2014 Subaru Outback User Reviews

While the infotainment system is severely lacking and looks outdated, everything else about this car was better than the CR-V.

Not Perfect, But A Sweet, Smart Ride —

Two months ago, I bought a 2014 Outback Limited with leather seats, a moonroof, the backup camera, and the remote starter, but without the EyeSight system. The EyeSight, whose cameras are pretty clunky-looking and protrude into the driver's field of view, comes with a built-in navigation system that I didn't want (too much money, no clear advantage over a portable $100 Garmin unit), plus the whole shebang makes the central 'bulge' in the front of the cabin explode with buttons and controls. I hated the look and went for the quieter-looking console. It's still not really to my liking, given that the controls are backlit in red (urgh), but I'll get used to it. With an eye on fuel economy, I chose the 2.5-liter engine over the 3.6. I still think it's the best engine for me, even though I occasionally hanker for the horses that the 3.6 would have delivered. The smaller powerplant is never pokey but obviously doesn't have the effortlessness of a higher-horsepower alternative, such as the peppy V6 in my wife's six-year-old Toyota RAV-4. The ride is pleasant and very comfortable. Within the hour, I'll cramp up in that damn Toyota with its ridiculously stingy driver's-side legroom (even though I'm just 5'11''), but I can drive the Outback all day long and come out none the worse for wear. The vehicle is spacious everywhere, with excellent headroom and legroom even in the back, and with a sweet cargo area that put other candidates such as the Inifinity X35 out of contention. I appreciate the smart cubby just underneath the cargo floor. The new Outback's ride is a bit stiff — I previously owned a six-cylinder 2003 Outback L.L. Bean edition that was a lot floatier, and I liked it! — but I'm feeling the slightly unforgiving ride improving as the new car gets broken in. In the beginning, though, count on a lot of road feel. Handling and cornering are very good, and the constantly-variable transmission (CVT) is so sure-footed as to be remarkably unremarkable. There's a fancy vertical screen right in front of the driver, flanking the speedometer, that is puzzling in how underutilized is it. It could easily show various relevant metrics simultaneously — distance to empty, average fuel consumption, outside temperature, and so on — but instead it gets dedicated to some limited (dare I say useless) set-and-forget options; for instance, you can choose whether you want all the dial gauges to race up and down whenever you start the car. Hmm. The display's main function appears to be flashiness: the screen says GOODBYE when you turn the engine off and WELCOME TO SUBARU (with a four-color image of the car) when you turn it on. I'm hoping that a software upgrade will make the thing actually useful someday. For instance: when one of the five doors is not properly closed, would it KILL Subaru to tell me WHICH ONE it is? The display says "Door or tailgate open." Yeah, thanks. Then you get out and go hunting for the culprit. Usually, I've found, it's the tailgate. Subaru missed badly on that score. I've yet to find a way to reliably close the tailgate on the first try every time. Some Foresters have a button on the remote that gently opens the tailgate, and a button on the underside of the open gate to automatically close it back down. No repeated slamming necessary. That's what I would have liked on the Outback. The leather is of good quality and the overall fit and finish follow suit, even if there are some interior surfaces that look a bit on the cheap side for a $32,000 car. The sunglass holder rattled, and was found to be defective by the dealer; they'll swap it out at no charge soon. Road noise is no issue with the standard Continental tires except for brief spurts of acceleration. The car's premium sound package is fine, nothing to write home about. The lower-end Outback's standard radio and speakers are just terrible. Sirius is not worth it to me; thanks for the four months gratis, but no way will I be signing up as a paying customer — too many commercial interruptions and seconds-long dropouts, on top of poor sound quality that comes, I think, from too much audio compression. CDs and high-bitrate MP3s sound solid. (There's nothing about the system that will wow an audiophile like me, but I suppose the sound is better than average.) The large audio display to your right, which doubles as a screen for the back-up camera as soon as you throw the car into reverse, is well-designed from a usability point of view but on the ugly, dowdy side when it comes to the design of the interface. Throw us some eye candy, Subaru! On the plus side, the car plays well with my iPhone, both over Bluetooth and with a direct USB connection. No complaints. Mileage is pretty excellent for a vehicle this size: I get upwards of 29.5 MPG pretty reliably so far (mostly highway and country-road driving). This is aided by a real-time MPG meter that monitors the throttle and shows you from moment to moment if you're driving economically or not. I treat it as a game, and like to "drive in the green" as much as possible, which means I push the Outback more gently than previous vehicles I've owned, but (I promise) without entering old-lady territory. On relatively flat roads and with no serious headwinds, I can squeeze about 550 miles out of a full tank of gas. Not too shabby. With 2,600 summer miles so far, I haven't really had a chance to put this famously all-weather car through its paces yet. The AWD will come in handy soon enough — I live in Maine! Subarus are the vehicles of choice for many of my neighbors and local friends, for good reason. I expect nothing less than dependable, no-fuss performance in sleet and snow. That, after all, is what Subarus do best.

Primary Use: Family transportation

Good price, great in the snow. All around solid car that holds its value very well. Has plenty of room for a family of 4 with two car seats in the back. I plan on getting another in a few years.