![]() Just remember, the 2.4 engine takes 95 RON premium fuel, too. Much like the gnarly WRX from whence it came > It’s no wonder that with an additional 10-15 per cent throttle input the thing just scurries on up the road. Some people want their family vehicles with performance from the get-go, and I should know, being one of them.Īnd it’s a significant performance increase of over 30 per cent compared with the atmo 2.5. And whoever allowed it to take so fricken long, hang your head in shame. ![]() So there’s now a performance option on the table for Outback. You can feel Toyota’s corrosive grip of boredom being blasted off the Subaru product range, like barnacles on a navy cruiser. This a real step forwards for Outback - they dropped the 3.6, and have replaced it with something properly punchy and - holy shit - even inspirational. It is, therefore, with deadset joy that they have finally brought the 2.4 turbo petrol engine here, to Australia. There are carmakers still not getting their CVT anywhere near as refined as Subaru has. ![]() And the CVT is very smooth and nicely integrated. In fact it is perfectly fine for the vast majority. Like, it’s still 2.5 litres and atmo, and a boxer, and I’m sure it’s perfectly adequate for 90 per cent of Outback owners. Senior executive Subaru dudes say the engine is 90 per cent new - but I’m on the fence about this engine. You even get the two-stage X-Mode in the base model, for dirt/mud or deep snow. Plus, 213mm of actual ground clearance, so Outback has some legitimate off-road ability. But please understand, CVTs are designed to spike the revs, because that’s how this transmission works, by giving you peak power on-demand. It tends to quieten down fairly quickly if you spike the revs. They don’t really feel like ‘steps’, were it not for the engine sound, albeit not nearly as droning as it used to be. Outback’s CVT has a manual mode, too, which is very nicely tuned to what feel like real epicyclic gear ratios. Not to mention it’s inherently unsafe to put that much weight behind a 1.7 tonne vehicle, speaking as an engineer. Essentially you’ll have almost zero payload available if you stick 2.4 tonnes on the back. Normal 2.5-litre atmo Outbacks get 2000 kilos of braked towing capacity, or there’s notionally 2400kg in the 2.4 turbo - but I have a separate report on Subaru’s big towing claims vs reality > which you need to watch in relation to that. Respect to Subaru for packing all that in, for the basic price, and remaining competitive. LED lighting is kinda everywhere now too - such as LED headlamps, turn signals, taillights and daytime running lights, even in ‘poverty class’. It’s more of a very gentle coersion, which is very easily overidded now, especially for anybody who likes to position the vehicle to one side of the lane in certain driving conditions, like ascending mountain roads where oncoming bogans in overloaded utes could clean you up as they round the same turn. This is one area where Outback really delivers across the range.Īnd even the more annoying features like lane-keeping are no longer the nanny overload forcing you into the centre of your lane. Poverty Outback is, essentially, fully-loaded on safety - including driver monitoring and autonomous emergency steering. But it’s the nature of the beast - modern cars, that is. Plus, virtually all the safety systems are standard which, admittedly, are a bit intrusive at times.
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