It is the great-grandfather of all off-road station wagons: 25 years ago, Subaru gave the successful Legacy model more ground clearance and glued plastic panels to the wheel arches and underbody. All-wheel drive was standard anyway – the family station wagon for gravel roads was ready. Skoda still knits the Octavia Scouts, Audi the Allroad models or Mercedes its E-Class All-Terrain according to this recipe.
The sixth generation of the sixth generation of the original of all off-road suits will be coming to Switzerland in May. Outside there is a refreshed design with a length of 4.87 meters and a new body structure for more rigidity, inside more space thanks to more seat row spacing and more seat width at the rear. The trunk holds 561 to 1822 liters of luggage.
All-wheel drive is set
Amazing: Subaru stays with analog instruments. There is an 11.6-inch touchscreen in the middle, which, in addition to the navigation system and infotainment, hides all of the controls – except for the air conditioning, which has its own buttons. At the rear there is seat heating from the basic equipment.
No choice when it comes to the drive: all versions are powered by a largely newly developed 2.5-liter boxer petrol engine with 169 hp and permanently on all four wheels via a continuously variable transmission. Instead of automatic mode, you can manually switch to eight levels simulated by the control electronics. Electrification or a mild hybrid system like in the XV? Doesn’t exist in the outback yet. Probably also because two tons of trailer load were compulsory and electrically difficult. Subaru will make the move to electricity next year, when the electric SUV developed with Toyota is launched.
Endless assistants
A surprisingly complete package of safety assistants is also available from Basis: Evasion Assist with active steering function, traffic sign recognition, radar-based lane change, blind spot and cross traffic warning. There is even an emergency braking system for reversing. And the active Lane Keeping Assist not only detects lines, but also the edge of the lane. Some of the more expensive competing models cannot keep up.
The market launch for the Subaru Outback is on May 8, prices start at 43,900 francs.