Unbeaten track star
Hitting the high road in a permanent all-wheel-drive Outback Touring brings back happy Subaru memories for Frederic Manby, especially as it guzzles less fuel than might be expected.
IHAVE a hunch that anyone considering buying a new Subaru, as opposed to a used one, will be more bothered about 4x4 utility and all-year function than keeping up with avalanche of trending models from Asia and Europe. On the face of it, and other cliched parameters, Subaru has let things slip. It hasn’t got the big investment coffers that mainstream SUV rivals have, making your Ford Kuga, Nissan X-Trail, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, who all offer 4x4 versions in these refined street-to-trails estate cars.
Very few of them have Subaru’s rugged and dogged ability to trundle through damned difficult landscapes. It has mastered 4x4 but at a price – fuel economy is not great, pricked by the permanent all-wheel-drive, the thing that makes them so good off-road or in snow. The thing that hooks buyers to stay with the Japanese masters.
The Outback we test here is the sort of thing that country types keep in their yard. It snarls with muscle, big wheels, lots of protection front, sides and back and roof rack rails which shout out their strength. There are three versions, all well-specified, from the tempting £36,990 Limited which has all you need (including heated seats front and rear plus all the safety sensing) to the £40,990 Field with navigation and vegan leather seats and the Touring at £42,290 (seen here) with Nappa leather, short sunroof, reversing camera and hi-fi audio. The only free paint finish is a glaring white. The rest cost £595.
My first and lasting memory was driving a saloon, sometime in the 1980s. You may have been listening to Simply Red on the cassette player, or The Fall. I’ll confess to Culture Club. Anyway, the snow was deep enough to make the village roads silent as I drove down the brow to the pub, had a couple of White Labels, answered questions about the dark green Subaru I’d confidently parked in several inches of snow, then back into the snow-lit night and safely home.
A few days later I took it on an ancient drovers’ road between Wharfedale and Wensleydale. The snow was thick enough to hide the contours and when it started to creak and crack, and with my mum on board and not up to trekking out, I turned tail and headed back down the valley. Getting stuck was to happen a few years later in a Range Rover, needing a tractor to tow out both the first tractor and the Range Rover: inglorious mud and a bad decision by the driver not to retreat.
So to this week’s recipe for all-terrain, allweather security, an Outback. This high-riding estate car, with more than eight inches of ground clearance, has similar ability to its shorter and narrower and taller kin, the Forester. The Outback this has a longer and wider luggage deck.
I am assuming that by now you might be at least considering a Subaru rather than something which is more familiar. Subaru actually had a big rise in sales here last year, 73 per cent up on 2022. The total was still only 2,400 but they seem happy. The Forester remained its best-seller but 16pc of buyers chose the Solterra, its first electric car. This is a joint project with Toyota’s bZ4X (sic). We reported on this £55,000 splendour in October. Also last year we reported on the Forester, with a new electrically boosted hybrid e-Boxer version of the 2-litre petrol engine with CVT automatic gears. Verdict: “I’d happily drive one all the time if the economy was better.” In testing, it gave from 28 to 37mpg. Subaru’s rating is 34.7mpg and 185g.
The Outback has older engine technology, using the familiar 2.5-litre Boxer engine which is more powerful than the 2-litre petrol hybrid in both horses and torque. Oddly, or perhaps not, the press release doesn’t state its economy. Nor is it obvious on the Subaru UK website. I shall keep looking.
Suffice to say there are plenty of words about the recently introduced, tablet-style central screen which brightens up the interior. It looks good but the old system retained in the Forester is more ergonomic for big hands. Much of
‘Very few of Subaru’s rivals have its rugged and dogged ability to trundle through damned difficult landscapes.'
the information requires you or your passenger to touch the screen, though there is voice control.
Subaru’s Eyesight road scanner is on duty, with alerts for hazards and speed limits. There is semi-autonomous steering with lane guiding and reactive cruise control. The suspension got a bracing for the current model. Handling accuracy improves at the expense of comfort on motley surfaces.
Thanks to the Carbuyer website, I have now found some MPG figures, which are poor. The combined rating is 32.8mpg, with a dirty193g/ km of CO2. This puts it in the high benefit in kind tax bracket for company car users.
However, in our hands it did better, never falling below 35mpg and nudging 40mpg on our 60-mile commuter mixed route. While scanning the web for the economy ratings, I found a sort of consensus among the big title reviews, which goes something like this: outdated interior, lack of refinement, slightly dull to drive BUT lots of safety equipment, good off road, strong and reliable. Plus: “If you’re never going to take it off the beaten path, it’s unrecommendable.” Is that even a word?
The gist is that there are more comfortable and economical rivals, albeit lacking its ability on the paths unbeaten, so to speak. Fortunately, Subaru enjoys a loyal following for its toughies. I’d have one if I really needed one. That first experience made me a believer, one of the faithful.
Subaru Outback Touring: £42,885; 2.5-litre petrol engine; 167bhp; torque, 186lb/ft; transmission, CVT automatic; top speed, 120mph; 0-62mph, 10.2 seconds; economy, 32.8mpg (35 to 40mpg in testing); tank, 13.9 gallons; CO2 emissions, 193g/km; length, 191 inches; braked towing limit, 1,674kg; www.subaru.co.uk.