Subaru Outback Sport (2020-2026)

Had my Outback for 4 years now (MY22 model Sport) and done 115,000 km. No major issues, early on the occasional glitch in the infotainment centre but software updates have fixed those. Spacious and very comfortable, acceptable levels of performance. I do a lot of long-distance trips and just finished a 13,500km trip from the east coast of NSW to… Read more

WA and back over a 5-week period. Enough room for 2 people to do an emergency camp in the back but luggage has to be moved to front seats etc. Really more suited to single person car camping.

Very comfortable as a cruiser. Great seats, good vision, really little to complain about other than the sometimes-intrusive safety systems and being told I need a break after 5 minutes of driving. The paint is extra thin and scratches easily.

Drives great on any road. Currently using Yokohama G015 tyres as they are mud and snow rated yet a good all-year tyre. The combination of those tyres and the excellent 4WD system makes for safe driving.

Servicing costs are high compared to most other makes and the 12,500 km service interval should be 15,000 km as applies to the turbo version.

Fuel economy could be better, but it isn't terrible considering it is full-time AWD and a decent sized vehicle.

Very pleased overall and would recommend to others.

When is a 5 year warranty not a 5 year warranty? When you buy a new Subaru Outback. Over 2 years and in for a regular book service - dealer advises my reported problems due to faulty battery. Not covered be warranty - battery obviously not for for purpose, but too bad, $500+ for repacement. Ditto the steering bushes, another $500+ for replacement.… Read more

Dealer advises "not covered by Subaru warranty - read the fine print." What a farce, what a disgrace. Our 4th (and last) new Sabaru. Thinking about buying one - DON'T! $$$

Subaru Outback Sport 2022 Known Faults – When you pay almost $50,000 for a car. You expect everything to be perfect. In the case of the 2022 Subaru Outback Sport, this is not the case. Voice activated navigation is useless. The vehicle clearly has trouble hearing and understanding the driver’s commands and has trouble finding the locations sought. Can’t find the hospital, misses the… Read more

nearest petrol station and will also take you to where the post office was years ago. There was a rattle in the glove box, “a known fault” that it took over a year for Subaru to replace. Also, when it is very cold, the boot won’t open, another “known fault”, that requires disconnecting the battery then reconnecting it to remedy each time. Not good enough.

Like “Driving a lounge” comfortable – I bought the Outback Sport in November 2022, used, from my local Subaru dealer. First registered January 2021, The car had travelled just c11000kms and was previously owned by the Subaru Marketing department. POSITIVES: comfortable, spacious, appears well built, huge infotainment screen, reasonably economical, service intervals now 12 months and… Read more

scheduled service costs quite reasonable. 5 yr warranty, well spec’d as standard, competitively priced. Cheap to insure. NEGATIVES: audio system sound is terrible, 2.5l engine can a bit thrashy, pretty much everything is controlled through the infotainment system.

I’ve found the Outback Sport easy and leisurely to drive, though not exciting …. Despite its 138kw this is not a sporty car…. Acceleration can be noisy but the CVT seems pretty good ( and CVTs are usually hopeless)

I’ve added sound deadening to the doors and boot and changed the factory speakers to infiniti to improve the audio performance…. Much better but still not perfect …. Maybe adding an amp would help?

1 warranty claim so far… a buzz rattle at certain RPM coming from behind the glovebox…. Local dealer knew exactly what this was ( HVAC pipe vibration against fire wall) and this was resolved easily without fuss.

This is my second Subaru and I really like the brand.

There is some things as too much tech – I purchased this car as an upgrade to my 2018 Subaru XV-S that I was some what already satisfied with. I did this for personal reasons. I used the car everyday to take the dog for a walk and regular daily shopping visits among other places. I find the car drives very comfortably when you are not in a rush. The engine is the epitome of adequate… Read more

and it does the every day choirs without much fuss. Plenty of room in the back for shopping, dogs, and even car camping which I do from time to time.

If you are anything of a driver of any sort who enjoys driving, this will bore & potentially frustrate you to tears. The engine as I said is quite aural (not in a good way) at high rpm. The cvt gearbox while adequate is uninspiring. You can feel the weight of the car when you turn into corners even though the brakes on the car work well. Again its ok for commuting and some trail fun, but a drivers car this is not. I have towed a trailer of firewood and a trailer of rubbish to the local tip. Both times the loads were no more than 400kg. The car did fine, but you could feel the engine and cvt working fairly hard to maintain the speed limit in my local area with that. I know it can tow up to 2000kg and has a towball download weight of 200kg, but I wouldn't confidently tow anything more than 1250kg max with this engine and gearbox combination. Even then, I would be limiting my speed to 80kph maximum which Subaru recommend you do regardless of towing load.

The other main issue I have is with the tech. Having to operate the heat seat functions within the touch screen via 3 steps is not great especially when you are moving. The HVAC controls are also via the touch screen. In fact I would say 75% of the vehicle controls are only accessible via touch screen which concerns me. There are times I am not pressing the right area when driving on the road or on undulated terrain and you have to take your eyes off the road momentarily to see where you are pressing. This is particularly frustrating. The driver monitoring system doesn't always detect your face when you get in the car. Sometimes I wonder why you need to have a driver profile if things like memory seat function, radio station etc are not coded in. Not to mention, I find the driver monitoring tends to over police my every move far too much for my liking. Its telling me to keep eyes on the road when they are. The cars tech tells me my hands are not on the wheel when they are. I scratch the side of my nose and the car tells me to keep eyes on the road (I kid you not). The car sometimes cannot distinguish between a static reflective road sign and a moving object so it has caused the car to abruptly halt in the middle off the road with traffic behind. The lack of control to disable these components of the car and permanently turn them off is super frustrating.

I recently had a service with an infotainment software update which pretty much made the OS react faster to the touch. A mild improvement to the operation of the interface.

I find the CVT while adequate can get a bit jarring a real slow speeds if you do not purposefully press the accelerator. It doesnt inspire me with a lot of confidence.

On a positive note, the dual zone X mode is great for deep sand on the beach or dunes. I would say that Subaru's programming for off road modes and mild to semi moderate terrain is one of the best in the class. With quality all terrain tyres, there isn't a lot of places this car cannot go if you can live with the over the top tech and driveline inadequacies. The tuck away towing plug and tow hitch from Subaru is an excellent design. Means no one can know if you have a tow bar fitted or not. Its discreetly hidden from sight. The style and design of the car I like. You can tell the differences between a Gen 5 & 6 quite easily on the road. Loading up the car with camping gear, fridge and the like is easy in the back albeit the load can make the rear end sag. On top of that is the weight you feel with the engine at max. The interior design I like from a visual stand point. Almost everything is soft touch. The infotainment screen though draws your eyes there taking a leaf out of Tesla's book for design. I just wish the layout and infrastructure of the infotainment was more tactile and had more dials other than volume/tune and climate temp buttons. Personally I prefer the analogue gauges. Im a bit old school so while the virtual cockpit is impressive in other models, I find the analogue dials with the digital speedo is sufficient for what I need. I think this should have the 360degree camera though. It would have been handy rather than LH front, front and rear only.

TL:DR - If you love tech, then you won't be disappointed, but I do not intend to keep this car much longer as I find the tech intrusive and more frustrating than helpful and I want something that still assists me with the lifestyle I have without sacrificing driver engagement and being over policed tech wise. The engine and cvt gearbox is a step back from where I believe Subaru should be. This car is fine for day to day commuting with the intention to head a little off road more often than not. I really think the Outback shines off road far more than on road. If you are any type of driver who enjoys driving and wants an engaging drive, this car is will disappoint you. If you love the great outdoors and wants the best safety on the market at the expense of being slightly annoyed by it, then you'll love this car.

Worst Car I Have Ever Driven – I bought the Outback Sport model new in November 2021 and have covered about 3,000 kilometres, on a variety of country roads. I find the electronics terrible and, at times, dangerous. This car has turned what used to be a relaxing country drive into one of annoyance and increasing frustration. And the systems default to "on" every time you restart… Read more

the car. I have a large list of complaints about this car, but the following are particularly annoying to me. The Lane Departure interference system frequently (every few minutes on some roads) loses sight of the lane lines and beeps to say it has turned off, then it finds them again and beeps to say it's back on. Then it beeps to say "keep hands on the wheel", even though your hands are on the wheel. It becomes so frustrating that you then take your eyes off the road to turn the system off - hardly a safety feature. It also sometimes beeps if there's a car coming the other way, again distracting you when you want to be concentrating. Android Auto in this car is unreliable, often disconnecting and refusing to launch (I've tried several different cables so they're not the fault). This is especially a problem because the in-car navigation system is also, in MHO, sub-standard. The maps lack many locations and dirt roads that Google Maps has, and its voice recognition is unreliable. I end up not using that big screen and rely on Google Maps and my phone screen. The combination of the pre-collision brake system and the auto start-stop also causes me pain when I park in my garage. I have a bench under which I park the front of my cars. My 4wd ute fits under it easily as does the Outback, so there's plenty of clearance. But, to prevent the brake-system activating, I have to inch in so slowly that the garden snails start lining up for a race. And then the auto-stop kicks in just before I can apply the park brake. And, you guessed it, when I apply the park brake the engine restarts (just in time for me to turn the car off)! Fuel saving? No. And you can't turn Auto-stop off permanently (if, for example, you live in a country town with no traffic lights at which to save fuel). As drivers we are supposed to be responsible for our actions. But 2021 Outbacks create so many distractions, frustrations and interference that I think Subaru shares a high degree of moral responsibility for any accidents. This is especially the case given that the car over-rides your choices every time it restarts. I don't accept the rhetoric that this is a safe car, nor will I until these systems are fixed. (Hopefully ANCAP will reassess their criteria to reflect the fact that distractions are dangerous.) In the meantime my advice is to avoid Subaru and look to other brands where the worst of these systems (i.e. lane departure) default to how you last left them.