All-new Subaru Outback kicks up dust ahead of New York Auto Show debut
A new version of Subaru’s famously rugged high-riding estate is incoming, with a powertrain likely to be of interest to UK buyers
Subaru has teased an all-new generation of the Outback, its wildly popular high-riding estate car that arguably invented the sector when it was introduced in the mid-Nineties.
The newcomer will be revealed in full at the New York Auto Show on 16 April.
While it’s never quite found as enthusiastic an audience in the UK as in some other markets, this all-new generation has a few distinctions that might finally give it more appeal here – in particular the fact that it will feature a hybrid powertrain.
The Outback initially started out life as a slightly lifted and more rugged Subaru Legacy estate in 1994, and quickly gained popularity. Now, some seven generations later, it’s the sole remaining member of the mid-size Legacy model line-up, and that’s for very good reason.
Just like the Forester did in the class below, the Outback drove just as well as an equivalent estate or saloon, avoiding the clumsy handling that many SUVs delivered in the Nineties. This was backed up by a reliable symmetrical all-wheel-drive system that traded ultimate efficiency for excellent traction, which is why it never quite took off here in the same way that it did in the US or Australia.
Yet that could well be about to change with this new model, as it’s expected to offer a hybrid powertrain for the first time, one that should help bring its MPG and CO2 figures down to a more palatable level. This will almost certainly be in Subaru’s typical flat-four ‘boxer’ layout, helped along by a small e-motor mounted somewhere alongside a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
Beyond powertrains, the Outback has traditionally offered a massive cabin with rugged plastics and good build quality – something this new generation will no doubt leverage to retain its incredibly loyal customer base.
With the market’s appetite for SUVs showing no signs of diminishing, the Outback is likely to become even more off-road biased in this new generation, with the teaser image already previewing chunky roof rails carrying a loaded storage tray and squared-off wheelarches.
Given its enduring success in a number of core markets, it’s no surprise to see that Subaru is continuing to milk the Outback’s rugged reputation – only this time the prospect of a model that makes much more sense in the UK and Europe adds to the interest.
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