OPINION: Why the Subaru Outback isn’t a car I’d recommend – but it is one I’d buy

In the pursuit of ever-bigger profits, you won’t find many car manufacturers that stick strictly to their original ethos. Mercedes was a byword for ultimate luxury – now it makes a fortune selling the baby A-Class. BMW – ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ – has a nice sideline in front-wheel drive hatchbacks.

You can buy a front-wheel drive Range Rover. An £80,000 ‘people’s car’ from Volkswagen. And just look at Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, all of which sell big, ugly SUVs in addition to their more traditional model lines.

That’s perhaps why Subaru is such a likeable company. Though it’s had blips, by and large pretty much every Subaru model sticks to an agreed formula – a flat ‘Boxer’ engine at the front, four-wheel drive underneath and a hardwearing, sensible interior above. But why do so few people buy Subarus? Just 2,419 found homes in the UK in 2024, compared with more than 125,000 BMWs. Well, after a week with the Outback – Subaru’s best-selling model – I think I know.

First impressions of the Outback are favourable. It’s quite a handsome estate car, with nice chunky proportions and body cladding that leaves you in no doubt there’s some serious hardware underneath. Under the bonnet is a bit less impressive – a 2.5-litre, naturally-aspirated flat-four engine producing a pretty ordinary 169hp.

The truth is that the Subaru won’t impress enthusiasts coming from a BMW Touring model or one of Audi’s Avant cars. It’s too sluggish, with limited power from the engine and a CVT gearbox mooing away in the background. It’s not sporty enough, leaning into the corners. And the interior, which is built to be rugged rather than stylish, simply won’t cut it compared with the Alcantara and chrome-swaddled competition.

But it’s these factors that make it so utterly charming. Sporty it isn’t, but the Outback is remarkably comfortable – it’s a great reminder of days past, where sensibly-sized 18-inch wheels and plenty of suspension travel were the norm, rather than rim-stretching 20-inchers on rock solid springs. Combine that with truly excellent seats and you have a car that’s absolutely superb for covering distance in. My mum swears it temporarily cured her sciatica.

Head off the tarmac and you’ll have a tremendous time. Subaru’s ‘symmetrical’ all-wheel drive just keeps you going through terrain you wouldn’t even consider in a quattro or xDrive-powered Audi or BMW. There’s not much faffing about with settings, either – just switch into one of two off-road modes, point the front of the car where you want to head, and go.

While ground clearance and grip aren’t up to the standards of a Land Rover Defender or Toyota Land Cruiser, I took the Outback through terrain that I wouldn’t have dared tackle in a regular SUV – even one with four wheel drive. And it’s not like Subaru is staunchly old-fashioned in every regard – every single car it’s sold in the UK since 2009 has scored a full five-star Euro NCAP safety rating.

But why couldn’t I recommend one in good conscience? Well, that outdated engine means something other than a lack of grunt – high running costs. I drove the Outback like a saint during my week with it, and I averaged 36mpg – I’ve had better out of a BMW X5 with double the power output. In terms of CO2, 193g/km means a first year tax bill of £1,650 (plus, all but the base model attract the expensive car supplement in years two-five), and it’s also in the top bracket for company car tax, making it totally unjustifiable for business users.

This alone must contribute to Subaru’s sales numbers – when most company cars are fully electric or plug-in hybrid cars, a pure petrol estate car without even a soupçon of hybrid tech is financially very unattractive.

It’s also fair to point out that Subaru’s interiors do have a way to go. The touchscreen is a mishmash of different fonts, and this must be the last car brand not to offer a digital dashboard – even Dacia and Morgan have these now. Though it’s built like a bank vault, those in search of ambient lighting, Nappa leather and endless toys to play with will be disappointed.

Buying a Subaru isn’t a notably posh experience either. Whereas in an Audi dealership you’ll probably be confronted by a slick 24-year-old wearing a Next suit and impossibly shiny shoes, a Subaru dealer is more likely to be wearing wellies and accompanied by a labrador. Subaru dealers tend to be small, family-run affairs, out in the sticks where customers such as farmers can have easy access. Is that bad? No, but it’s certainly an adjustment if you’re used to buying your cars from big glass units on glitzy industrial estates. As a fully paid-up member of the rainbow mafia, I do appreciate Subaru’s history of marketing cars to lesbians in North America – seriously, look it up – but on this side of the pond they’re for rural types rather than adventurous sorts.

Here in the UK Subarus are highly praised for owner satisfaction – the brand came first in the 2024 Driver Power Survey, for example. Subaru owners keep their cars for longer than just about any other brand, and tend to stay faithful. So is Subaru content to remain a niche brand, with a small but dedicated customer base?

Well, it’s adding hybrid tech – kind of – to its newer cars, and it does sell the Solterra, which is a rebadged version of the Toyota bZ4X EV. But I reckon the more old-school Outback is the best model Subaru sells.

It’s comfortable, superb off-road, roomy enough for the whole family and is likely to be as long-lived as Bruce Forsyth if reliability surveys are to be believed – and even more charming. At just over £37,000, it’s not cheap, but it’s really not bad next to the smaller and less capable German opposition.

So while I simply can’t recommend that everybody goes out and buys a 30mpg car with an ancient engine and a comedy touchscreen… if it was my money, and I had need of a big, practical family car, you’d find me down the Subaru dealership tomorrow, wearing my muddiest pair of boots. And I think that if more Brits could look past the vanity of wanting something shiny, sporty and German on the driveway, they’d find that the Subaru Outback suited them more than they’d care to admit.

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