2022 Subaru Outback consumer reviews

I custom ordered a 2022 Subaru Outback Touring XT and traded in a 2017 Toyota 4Runner. I bought this car thinking it would be my last full gas vehicle, but it may not be. This was also my 4th Subaru having owned an Outback, Impreza Sport, and Forester. I bought the new Outback as a safe, reliable, and efficient family car to haul kids around in and not worry about. While my prior cars have all been reliable, my newest and most expensive Subaru has been a challenge. I love the design, interior, space and safety technology. My concern is that the vehicle, made in Indiana, has had a litany of reliability issues. 1) 2022 touchscreen barely responded so the dealer needed 3 visits to do a 2023 software override. That’s right, my car now has the 2023 layout instead of the 2022. For months, my screen was barely usable and couldn’t not sync via USB(after multiple cords) or Bluetooth. 2) Subaru had to pull my engine out at 18k miles for a series of oil leaks from several gaskets. Apparently this is a silent recall but is a fairly regular occurrence on the 2022 XT engines. 3) While I have ventilated seats, I’m pretty sure they don’t actually work. Summary : I bought this car believing it would be the ideal, safe, and reliable family cruiser that would do 100k without flinching, but it has been a regular pain making me want to go back to a 4Runner or just cut bait and go full electric. I am hopeful they return the Outback to being a long haul vehicle that is safe and dependable.

I have owned my Subaru Outback Premium since May 10, 2022. So 1 year and 4 months and 39,000 miles later it is still one of the best Cars I have ever owned. This was my first new car purchase ever and I am glad I did. I will owned another on absolutely!! So fun to drive.

They over thought this thing, what used to be reliable transportation is now a hit or miss ride. The Auto off feature that turns off the engine at red lights or in traffic has your car doing 15 or 20 starts per drive. Unless your driving 100 miles a day your going to kill your battery in year and get stuck. The stupid useless starlink will also do a parasitic drain on the battery to report everything your car has done back to Subaru. If you park in an area with low cell signal it will drain your battery in a week. again stuck, don't park it at the airport. Your only option is a portable battery pack and/or a solar trickle charger in your new car. They lost a class action law suit for the 2015-2020 model years for these issues but it must have been cheaper to settle then fix the problem.

I purchased a 2022 Outback Touring and love some things but not others. First of all the gas mileage is great, 29+mpg overall, and the ride comfort is very nice. However, there are some glaring issues. The electronics are painfully slow to respond to user input. Also the speech recognition of the navigation system is so bad it will not recognize any address. Even the dealer couldn’t get it to work. Seats bottoms are too hard and not comfortable for long trips. Lastly the backup camera is very low resolution, must have been designed in the 1990’s. Car is over priced. Safety features like adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning work ok but are not as refined as Honda.

The monitor is entirely too big and takes up space for a cubby hole. Also it doesn’t have wireless AppleCarPlay, very disappointing. Starlink subscription is a ripoff!

2022 Outback XT Likes: Easy cruise control setting. Push steering wheel mounted tiny lever up or down...easy 5mph adjustment. Turbo gives good acceleration. 26mpg + overall. Easy steering wheel heater on/off. Blind Spot Monitor..Large, inside of side mirrors very visible. Nice interior...great fit and finish..classy. Comfy seats. Easy drop down passenger seats from opened rear hatch. Dislikes: Very annoying seat belt chime. This is an Outback, a sporty, take your car camping vehicle..so one would anticipate many in and out scenarios...like adjusting the kayak on the carrier, etc...yet EVERY time you have to clip on your seat belt or it will loudly drive you bonkers! Our two other vehicles (Toyota and Ford) do have the chimes, but not obnoxious at all). What was Subaru thinking? No high beam headlight override...go down a country road, and if it switches to low beam, you cannot override it as I can with our other two vehicles...it seems to be tied to vehicle speed, but is inconsistent. Setting the seat heater is unnecessarily complex (strangely for the front seats only). It is like a 3 or four step process, which takes your eyes off the road...at which time the car buzzes you to keep your eyes on the road...which are off the road because of this complex maneuver ...every other car we've ever owned just has at the simple button to push, as with the rear seats. AND...even on the lowest setting, the seat gets hotter and hotter, unlike our other two vehicles...till u have to turn it off. On entry, I hit my head on the door sill...I am 5'9", and yet.. Driving, the Subaru feels light; not firmly planted. The front end feels to want to wander...my wife thinks it is ok...maybe I am used to our front-heavy diesel truck. Heater or A/C is NOT automatic.... you have to monitor the fan..taking your eyes on the road ...with every other vehicle we have or ever had, you set the temp and theater/A/C adjusts the fan as needed. Finally...this may be just a "my car only" problem...one crossbar is loose...which gives me concern when hauling our kayak. Subaru looked at it and said it was within limits...yet, going through the parking lot, I have never found one other that is loose like that. This is mostly my wife's car, and she (5'2") likes it. She likes how it drives, gives her good vision all around, dislikes the obnoxious seatbelt chime and unnecessarily complex seat heater. Overall, it seems to be a well-built car, though our daughter, who has the same,(Touring XT) has had transmission problems at 40K miles, that she feels has never been totally fixed. We have had no engine or tranny problems, with 27k miles so far.

This vehicle is complex, don’t kid yourself. Instead, learn how to use it wisely and you will be justly rewarded. Leave the second level cruise control as the manual says to freeways and stick to the less involved one for easier drives and the neat adaptive cruise control. What you will find is an auto that drives with a solid and comfortable feel. This puppy has all the power one needs on occasion. Learn how to manage its features to be rewarded with useful features such as lights that turn with you and dim automatically. Well finished and comfortable interior. In my many years, this has been one of the most comfortable vehicles I have ever owned.

Poor mileage and driving it constantly pulls left and right dealers say nothing they can do makes driving very tiring this car was our 12th Subaru in 42 years and is our last

Electronic NIGHTMARE. Subaru driver recognition works sometimes and in a repair order they say it’s designed to fail. Multiple problems with Bluetooth. No clue how to repair. Try going around a corner using driver assist to get a idea of how a ping pong ball feels. Heads up display that was current in the late 90s in the Smithsonian in 2015 and new on a Subaru in 2022. Pathetic design and even more pathetic implementation. Destined to fade away. They have NO clue how to handle electronics.

Sure, everybody loves their Subaru but I'm an exception. To be crystal clear...I wouldn't recommend MY Subaru. Bought a '22 Outback regarded as used because it was turned in by the previous owner with only 4k miles...WHY? I should have been more aggressive in getting the answer because I don't think I got the whole story. This vehicle has 1,300 pages of owner instructions! So there are many systems that can go wrong. With my vehicle it was that the voice activation of the nav and search systems simply didn't work. I went through two dealerships and even got up to Senior VP level with Subaru America and no one in the whole organization would admit it wasn't working when it was totally obvious it wasn't. At least 8 service people tried it with the same ridiculous result. Use voice to put in an address and it asks you to repeat it over and over. If it did accept the address it would ask you for what State OR it would give directions to a place in Chicago, New York, Seattle...which would be fine if I didn't live in Scottsdale. I rely heavily on a vehicle's access to the internet, mobile communication, and especially the Nav. Sadly, I turned in a great Kia Optima where I could say "Home Depot nearest me" and presto I was on my way. This Subaru doesn't even know what a Home Depot was. I even took it there and showed it around. The ONLY way to get reliable directions was to MANUALLY enter the address - but you had to know the exact address. I had an occassion where I had to get someone to a hospital emergency. Who knows the address of a hospital or a bank or store? Even a local one. Things worked out okay but that became a safety issue! Everyone in Subaru tried to convince me to use some kind of "work around" rather than admit that Subaru's system - in my car - sucks. I was told to speak slowly starting with "navigation," then State and Zip, then city, then street, then house number, then confirm you actually want to go there. The other suggestion was to buy an iphone and link it up to the car's system. One service manager said he has two cell phones in case one doesn't connect properly. Wouldn't it be easier to have the system work as designed and intended??? My biggest aggravation is that NO ONE in all of Subaru admitted to the problem. One dealer did say "We can't fix it so don't bother bringing your car in." I will say voice will make a phone call for me - it just doesn't know how to give directions, which is how I know it's a male car. Net, for me, is I won't EVER buy another, the aggravation isn't worth it. I'll give my money directly to animal shelters, thanks very much.