Episode 439: 2026 Subaru Outback
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Car
Subaru Outback
The Subaru Outback is a type of car that looks like a wagon but can handle rough roads well. The 2026 version is the newest one with some new looks and features.
Concept
wagon
A wagon is a type of car that has extra space in the back for carrying things. It looks like a regular car but longer in the back.
Concept
SUV
An SUV is a bigger car that can go on rough roads and carry more people or stuff. It usually sits higher off the ground.
Term
ground clearance
Ground clearance is how high a car sits off the ground. More ground clearance means it can drive over rocks or bumps without scraping.
Car
Subaru Legacy wagon
The Subaru Legacy wagon is a car with extra space in the back for cargo. It was the starting point for the Outback, which made the car taller and more rugged.
Car
Volvo Cross Country
Volvo Cross Country cars are like regular Volvos but made tougher to drive on rough roads with more space and higher seats.
Car
Subaru Forester
The Subaru Forester is a type of SUV, which is a bigger car good for carrying people and stuff. It has a box-like shape and can drive well on different road types.
Car
Subaru Ascent
The Subaru Ascent is a bigger SUV that can fit more people because it has three rows of seats. It looks boxy and is good for families.
Car
Dodge Spirit
The Dodge Spirit is an older car that was simple and affordable. It was just a regular family car back in the day.
Car
Subaru Crosstrek
The Subaru Crosstrek is like a small SUV that looks like a hatchback car but sits higher off the ground. It is good for driving on rough roads.
Car
Subaru Impreza
The Subaru Impreza is a small car that can come as a regular car or with a hatchback back. It has special wheels that help it drive better on all kinds of roads.
Term
taller suspension
Taller suspension means the car sits higher off the ground, so it can go over bumps and rough roads easier.
Car
Subaru BRZ
The Subaru BRZ is a small sports car that is made for fun driving. It has a special setup where the power goes to the back wheels.
Concept
niche vehicle
A niche vehicle is a car made for a small group of people who like special things about it, not for everyone.
Term
turbocharged four cylinder
A turbocharged four-cylinder engine is a type of car engine that uses a special device called a turbocharger to make the engine stronger and faster without making it bigger. It helps the car go quicker while still saving gas.
Term
infotainment system
The infotainment system is the car's screen and controls that let you listen to music, use maps, and connect your phone.
Term
Android Auto
Android Auto lets you use your phone's apps on your car's screen, like maps and music, so you don't have to look at your phone while driving.
Term
touchscreen
A touchscreen is like a tablet or phone screen in the car that you can tap or swipe to control things like music or temperature.
Term
HVAC settings
HVAC settings let you control how warm or cool the air is inside your car and how much air is blowing.
Term
heated seats
Heated seats are car seats that can get warm to keep you cozy when it's cold outside.
Term
heated seat controls
Heated seat controls are buttons that let you make your car seats warm when it's cold outside.
Term
hard buttons
Hard buttons are real buttons you can press in a car, instead of just touching a screen, which can be easier to use while driving.
Term
torque management
Torque management is how the car controls how much power goes to the wheels so they don't spin too much and lose grip.
Concept
X mode
X mode is a setting in some Subaru cars that helps the car grip the road better when it's slippery, like in snow or mud. It turns on and off by itself to keep you safe without you needing to do anything.
Term
traction control
Traction control helps stop your car's wheels from slipping when you press the gas, so you don't lose control on slippery roads.
Term
all-wheel drive
All-wheel drive means the car sends power to all four wheels at the same time, helping it drive better on slippery roads like snow or mud.
Term
throttle response
Throttle response is how fast the car speeds up when you press the gas pedal.
Term
winter tires
Winter tires are special tires made to help cars drive better and safer on snow and ice during cold weather.
Car
Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a small SUV that’s easy to drive and can go on some rough roads if needed. It’s good for people who want a car that can do a little bit of everything.
Car
Wrangler Rubicon
The Jeep Wrangler is a tough SUV that can go on very rough roads and trails. It’s famous for being fun to drive outside the city.
Car
Ford Crown Victoria
The Crown Victoria is a big, strong car that police and taxi drivers used a lot because it lasts a long time and is very roomy inside.
Car
Mazda Cx5
The Mazda CX-5 is a small SUV that’s fun to drive and feels nice inside. It’s good for families or anyone who wants a car that’s easy to drive and comfortable.
Car
Nissan Altima
The Nissan Altima is a regular car that’s good for families or anyone who wants a comfortable and safe ride. It’s been around for a long time and many people trust it.
Car
Ford Maverick
The Ford Maverick is a small truck that doesn’t cost a lot and uses less gas than bigger trucks. It’s good for people who want a truck but don’t want to spend too much money.
Car
Ford Bronco Sport
The Bronco Sport is a smaller SUV that looks tough and can handle some rough roads, but it’s also good for driving around town every day.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough and cool-looking SUV that can drive on rough roads and trails. People like it because it looks like an old classic but has modern features.
Term
body cladding
Body cladding is extra plastic or material on the outside of a car that helps protect it and makes it look tougher.
Car
Subaru WRX
The Subaru WRX is a sporty car that is fast and fun to drive. It used to come in a hatchback style, which is like a car with a big rear door.
Car
Subaru B9 Tribeca
The Subaru B9 Tribeca was a bigger SUV that looked different from other cars, but many people didn't like how it looked.
Car
Hudson Hornet
The Hudson Hornet is an old car from the 1950s that was very fast and popular for racing back then. People talk about it because it was special for its time.
Car
Dodge Hornet
The Dodge Hornet is a small car made to be quick and look good. It’s for people who want a fun car that’s not too big.
Car
Hyundai Elantra
The Hyundai Elantra is a small car that’s nice to look at and easy to drive. The N-line version is a bit sportier and more fun to drive.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to the Unnamed Automotive podcast.
My name is Sammy Hajesad, and with me as always is my good friend and fellow automotive journalist,
Benjamin Hunting.
Say hi to the people, Ben.
Greetings, almost springtime listeners.
Greetings to everyone.
It is almost springtime, and that is the voice of my good friend and fellow automotive journalist,
Ben.
Ben, can you tell the people where they can find your latest work, please?
Sure.
You can find my work at Hagerty.
Motor Trend and at Driving.ca, or as I found out this morning, the Ottawa Sun, which is
running a BMW review I wrote for post-media.
You can find my work at Driving.ca and AutoTrader.ca, as well as Driving.ca's YouTube channel, which
I believe is.
That's a lot of .ca's.
I'm just going to...
Well, I...
Yeah, well, Canada.
That's what we got.
All right.
You ever think about maybe expanding into .xyz or .ch or anything like that?
Do you think I have an opportunity?
I think that...
Do you ever pursue such an opportunity?
The Internet is nothing if not opportunity.
I'm not sure about that anymore, but...
Okay.
Ben, we've got some cool cars to talk about this week.
Well, we have one cool car.
Yeah, one cool car, but context of other cool cars.
Okay.
That's...
I want you to take it away with your recent drive of the 2026 Subaru Outback.
Yeah, I finally broke down and got behind the wheel of the Outback.
Like, longtime listeners will know that Sammy and I are historically not pleased with the
styling turn that this vehicle has taken because, I mean, I'm a wagon lover.
I assume Sammy is as well.
Is that correct?
I mean, not a lover, but a appreciator.
Not a lover.
You own an Outback and didn't you also own another Outback?
Yeah.
Okay.
I mean, that's a lot of appreciation.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
So the big issue for me with this vehicle is that Subaru decided it didn't want to do
the one thing it was doing that no one else was doing anymore.
And to trade that uniqueness for doing the thing that everyone else was doing.
You're going to have to break it down for...
Not everyone knows exactly the code that you're using here.
The Outback was unique in the sense that it was a wagon, even though it was marketed as
an SUV.
And yeah, it was big and it rode up off the ground, 8.7 inches of ground clearance, which
is, you know, more than most Jeeps.
But it still had that long roof shape that really was reminiscent of what the Outback
had been initially, which was a, you know, taller version of the Legacy wagon.
The Legacy wagon is long in the rear view and the Legacy sedan has gone now to the Outback
outlasted them all and moved on to larger and larger platforms.
I own a 2015, Sammy owns what, a 22?
A 2020.
A 2020.
So...
And I used to have a 2010 before that.
I had a 98 at one point for a very brief period.
It would take every five years.
Oh, you know, okay.
So all is to say, I am an Outback fan because I like wagons.
They are useful.
They look good.
They're not SUVs, which to me is important because I like driving things that are different.
But I also like the idea of a car company, especially a small one like Subaru, selling
something that other people don't have to offer.
I mean, the closest we've had to this vehicle would be Volvo with the cross countries.
But those are premium vehicles and they're expensive.
Yeah.
They are much more expensive.
And they're really expensive to maintain as well.
They're a little over complicated.
They are all that.
And if you look at Subaru's lineup, I mean, they already have a semi-traditional SUV in
the form of the Forester, which is a boxy shape.
Yeah.
They have the...
And a three row version that is also boxy shape, right?
Sure.
Which is called what?
Ascent.
The ascent.
And they also have the Crosstrek, which keeps the spirit of a tall riding hatchback alive
by just basically being an Impreza with different styling and a taller suspension.
And it's perfectly fine.
So it's not like Subaru didn't have SUVs, I guess is my point.
Yeah.
It's weird.
But they wanted to make the...
They're traditionally not an SUV, an SUV.
They wanted to make everything, oops, all SUVs.
That's what the Subaru lineup is now, except for the Impreza and the BRZ, right?
There's nothing else.
And the Impreza is increasingly a niche vehicle and the BRZ is definitely a niche vehicle.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know how much longer the BRZ expects to be around once Toyota is like,
I'm done with this game, right?
Like that car is built with Toyota, as well as I guess there are other EVs, but that's
a whole other...
That's a story for a whole other day.
Well, even the new EVs that are coming out are also SUVs, like very clearly traditional
SUVs.
So all of this to say, the new Outback, my wife, our Outback is her car.
And when I brought the Outback home, all she could keep saying was this was an SUV versus
what she drove.
Exactly.
Like she's not a car person.
And to her, the difference was stark between the two vehicles, even though they're very
similar in size and essentially the same goal, right?
Like the mission statement of the vehicle hasn't really changed.
But now the Outback is a rectangle with a rectangle on top, like a smaller rectangle of a greenhouse.
Rectangles on rectangles.
Exactly.
And if you think I'm exaggerating, the rectangles go even further.
If you get to the wheel wells, there are also more rectangles there in the form of
body cladding that have rectangles inside of them as well.
So it's very square looking.
It looks a little larger.
And I think it is a little bit larger, not much, but it's definitely there.
And it totally takes.
I mean, in some ways you could say, oh, well, it has the long flat roof.
So isn't that enough for you wagon fans?
And when are you wagon fans going to die off and let the rest of us live our SUV glory in peace?
I don't think it's exactly enough.
I do really think that it's a dramatic change in the styling to the point where I.
So I'm buying laser discs now for reasons that I can't really explain.
Is this what the segue is going to be?
OK, yes.
And as a result, I needed to pick up a television to plug into my laser
display from 1982.
And I bought one locally from an older man who lives about 15 minutes away.
And he's also an Outback owner.
And when I showed up with the new Outback, he's telling me we're looking at the car.
And he's like, I've had like two or three these in a row.
And he's like, I will not be buying this one.
He's like, and now that I've seen it up close and seen it inside,
I am sure that I will not be returning my current Outback.
I'm probably going to buy the lease and keep that.
Right.
And I feel like there must be more than just this guy out there, Sammy.
Yeah, I think that's true.
I definitely agree with that.
I mean, I have the previous gen, the sixth gen.
This is seventh, I believe you have fifth.
And I think I have fourth as well.
And this just feels, I mean, looking at it, it looks like a totally different car.
There, I mean, I get, you know, design language change, but there's more to design language
that is changing about this car.
Exterior design, we already talked about really rectangles and rectangles.
Rectangles is not really like, I don't think it's an Outback design language.
But the interior, everyone's, I think everyone's sleeping on the interior of this thing.
The interior is very nice.
It looks like a huge upgrade over mine.
It is.
It is quite a nice vehicle inside.
I had the, which trim did you have?
Well, in Canada, it's called, I believe, premiere, sorry, touring XT, which is the top tier.
And in the United States, let me look because I know the name is different.
We find it here.
I'm sorry.
That's the American one is touring XT.
I think in Canada, it's premier, but I have to double check that.
Okay.
And yeah, it's premier XT.
They're exactly the same.
There's no differences.
So this comes with the 260 horsepower turbocharged four cylinder.
And the difference between the, so in the US, the wilderness is the next trim down.
In Canada, there's something in between wilderness and touring.
It's called limited.
And the biggest difference is the limited gets you a leather interior.
The touring XT gets you nap a leather and ventilated front seats.
And you're paying like three grand more for that.
So I don't know.
Vented seats are nice.
They're nice.
And I have to say the leather is very nice.
I had that like a brown color, which I appreciated.
I thought it was deep dark brown or like light brown.
No, like a, like, uh, butterscotch.
Yeah, butterscotch.
Like a darker butterscotch, not like the, no, but you know,
these, the Audi baseball seats that had like that lighter butterscotch color.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's not like that.
It's like they're like Volvo ones, which are basically orange.
Yeah.
The Volvo ones are like a kind of seat where I would not sit inside of them.
If I was wearing white pants, because I feel like they would instantly,
like that color is so searing.
It must just rub off right away.
Yeah.
Um, so I, the interior is quite nice.
It is an upgrade, I think in a lot of ways over the older Subaru,
but the older Subaru wasn't bad.
Was it like, do you hate your infotainment system, Sammy?
Look, I will say that it's not the, and first of all, actually, I will,
I will preface anything I say about my infotainment system with the fact
that I use Android Auto pretty much exclusively.
I get in there, I plug in my phone, and I use the, the Android Auto interface.
When I first bought the car, which was in 2024, I believe, um, 24, 23 then.
I can't remember for you.
I do my best.
Anyways, when I first got the car, the Android Auto interface only took up
half of the screen space and the other half of the screen was just blank.
And I don't mean that like it was in the middle of the screen.
It was on top rectangle and then bottom blank rectangle, really ugly.
But then they updated it and it takes up the full screen.
I really like it.
It works really fine.
I have heard that people have had really big usability issues
with this touchscreen because it can be a bit laggy.
And there are some controls that just are through the touchscreen,
things like heated seats and fine adjustment of the, of the HVAC settings
need to be done through the touchscreen, which can be a little bit annoying.
But the good news about it is that none of those like buttons,
like move around on the screen.
They're always like in a static location.
So it never really has caused me any issues yet.
And the more, you know, you use it,
the more you realize sometimes like HVAC is kind of like a set and forget
kind of button.
You either put it on, it is, it is in certain seasons of the year.
Yeah.
For winter and summer, it's either like always, always hot or always cold.
No, but I mean, on longer trips, HVAC, you fiddle with it.
Because I find interiors dry out or like you have condensation
or maybe you just, I often find myself either heating up and then turning it down
and then getting cold and then turning it back up again.
I do that.
I put mine on and then I turn it, I turn the whole HVAC off
and then I have to deal with fogging up and then turn it back on.
And you just feel dumb and you're mad at yourself and you stop
and you just cry for a bit.
And I have some, some good news for you.
The HVAC and heated seat controls and all of that are now hard buttons.
They're all hard buttons.
They're all hard buttons.
There is not like they're all under.
So the screen is an improvement in a couple of ways.
First, horizontal now.
Well, I'm going to get to that.
Oh, the first thing is it divorces those controls.
So you have dials, you have buttons, you have separate HVAC with its own little LCD screen
and all of that works really well.
And I can use it while I'm wearing gloves.
And the heated steering control is still that giant button on the steering wheel.
And mine is not a button.
It's like a weird little like a slab.
Yeah.
It's like a slab of like, like half a paddle on one side on the bottom.
So that's that the thing I like about the screens is there's two of them.
They're separate.
One is the gauge cluster.
One is a almost a four, three type of arrangement, like in terms of ratio.
And they're both in binnacles.
They're not just plastic stacked on the dash.
They both have surrounds.
They're recessed.
The one for the infotainment system has like an angle on the right side to kind of like
angle it down as a rounded top that sticks up over the binnacle for the gauge cluster.
So there's actual design going on here, Sammy.
That is that's different for Subaru.
Let's be clear.
Not often Subaru put some effort in their design.
I'm looking at it now.
You're right.
There's like thanks for thanks for validating my experience.
That's what I was looking for.
There are surrounds to the to the to the screens, which is very interesting kind of
in between.
There's a volume control all by itself.
Yeah, it doesn't look right.
Actually, I don't think this looks good.
But I like it more than almost all of the just here's a screen.
It's on the dash.
Knock yourself out.
Like I do think the HVAC setup is extremely good with the exception of what looks like a USB
a USB port.
There's two down there.
There's a power one and there's an energy one sticks out of the bottom of it like that.
But it makes sense because it's in the cubby where you would put your phone.
Yes.
So I can't get mad at that.
OK.
The rest of the interior is good.
It's got like remote tumbled down for the rear seats.
There's like so many remote, remote folding rear seats.
Yeah.
There's like a release in the trunk.
So like if you're in the trunk, oh yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
That's why.
OK.
Tumbled down.
Yeah.
I got that.
OK.
We got that.
I have that in mind.
You must have that yours.
There's I don't know.
I think I had it in my old one and you got to have it.
There's also I'm not saying I don't.
I just don't drive the car that often.
So like for that purpose, the there's lots of hooks in the back.
Like if you want to hang bags and stuff.
Yeah, I'm looking at that.
There's way more hooks than.
There's a trio of like tie downs that are color coded.
I don't know why.
What are you talking about?
I don't know.
Explain.
I can't.
I don't do more.
I try to figure it out.
We were like, what's that all about?
You see the colors?
Are they are they in the other shots too?
It's not something.
No, I don't think colors.
So my tester and I don't know if this was left in because it was a delivery thing.
It has a green sticker, a brown sticker and a blue sticker next to each of the tie downs.
And that's a case, I guess, if you look from one side of the vehicle to the other
and you forget and you're trying to line them up, this helps you out.
Yeah, very nice.
The cladding on the car is a little intense.
The cladding.
Yeah, I think that the cladding on the wheel wells looks bad.
I think the bumper in the back is not great.
It kind of looks cheap.
But over the course of the week, I became accustomed to the styling.
And I think with the right wheels, it looks fine.
But it's not what I want.
What I want is a wagon.
So what I'm saying is I don't think Subaru messed up in terms of the design of this vehicle.
I think it's a little polarizing, but I understand what they were trying to achieve.
And I think it's largely cohesive and successful.
I think the details let it down on the outside in a way that the interior doesn't.
And it's not what I want.
There's a few things I want to talk about first.
Um, I think you might not have the answer to one of these questions.
I mean, one of my favorite things about my outback and the previous outback is that it
has a storage area for the cargo cover under the under the floor of the the trunk area.
Mine didn't have a cargo cover.
So maybe that's where it was hiding from you and nobody told you.
Exactly.
Okay.
The other thing that I have is that there are some you're right about the exterior details being the
I think being the the like downfall of the of the design of this car.
There's this really weird thing going on on the, um, I think it's the sea pillar.
It's kind of like a sea pillar where like a piece of body, like body color.
It's just floating there.
It's floating.
It's a piece of plastic.
It doesn't touch the roof line.
Yeah.
What is why?
Why did they make that decision?
I don't love that at all.
I don't know if they make that whole area black, it would look okay.
What about the three?
Rectangles or squares on the deep pillar at the back before the hatch,
like reminiscent of like an early 2000s suburban?
I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a great way to put it.
It looks there's a dated element to the exterior, uh, to some of the exterior elements.
There's a dated element to the exterior features, like the, the, the details.
And I think they've really, they've really got to catch up with that.
That is not, are you saying it's bad to have a dated design that was brand new for this year?
No, I mean, I think no, that's okay.
No, like, let's be clear.
They're not going for nostalgia here, right?
Like there's no, there's like, that's the problem that I'm having.
It's okay when you're doing like a dated design, um, or like dated design cues for,
for like nostalgic reasons or, or something like that.
But the fact that the Outback has gone from a wagon, um, and a very definitive wagon
to this profile, um, and boxy, like overall dimensions makes it seem like,
makes it seem like they, they don't understand what made an Outback and Outback.
So it's not cheap when you buy it in this trim.
Okay.
It's 49 grand in the US.
Yeah.
Uh, it starts around 35, I believe.
Yeah. 34, 995.
Yeah.
In the Canada, the pricing is.
Holy moly.
Actually, we should talk about that.
Give me a minute.
The like mid trim version of this car is $10,000 more expensive than the base.
7,000.
7,000.
7,000.
Are we talking in Canada?
No, I'm talking US.
Okay.
So premium is 35.
Touring is 45.
And am I wrong in saying touring doesn't have the other engine either, the upgraded engine.
No, you only get the upgraded engine with X, with XT models and the.
Oh, that's really weird though.
And sorry.
Okay.
Then fine, I take, I take it back because the engine is really just like an extra,
like, like $2,000 or something.
Yeah.
I mean, if you go from touring to wilderness, you're actually dropping in price.
Yes.
Right.
So you get the turbo engine with a little bit of a cash saved.
Okay.
Sorry.
It's just a really weird lineup of vehicles.
They really dropped a standard model, a base model.
But the way it is, is like, you know, I'm talking about, I have the top tier model touring XT.
There's, you can get all the stuff that I have in the touring with the four cylinder engine,
if you want, sorry, the non turbo engine.
But for savings of $2,000, I don't think it's worth it.
Yeah.
I mean, I haven't driven the base.
I haven't driven any of these outbacks.
But my experience with the XT engine and the non XT engines is that the XT engine,
once you drive the XT engine, there's no reason for, you cannot go back to the, the, the 2.5.
The only thing I think that, that might be compelling is some people might look at the
fuel mileage.
If you look at the fuel mileage, because mine is awful.
It's 31 miles per gallon highway and 25 city for the four cylinder.
And then Subaru claims 27 highway and 21 city for the, the turbo.
Okay.
Um, I say, if you promise not to laugh to me, if you promise not to laugh at me,
I will tell you what I'm currently achieving in my winter, my winter drive of my 2020 outback XT.
Okay.
You ready for this?
Yeah.
Under 20 miles per gallon.
That doesn't surprise me.
I mean, I drive all city, basically like 90% or 80% of my drive these days is all city.
So I got 11.1 liters per 100 kilometers.
Yeah.
That's still better than me, but you're all out there.
You're out there.
I am.
I'm way out there.
Let me see what that is a miles per gallon.
I want to say it's like 22 or something.
Yeah.
Let me check.
Yes.
21.3.
So I'm really close to, I mean, if you look at what Subaru is advertising and then consider
the fact that it's wintertime, I'm not that far off, but maybe if you're commuting,
you might want to get a few extra miles per gallon.
It's hard to say.
That's my best.
I've gotten, I guess, I think 11 liters per 100 kilometers and that's like all road trip,
all cottage driving.
I don't think you can get, I couldn't get much better than that.
What's really funny is, and I don't get this, if you look at the ordering tool for the American side,
oh, we didn't talk Canadian pricing quickly.
It's 43 to start and 54 at the top.
The Canadian and the US pricing, it's pretty close.
I would say the Canadians are getting a better deal on this vehicle.
Because if I'm paying 49 US after delivery, but I'm only paying 54 Canadian,
that's not an exchange rate there.
That's an actual deal.
Is this being made in Indiana?
The old one was made?
I would assume so, yeah.
The, what's funny about the build tool on the US side is at the bottom,
they have a little thing that says available in and then that goes gas.
And I assume that's because they have a hybrid model for some of their vehicles.
But that's how it, that's written for all of the outbacks, all six of the trims.
But then if you get to wilderness, it says available in gas and then wilderness.
What is wilderness?
What am I getting there?
You're getting, you're getting something else, obviously.
There's a little icon that looks like a bar graph that's made of gold.
It's not being made in out.
It's not being made anymore in Indiana.
No, where's it being made?
I don't know.
But according to Wikipedia, they stopped making it in October.
Why is that?
I don't know.
Where could this be made?
That doesn't make any sense.
Maybe it's made on an oil rig that's anchored in international waters.
You really think that, you can't lead our listeners astray like that.
You can't tell me what I can't do in international waters, Sammy.
There's another reason why you might want the turbo version of this vehicle.
And that is, this is actually fun to drive.
They say Japan.
Okay.
We're moving on.
Okay.
The last outback, the one that you have, Sammy, not really, not really fun to drive,
just very normal to drive.
I would think.
Yeah, very normal to drive, very, very accommodating in every possible way,
but nothing stand out.
The new one is fun.
I had it on very snowy, gravelly roads.
And it handled much better than I thought.
It was, it was willing to steer with the throttle if I wanted it to.
But if you didn't want it to, it's totally cool with that too.
And it will just do normal driving stuff when you want it to.
I was actually able to smile while I was driving this vehicle.
No way.
That does not happen in most SUVs.
No, no SUVs.
But that has always been, that has, I think that has always been a trait of the outback,
is that it doesn't, it might not be, look, let's be clear.
4th, 5th and 6th generation outbacks are like, they're more SUV.
They're very large, heavy wagons.
This felt like something that had been engineered to offer a enthusiast level
driving experience to a degree.
Now throttle, the response is good from the engine.
It's not amazing.
It has paddle shifters for the CVT.
They're adequate.
They're not incredible.
But just the overall package, it was enjoyable.
And if you don't want to do that, if you just want it, like,
there's no real driving modes in the vehicle, except for X mode.
I love that about the outback.
So the X mode is, it intended to handle really slippery conditions.
And it doesn't, I think that like some versions of X mode have like,
you can choose between different types of driving.
Deep snow and deep mud.
Yeah.
I didn't do any of that.
I just turned X mode on and I tried it out.
The cool thing about X mode is it only works up to like 18 miles per hour.
It's mostly for getting out of like, getting out on stock, I think.
Yeah.
Well, the cool thing about that cutoff is, let's say you're at an intersection
and it's slippery and you turn X mode on and you pull away from the intersection.
Once you get up to speed, it turns off.
And all of a sudden, all the electronic trickery that was controlling
the traction control and the torque management for the all wheel drive system
and throttle response to give you the most traction possible, that all disappears.
Okay.
And you can just drive normally, but when you slow down again, X mode comes back.
Automatically?
Yes.
That's actually very clever.
I like that.
Very clever.
And it's so great if you're driving on a really terrible day.
It is like a drive mode and not like a, I'm stuck, help me mode.
That's cool.
It's perfect for like just having the worst, the worst traction conditions
and you still have to get to work and you don't want to have to turn X mode on and off.
And it's a blast.
Like I really appreciate that kind of thinking.
I think past versions of X mode did not do that, if I remember correctly.
But no, that does not sound like something I frequently did.
I will say you did have the car in its peak conditions.
Like outbacks and all Subaru's really, except for the BRZ,
really love being in the snow with good winter tires on.
Yeah.
They just become different animals.
They like to become different cars in the snow.
They really are like, I know it.
So it sounds like we've drank the Kool-Aid, the marketing Kool-Aid, but like I,
once I drove my 2010 in the snow with some winter tires,
I changed my mind entirely about the brand.
I was like, this is insane.
This is just a, it's a tank in the snow.
And it, it, it listens to everything that you're doing and it translates what you're,
what you want to do in the snow into what actually can happen.
So I really appreciate that.
They're tuning in terms of how they get things done in slippery conditions.
I think it's maybe second to none.
I also did something maybe a bit dumb with the, with the, with the outback.
And that's, I found a field that was completely unplowed
and had not been a plowed all winter.
Oh yeah. You got stuck.
No, I didn't get stuck, but you spoiled it now.
You spoiled it now.
And I had to plow through a snow bank to get into this field.
And I drove through six to 18 inches of unplowed snow in a field just to see 18 inches.
Yes.
Like of height.
Yeah.
Basically like half a foot to a foot and a half, depending on where the drifts were.
And in X mode, the vehicle had no problems.
The only time things got a little, got a little iffy where I felt like maybe I had made a mistake.
I was driving and then I stopped because I had gone far enough into this field and I'm like,
okay, time to turn around.
And then the vehicle was like, oh, you're not turning around because like,
you're in a slippery condition and you're not going to, the wheels just going to spin.
So what I did was I just rocked it back and forth gently and I mean very gently.
I found the traction.
Basically just putting it in, in gear and in gear, in drive, in reverse.
Yeah.
And then I backed up into my ruts and I drove out again through my ruts and there was no problem.
So cool.
I was really impressed with its ability to do that.
And I know you're thinking, who is going to do this kind of thing?
Like people don't really go off-roading in their outback.
But if you live where I do and or you live even more remotely than I do and you're going to say
a ski chalet or something or a cabin or you just wake up really early and the plows aren't out yet,
this is the kind of snow you might encounter on a road.
So it's, it was its ability to deal with that without freaking out was impressive.
I'm always worried that when I say these kinds of things, I'm going to get called out by somebody
with like a Ford Escape or something and be like, my Ford Escape can do this.
Well, I mean, there are people who've done the Rubicon Trail in a Crown Victoria.
So I mean, I've done, I've done Moab in a Mazda CX-5.
Like it's, it's an interesting, I don't know.
It catches me off guard as to whether or not we're.
You did Moab in a Mazda CX-5?
Parts of Moab, yeah, for sure.
Okay.
So, can you find cool or what?
I'm just surprised.
I mean, you're, you have so many secrets.
Yeah, I remember doing that.
And the Jeep tour that was there was in our way and we were in a hurry.
And they got mad at us for, for absolutely to move over.
They got mad at you for being too comfortable.
Yeah.
There's one other couple, excuse me.
A couple of other things I wanted to talk about with the Outback.
Yeah.
Ice site did something weird where when I would turn it on, not necessarily the first time that day,
but like when it was cold, if I went inside to like at a grocery store and came back out
and I turned the vehicle on, ice site would be disabled.
And it would be disabled for like 30 seconds to a minute and then the disabling would go away.
And for those who aren't familiar, ice site is the cameras at the top of the windshield that control
all of the advanced drivers assistance that's inside the vehicle.
So like adaptive cruise control and, you know, lane monitoring, all that stuff.
My suspicion is that something was fogging up.
But when I would get outside and look at the windshield to see where the cameras are,
I saw no fog.
Sometimes you can actually see condensation there, but it wasn't the case with this.
So the only thing I could figure is that the camera lenses themselves must have been fogged up.
This is weird in the sense that I've never had this happen in any other Subaru.
Sammy, have you encountered this problem where like every single time you turn on your Outback,
it disables ice site until something magical happens and it comes back?
Um, no, no, I haven't had that happen, but I do have days where the sun is
especially this past two week past week, actually, where the sun is really low in the morning
and the roads are very like glossy.
I think it's the best way to describe them.
They're like covered in in water or yeah, the glare makes it makes a problem.
And immediately, like I'm telling you, as soon as I get out of my driveway,
ice sites like no, thanks, bro.
You're on your own here.
So this is this is a different problem because it happens with ignition on and regardless of
where the sun is.
Sometimes there's no sun.
Sometimes it's nighttime.
So like that's that's unusual.
Maybe that's a software issue.
It's something worth keeping in mind if you're going to buy one of these cars.
The other issue I had was the heated steering wheel.
On the day I was returning the vehicle, I was wearing gloves and it's early morning
and it wasn't that cold, but it was cold enough to need need need both of these things on
gloves and the heat and I'm driving and like I touched the bottom of the steering wheel
with my glove on and I'm like, whoa, that's really hot.
And I don't think anything of it.
And then I try to touch it again and it's really hot.
And I take my glove off and the bottom of the steering wheel was so hot.
I could not touch it with my bare hands.
The top was totally normal.
In fact, maybe a little less warm than I wanted it to be.
I had to turn it off and wait like five minutes for it to cool down before.
Like I needed oven mitts to touch the steering wheel.
Like that's how bad it was.
That's never happened to me in a car before either.
And it didn't happen to me any other days of the week when I was using this feature.
So I don't know what happened.
That's insane.
I don't have that.
I haven't had that issue.
In fact, I find my, is there multiple levels to this?
No, it's just one button at a time.
It's so funny.
I find that the weirdest thing.
I do find that I have to turn it off like halfway through a drive.
But mine only does the edge, like the nine and three basically of the steering wheel.
Well, this does, the bottom is done like the surface of the sun.
And then 10 and two is done like, done like a warm pot roast, I guess you could say.
But bottom line, I liked this car.
Tries better.
You like this engine, same engine, same transmission basically as the previous model, right?
Like a 2.4, let me double check.
It's the same on paper.
I don't know if there's any details that have been changed.
But I liked the vehicle overall, which really surprised me because I was very much put off
by the looks from day one.
And a couple of weeks before this podcast recording, I had sent Sammy a picture of the
first one I saw on the wild in the parking lot of a supermarket that had steelies on it.
And it looked awful.
It was just, it was, it was like a mishmash of styling that just didn't work.
And I was like, wow, I'm, I am very, very good.
Very surprised by how poorly this translates in real life.
And then I get this one and I'm seemingly all in on the vehicle itself and I'm able to
forgive the, the styling.
So, I mean, no one buys wagons.
Everyone wants SUVs.
I guess Subaru is chasing the money and makes sense from a business perspective.
But from the other side of that business question, or sorry, that business perspective,
you're going to lose your long time buyers who were with you because you wanted a wagon.
Like people like me, you know, people like you.
I don't know what you're going to do, Sammy, when you're out back, when everything needs
to be re-upped, where you're going to go.
I agree with you.
I mean, I don't think, I don't know how I would replace this outback with this current one.
I don't think that's in the cards.
I don't think that's a possibility.
It's like at that point, you start looking at other brands because the thing you liked
about this brand is gone, right?
Unless it really does blow me away in the driving dynamics.
It would have to be a huge sell though.
I mean, I don't know.
Or like a huge compromise on my end, basically, to say that, you know, it's an appliance of
a car who cares what it looks like.
But then you're opening up to anything.
If that's your attitude, then see, that's the thing.
Just get a wrap for, right?
Yeah, Subaru has taken what was unique about the vehicle, jettisoned it, and now it's on
a playing field with, I don't know, two dozen other models.
Yeah.
And that's not great, I don't think.
That feels like a really big gamble because you could produce something that's really
good, like this vehicle, which is really good, but just people don't notice, you know, or
they don't care, or they go to Toyota because they have more dealers or they had a Toyota
in the past.
There's nothing to pry them away from what they already have if you're not different
anymore, I guess is what I'm saying.
So you only have something to lose, it feels like.
Yeah, I think I agree with that.
I think that is a, I think that's a, I think it's a misstep.
Like I think that's the only way I can describe it.
I think it is a concern that Subaru can, I guess they're saying our capability is what
people bought the Outback for and we still have that.
We know that's not true though, because if that were true, then a sense would be flying
off the shelf and foresters would be flying off the shelf.
Hmm.
An Outback was clearly more popular than either of those models.
Yeah.
The other weird thing about this.
If Ford are not a big seller, I always thought that Ford would be.
It sells fine.
I don't think it's a disappointment, but I do think the Outback outperforms it.
And the other one to talk about is the fact that I too have seen actually plenty of these
on the road already.
So it seems like it's already quite popular.
The other weird thing about the current moment is that Ford has been recently talking
about how they're going to start bringing back actual cars instead of SUVs and they
want to make cheap cars that people can afford to buy.
If that's really a thing and if large companies like Ford are like, we're going to lean away
from the SUV, Zategeist that's driven the industry for the last 15 years,
Subaru is going in the opposite direction of that.
And is that going to be, is that good?
I don't know.
That's, um, I don't know.
Subaru has already, you know, has only, has traditionally only had very few cars anyways.
No, I mean, they've had in Praza and in the legacy.
Yeah.
But they had like 50% of the lineup was cars.
Right.
If you have the BRZ, the in Praza and the legacy at one point,
that's like half of what they had to offer.
I guess so.
And now it's just like two of those and perhaps one of those in the very near future.
So I don't know.
I mean, you don't, Outback doesn't have to do what, Subaru doesn't have to do what Ford is doing,
but it's like, and I don't necessarily trust that Ford knows where the future is going because
we've seen how flip floppy they've been on EVs and things like that.
Well, they did, they, this is a flip flop from them as well.
I mean, I think it was six years ago.
It's got to be six years ago when they said that cars are not in their brand anymore.
Yeah.
I mean, they joined, they joined General Motors and kind of wiping that out.
And meanwhile, Toyota and Honda still selling lots of cars.
Like it's still happening for them.
Even Nissan still has an Altima on the road these days.
But I feel like Nissan is mostly a price play.
I think that's their thing.
But I mean, you need to have that.
There needs to be that nuance or in that diversity in the lineup.
Not everyone can be buying, if they want a car, not everyone can be buying the $35,000 one.
They might want the $25,000 one.
And I think the other, the other problem for Ford is they never had a entry level SUV that was
truly cheap.
Like they had the Maverick, which was cheap for like two seconds.
And then they dare you throw the Echo Sport under the bun.
See, the Echo Sport was a complete non-starter, right?
It was just not competitive fold.
But you look at Nissan and they have, they've always had affordable SUVs that people
wanted. GM has some extremely great affordable SUVs.
That's fair. Yeah.
And Ford doesn't have that.
They have the Escape, which is good.
And now it's gone.
They have the Bronco Sport, which is good.
And now it's gone, but they're not entry level.
Like they are, but they're not, they're not super cheap subcompacts.
And so that might be Ford looking at their lineup and going,
do we want to cut into Bronco sales with a cheaper SUV?
Or do we want to create new business with a car?
So I don't know.
I mean, I'm not a business guru.
I don't necessarily have the answers here.
That's Sammy's department.
I'm less of a business guru than you think I am.
But you still, you still applied for the business department job and you got it.
And now it's yours.
Yeah.
I'm just curious as to how, how Subaru,
I'm scared that Subaru will take this design language and apply it across the board.
If the Crosstrek comes out looking like this,
in terms of like, it's going to be a little mini,
it's going to be basically a Bronco Sport in terms of boxiness and,
but with more body cladding, I'm going to be really like turned off.
It seems like hard for them to do that because the Crosstrek is based on the Impreza, right?
But for how much longer?
I mean, the Impreza doesn't mean, I think the Impreza doesn't mean anything.
No, but it means something in terms of shared costs of production.
So if they get rid of the Impreza, like, is there really an argument to get rid of the
Impreza, if the tooling is all there for it, it's already shared and they do have some customers.
I mean, I say this knowing that this is the company that stopped selling a hatchback
version of the WRX, even though it was 50% of sales and they continued to sell
a hatchback version of the Impreza.
So decisions can be weird.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's, I've always felt that Subaru was a, was a like slow and steady kind of automaker.
Their major deficiencies were in terms of exterior design in my, in my perspective.
And I could always trust their engineering to pull them out of like whatever,
whatever weird exterior design funk they're in.
Whatever weird B9 Tribeca.
Yeah.
And I'm now concerned that they're really trying to do something different
when all along they've been a different auto, the different automaker.
So different for them might mean mainstream.
Yeah.
Which is really not, I don't know.
I can see why you're worried.
I can see why you're worried.
That's all I really have to say about the Outback.
That's all I want to say about the Outback.
It's not pretty, man.
I keep looking at it.
It's not pretty.
It's fine, but it's not pretty.
It's fine.
It's okay.
Anything else you want to talk about this week?
No, I'm a dry husk.
I would prefer our people who are listening, our listeners,
that's what they would call us.
I would prefer our people who are listening,
head on over to our website, unnamedautomotivepodcast.com.
You can find all of our previous episodes on that website.
Huge list of episodes.
We don't do anything crazy like lock them behind a paywall.
We've had to stop counting.
And we've stopped counting how many previous episodes we have.
I think so.
And in addition to that, you can subscribe to our podcast.
You can see some buttons on the top of the page.
But more important than that, you can hit the contact form.
You fill it out.
It lands in our inbox.
We love hearing from you, our listeners.
Send us your questions.
Send us your comments.
Send us your thoughts on whether Subaru is a
traditionally word automaker.
Would you buy this new Outback?
I want to find out what people actually think.
And how many you've seen already?
Yeah, we already have a Dodge Hornet count going.
Yes, actually I do have somebody messaging.
Yes, shout out, Stefan.
If we do have an Outback count,
it's going to have to be for a very short duration
because eventually they will be out there.
I agree.
But additionally, if you want to message,
if you want to email us the old fashioned way
without going through our website or anything like that,
hit us up.
It's Benjamin at benjaminhunting.com or social media.
I think you can find us on Instagram at samy underscore ha,
like you're laughing and at Hunting Benjamin.
Sammy, what are you going to be talking about next week?
I'm going to get my hands on the 2026 Volkswagen Atlas,
a big three row SUV, something we haven't driven
in a really long time, and I can't wait to tell you about it.
I'm going to be talking about the Hyundai Elantra N-line.
Elantra N-line.
Oh yeah, okay, cool.
It's a car.
It's a car, Sammy.
I can't wait to hear you hear about it.
Thanks for listening, everybody.
See you later.
About this episode
The discussion centers on the 2026 Subaru Outback's significant design shift from a unique wagon-like SUV to a more conventional, boxy SUV style. Both hosts, longtime Subaru and wagon enthusiasts, express mixed feelings about the new styling, noting it loses the distinctiveness that set the Outback apart. They also explore interior upgrades, including improved leather and more user-friendly HVAC controls, contrasting with previous models' infotainment quirks. The episode touches on Subaru's broader SUV-focused lineup strategy and the challenge of balancing tradition with market trends.
Original notes
What makes a Subaru Outback, the "Subaru Outback?" This week, the Unnamed Automotive Podcast crams to understand the brand's iconic vehicle, which has finally transitioned from wagon to SUV with the 2026 model year. Benjamin test drives it through the winter, while Sami shares his memories of his 2010 and experience with his 2020 model to see how they compare. Can the Subaru faithful get over the exterior design and appreciate what the automaker has been able to accomplish with this new generation? Is the powetrain up to snuff? Can it handle the snow? Find out all the answers in this weeks episode! Thanks for listening!
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Unnamed Automotive Podcast
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