Subaru Outback Review & Prices

The Subaru Outback is the sort of car you buy for a purpose. If the standard, popular family SUV is a hiker with all the flashy gear but no real clue, then the Outback is the quiet frontiersman who can climb any mountain armed only with a hefty stick, a pair of brogues, and some tweed.

That’s because while most SUVs these days don’t have much ground clearance, good grip or even four-wheel drive, the Outback has all three - but wraps it up in an unassuming estate car body. Fashionable it ain’t, but fit for purpose it certainly is.

Alternatives for the Subaru Outback have quietly been dropped from most manufacturer ranges over the past few years. While there are still a few estate cars available with four-wheel drive, they’re aimed at greater on-road grip rather than rough terrain - making the Outback’s only real alternatives a selection of SUVs ranging from the Land Rover Discovery Sport to the Dacia Bigster.

The latest update to the Outback came in 2024, when it got a subtly reprofiled front grille and some updates to the interior tech. The exterior looks like a normal estate car that’s been to the gym - it sits high on its suspension, though not as high as a regular SUV, and has plenty of chunky cladding around the lower part of the body which gives it the twin benefits of being more rugged on rough terrain as well as shrugging off dings and dents in car parks more readily.

The interior is distinctly old-school. Where alternatives are going for panoramic dashboards, dinky gear selectors and a range of plush, appealing materials, the Outback gives you old-school analogue dials, a chunky automatic gear shifter and a symphony of black plastic and black leather.

Set into this is an 11.6-inch infotainment screen that, while big and clear, isn’t exactly intuitive to use. Even the fonts Subaru has selected look old-fashioned. However, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, so you can at least bypass the shonky interface with one that’s more usable.

You can’t argue with the space on offer, though. The Outback isn’t a ginormous car, but the front seats are as comfy as armchairs, and there’s ample space in the rear for two six-footers. There’s also a big boot, and the slightly raised driving position makes it easy to get into and out of without feeling like you’re perched on top of a barstool.

The Subaru Outback’s real weak link is the engine. It’s a 2.5-litre non-turbocharged petrol, producing a pretty weak 169hp. Paired to a whirring CVT gearbox, it’s lethargic and thirsty - especially when you compare it to the hybrid and plug-in hybrid alternatives.

It’s also resolutely unsporty in corners, with a lot of body lean - but the flipside is that thanks to permanent four-wheel drive you not only get loads of grip on the road, but tremendous prowess off it. The Subaru Outback will keep going over terrain that would fox almost any SUV this side of a Land Rover - it’s that good.

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The Subaru Outback range frustratingly starts at just over £40,000 - so even the cheapest model attracts the expensive car supplement on its yearly tax bill. The base Limited model does come well-equipped, though - heated front seats with electric adjustment for the driver, keyless entry, LED lights, privacy glass, roof bars and Subaru’s full suite of Eyesight driver assistance tech all come as standard.

Stepping up to the Field model adds sat-nav, a powered tailgate, a heated steering wheel and synthetic leather seats, while the range-topping Limited has Nappa leather upholstery, silver external trim, a Harman Kardon stereo and a 360-degree camera system. All versions get 18-inch alloy wheels.

That’s still less than most comparable SUVs - a Land Rover Discovery Sport is more expensive, and it’s certainly the cheapest estate car with four-wheel drive or any degree of off-road prowess.

The Subaru Outback is hugely comfortable over a long journey and easy to drive around town - but keen drivers should look elsewhere

In town

The Subaru Outback uses a CVT transmission - in a nutshell, this means that instead of having a series of discrete gear ratios it has one that constantly and infinitely shifts. Around town, the effect is great - it’s smooth and effortless, and more responsive at junctions or roundabouts than a dual-clutch transmission in a Volkswagen Passat or similar.

The Outback’s suspension, designed for big hills and crests off-road, also makes short work of potholes and speed bumps in the city. That’s helped by generous sidewalls on the relatively small 18-inch alloy wheels - many alternatives have 19- or 20-inch alloys, with correspondingly less rubber to absorb shocks.

Visibility is good and though you don’t quite have the commanding driving position of a proper SUV, you do sit higher in the Outback than in most other cars. On the negative, the turning circle isn’t fantastic, the cameras are fairly low-resolution and the engine can be a bit raucous if you put your foot down.

On the motorway

The Outback’s engine doesn’t quite feel powerful enough for really effortless motorway driving - you’ll need to put your foot down quite a lot to make good progress, at which point the CVT transmission sends the revs spiralling noisily.

This is a shame because in other regards the Subaru Outback is an excellent motorway cruiser. When the engine isn’t shouting about anything the whole car is very refined, with little wind or road noise. The suspension eats up bumps in the road better than many luxury cars, too, helped by seriously comfortable seats with loads of padding and support.

Subaru’s safety systems - named ‘Eyesight’ for the twin-camera setup above the windscreen - all work well. The lane-keeping aids and adaptive cruise control are some of the better options around, and help take the sting out of long drives.

On a twisty road

Keen drivers will soon find the Subaru Outback’s shortcomings. It corners quite well, helped by lots of traction and grip from the permanent four-wheel drive system, and the steering is nicely direct and quite well-weighted.

The problem really is the CVT transmission. Though you can put it into a ‘Sport’ mode, all this really does is make it hold the revs even more uncomfortably high than normal. Put your foot down and the gearbox puts in some artificial ratios to try and make it feel more sporty - this doesn’t really work. Add to this a lot of body movement in the bends and a general lack of power, and the Outback doesn’t lend itself well to B-road blasting.

If your idea of a twisty road is a farm track or green lane, though, then the Outback is in its element. With full-time four-wheel drive, plenty of ground clearance and some carefully chosen off-road modes, it’ll show a clean pair of heels to any other four-wheel drive estate as well as most SUVs. You’ll need a proper off-roader, like a Land Rover Defender or Suzuki Jimny, before you can challenge the Outback’s supremacy off-road - making the Subaru a very affordable way to get both on-road comfort with the ability to go on the rough stuff.

A seriously practical car, though some alternatives have more space in the boot

Practicality in the Subaru Outback doesn’t suffer because the car is so specialised. Up front, it’s really comfortable - the seats are wide, squashy and supportive, with plenty of adjustment for drivers of all sizes. The steering wheel adjusts for reach and rake also.

While the Outback isn’t set quite as high off the road as a proper SUV, it’s still higher than a regular saloon or estate car, so getting in and out is really easy even if you have a bad back or limited mobility. Storage for smaller items is okay - there are two big cupholders, a wireless phone charging pad (with USB and USB-C charging sockets) and an underarm storage compartment in the centre, plus big door bins shaped to carry drinks bottles.

However, the bulky and old-fashioned gear selector takes up a lot of space, so what’s lacking is a tray or compartment to stash the contents of your pockets - like wallets, keys or other paraphernalia.

Space in the back seats

Accommodation out back (get it?) is nice and roomy too, if not up to the vast space of something like the Skoda Superb. Two six-foot adults will find themselves very comfortable in the rear of the Outback, and the centre seat is flat enough that a third passenger can sit quite happily too - though their feet will have to contend with a large hump in the floor, a consequence of the Subaru’s permanent all-wheel drive system.

There are small door bins suitable for a bottle, a fold-down armrest with cupholders and ISOFIX points on both outer rear seats for mounting a child seat securely. The rear doors are also nice and big, so you can load even bulky child seats easily.

Boot space

The Subaru Outback has a 561-litre boot, which is nice and roomy though not up to the 690 litres you get on a Skoda Superb Estate or Volkswagen Passat. However, it’s way more than you get in four-wheel drive alternatives, and a more useful space than most comparable SUVs. You even get a powered tailgate from the mid-spec model upwards.

The rear seats fold down nice and flat to extend the space, and there’s no hump in the floor - but the four-wheel drive system means you don’t get much useful space under the floor for odds and ends. If the boot isn’t big enough, all Outbacks come with roof rails as standard, which can cleverly swivel to become crossbars with just a few minutes’ work.

The Subaru Outback doesn’t really have any style inside - but it’s built to survive a medium-sized nuclear blast

No matter how unfashionable you are, you’d be hard-pressed to call the Subaru Outback’s interior stylish. It’s a triumph of function over form, and all the better for it - but if you’re expecting plush materials and flourishes like you get in a BMW 3 Series you’re in for disappointment.

The Outback’s dashboard is dominated by an 11.6-inch, portrait-oriented touchscreen. This controls most of the car’s functions, though there are shortcut buttons either side for the stereo volume and the temperature of the climate control. The rest of the climate controls live onscreen in a permanent bar at the bottom.

There’s another permanent bar at the top which displays key information about the car, as well as the off-road driving modes, leaving the middle free for sat-nav, settings and the like. Subaru’s own interface is pretty clunky, and even the fonts look old-fashioned - but most of the functionality you want is there. It’s just a shame much of it is buried a few layers down in the menus.

There’s wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, though, so if you want to bypass Subaru’s awkward interface you can do so very easily.

Another decidedly old-school touch is that the Outback still has analogue instrumentation - one of very few cars in this price bracket thus equipped. They’re easy to read, but the small screen between the dials suffers from trying to display too much information in too small a space. A fully digital cluster - even one that was designed to look like analogue gauges - would have been more useful here.

One thing you can’t argue about, however, is the build quality. The Subaru Outback is one of few cars with absolutely no squeaks, creaks or rattles - and you can be sure it’ll stay that way for a long time. The materials aren’t particularly luxurious, but they feel incredibly hardwearing, and everything you touch feels solid and dense. Subaru has a long-earned reputation for solidity and it’s really easy to feel here - and quite reassuring.

The Subaru Outback’s sole engine choice is a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol in the flat ‘Boxer’ configuration - imagine a ‘V’ engine that someone’s tried to post through a letterbox. It doesn’t have a turbocharger, nor any kind of hybrid system, so it’s not really too surprising that it claims to return just 32.8mpg and emits a whopping 193g/km of CO2.

Despite those unimpressive numbers, it’s not even particularly fast or powerful. It feels like a very outdated engine for a modern car, and is the Outback’s weak link.

During gentle driving, though, we did manage to beat the official figure and get an average of 36mpg over a week. This is still lower than you’d expect from any alternative, though - most 4x4 SUVs can manage close to or over 50mpg if driven carefully. Even a much more powerful Land Rover Defender will crest 40mpg with a very light foot.

Those CO2 emissions mean that first year road tax is very pricey, and all models frustratingly attract the expensive car supplement in years two to six of ownership - by just a few hundred pounds in the case of the entry-level car. It won’t make a good company car either, again thanks to that CO2 figure - plug-in hybrid or fully electric alternatives are better here.

The Subaru Outback has a five-star Euro NCAP rating - as has every Subaru since 2009. Though the Outback was last tested in 2021, the newer Crosstrek and Forester use most of the same safety systems and mechanical underpinnings, and managed to return five-star ratings in 2024, so you needn’t worry that it’s an outdated score.

Subaru’s active safety aids work well - they’re bundled under the ‘Eyesight’ moniker, and include standard adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist that are particularly easy to live with, in stark contrast to most alternatives. Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert, often optional on alternatives, are also standard, plus Subaru is clever enough to activate its headlights when the wipers are on.

The intelligent speed limit warning system is less obtrusive than some others, but still annoying enough that you’ll want to turn it off before most drives. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a pain to do, involving several steps of menu-swiping.

Subaru only offers a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty in the UK - on par with most European brands but far less than you get from Hyundai, Kia, or Toyota. However, keep up with maintenance and it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to use it.

Subaru’s cars are tremendously reliable, and often top the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey - the brand as a whole did so in 2024. If you service your Subaru Outback as scheduled, it’s likely to give you many years of trouble-free motoring.