, paddle shifters, privacy glass, adaptive LED headlights, roof rails, an electric sunroof, 18-inch alloys wheels with a full-sized spare.

For less than a $40K list price that’s excellent value and I haven’t even mentioned the impressive array of safety equipment. Well, I have now, but you can read more about that below.

Rivals to the Outback include all-wheel drive wagons such as the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack, but also regular SUVs such as the Toyota RAV4 Cruiser and, wait for it, the Subaru Forester 2.5i-S.

All of the new Outbacks have a 2.5-litre four-cylinder horizontally-opposed Boxer petrol engine – producing 138kW at 5800rpm and 245Nm at 3400-4600rpm – and that’s mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

The Outback has permanent (aka “symmetrical”) all-wheel drive and Subaru’s X-Mode system that includes Normal, Snow/Dirt and Deep Snow/Mud modes. These driving modes adjust engine torque, throttle response and traction control, among other things, to suit the conditions.

The Outback 2.5i Premium has, you guessed it, a 2.5-litre petrol boxer engine making 129kW of power and 235Nm of torque. Personally, I prefer the much more powerful and torquey 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine in the Outback range, but you’ll have to step up to the pricier 3.6R grade to unlock that beastie.

Boxer engines are different from traditional ones in that the pistons move horizontally like a boxer punching rather than up and down. One of the benefits of this is a lower centre of mass which improves handling.

All Outbacks are all-wheel drive and have a continuously variable transmission (CVT) which isn’t my first choice when it comes to automatics as they seem to take the torque and just turn it into a droning noise.

That said, if I had to live with a CVT for the rest of my life I’d choose a Subaru CVT as they seem to get the drive to the wheels better than those made by other brands.      

The Outback 2.5i Premium has a braked towing capacity of 1500kg.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has an official combined-cycle fuel-consumption figure of 7.3 litres per 100 kilometres.

On test, we recorded actual fuel consumption of 9.0L/100km, from fill to fill.

The Outback has a 63-litre fuel tank.

Subaru says the 2.5-litre engine with the CVT should use 7.3L/100km over a combination of open and urban roads.

I drove 213km in my test car doing urban commutes into the city, as well as forays onto dirt trails and country roads, and used 26.6L measured at the fuel pump, which works out to be 12.5L/100km.

There weren’t many motorway kilometres in there and I should point out there were only 646km on the odometer when I started the test, which may account for the high fuel usage.

Pretty impressive.

For starters, visibility is good with a clear view in all directions from the driver’s seat.

Steering is well weighted, at low and high speeds, making it an easy steerer for parking and when on-road scenarios demand livelier rudder action.

This boxer engine is claimed to produce 7 per cent more power and 4.2 per cent more torque than in the previous generation, but, sans any turbo influence, it feels underpowered and is consistent rather than gutsy, with a rather lazy delivery of power and torque. Still, an unfussed workmanlike performance that you can rely on is better than a lacklustre alternative.

The Outback’s CVT works fine most of the time, although it can sometimes hunt energetically for the sweet spot – but, to negate that, the driver can use the paddle shifters to cycle through manual shifts.

Ride and handling are generally fine, with a suspension set-up – MacPherson struts at the front; double wishbones at the rear – that’s aimed at yielding a compliant, comfortable experience and, for the most part, succeeding. 

The Outback’s low (compared to most other SUVs) and wide stance lends itself to achieving that goal of settled and trustworthy ride and handling.

The Subaru Outback feels like a car to drive but has the ground clearance to go where a regular car can’t. And when I say 'like a car to drive' I mean the Outback doesn’t feel tall and wobbly like an SUV.

The Outback’s boxer engine combined with a relatively low overall height gives the car gives a low centre of mass. This, and sharing the Liberty sedan’s platform means it handles better than almost every SUV in this segment, and feels planted with only modest body roll in the corners.

The ride is also composed and comfortable, the steering is accurate and well weighted, and pedal feel is excellent, too.

While the Outback isn’t a traditional four-wheel drive (with transfer case, diff locks, etc) and wouldn't be the ideal choice for serious off-roading, its 213mm ground clearance and full-time all-wheel drive system make it impressively capable on dirt and gravel roads.

The Outback has what’s called 'X-Mode' which is activated by pressing a button and manages the engine, transmission and all-wheel drive system to maintain optimum traction on loose surfaces.

There’s also 'SI Mode' which allows the driver to switch between a sports mode or a more fuel-efficient setting.

The Subaru Outback was given the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was tested in 2015.

Coming standard is an extensive list of advanced safety equipment including AEB with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, lane sway warning and adaptive cruise control.

The 2.5i Premium grade adds more safety tech such as blind spot warning, lane change assistant and rear cross traffic alert. Joining the rear-view camera are side and front view cameras.

For child seats there are three top tether points and two ISOFIX mounts.  

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Service appointments are scheduled for every 12 months/12,500km.

CarsGuide-sourced services cost details are $345 (12 months/12,500km); $595 (24 months/25,000km); $351 (36 months/37,500km); $801 (48 months/50,000km); and $358 (60 months/62,500km) – that’s an average of $490 per service.

The Outback is covered by Subaru’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and Subaru recommends servicing the Outback 2.5i Premium every six months or 12,500kms.

A five-year/125,000km capped price servicing plan covers the Outback and you can expect to pay $316.38 for the six-month service, then $316.38 for the 12-month visit, $404.64 for the 18-month service, $549.74 for the two-year check-up, and so on.

Over five years the total routine service bill should come to no more than $4560.49, according to Subaru.

The Outback also comes with 12 months of roadside assistance.