The verdict: Though it’s due to be redesigned in the near future, the 2025 Subaru Outback Touring XT is one of the most comfortable and refined SUVs in its class.
Versus the competition: While technically an SUV, the Subaru Outback presents and drives like a lifted wagon — something that cannot be said of the Toyota Highlander or Honda Passport.
Surprises are one of the best parts of my job, and what a tasty little snack it is when my expectations are aggressively exceeded. This time, it was a loaded 2025 Subaru Outback Touring XT that snuck up and wowed me when I wasn’t looking. Much of that was because of my expectations; the 2025 Outback is part of this vehicle’s sixth generation, and it’s hardly fresh, having been with us since the 2020 model year.
Related: Buy This, Not That: 2025 Subaru Outback or 2025 Toyota Crown Signia?
I’ve driven this generation of the Outback several times — in controlled environments, off-road settings and multi-car comparisons — over the past five model years. I’ve always distantly liked it as a standard workaday family hustler, but it never stuck in my mind. So when I took a 2025 Outback Touring XT on a Monday blast from Los Angeles to San Diego, then on to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the remainder of the week, I expected it to be just a step above whatever I could have nabbed from a rental lot.
What Is the 2025 Outback Touring XT Trim?
Instead, I learned what a lovely, lovely car the Touring XT is. This trim is the tippy-top of the Outback mountain, featuring the line’s more powerful turbocharged four-cylinder engine and most supple interior. Nappa leather upholstery is standard, in either a Slate Black or rich Java Brown, as mine was. The front seats are surprisingly cushy and both heated and ventilated, complemented by a heated steering wheel.
The Outback is officially an SUV, but its seating position and long roof say “wagon” — even if most Outbacks have a half-inch more ground clearance than a rear-wheel-drive 2025 Ford F-150 pickup. Most modern Subarus have a more buttery ride quality than the Touring XT’s $44,330 tag or vehicle type suggest — without sacrificing above-average body control and handling — and that holds true for the Touring XT.
What Engine Is in the 2025 Outback Touring XT?
It’s punchy, too. The Touring XT’s heart is Subaru’s turbocharged 2.4-liter flat four-cylinder, which is good for 260 horsepower and 277 pounds-feet of torque, routed through a continuously variable automatic transmission and the automaker’s signature “symmetrical” all-wheel-drive system. It’s hardly a powerhouse, but while it feels a bit strained in Subaru’s larger Ascent three-row SUV, this engine feels quite suited to the Outback; it had plenty of punch for my rather cheeky trans-Sonoran pace.
The turbocharged Touring XT can also haul your friends and family and all their travel accoutrement. It made light work of my single-dude luggage, and when faced with the rotten (nameless) rental car my cohort got in Arizona, it was often requisitioned as a ritzy lunch and dinner sled for four adults, all of whom shared my sentiments about the Outback.
Yup, the Outback Touring XT is one of the better road-trip cars I’ve had in a damn long while. I don’t have much else to add to the convo here, considering you’ve already had, oh, five years to decide if you like this current iteration of the Outback. It was minorly refreshed for the 2023 model year, with updated exterior styling and the addition of optional wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto among its changes.
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What Do We Know About the 2026 Subaru Outback?
Convinced? You’ll have to hurry and make your decision, as we’re expecting a next-gen Outback for the 2026 model year, and spy shots indicate it will be a significant departure from the wagon-esque profile we’ve known since day one; the new version eschews the current Outback’s long roof for a boxier appearance and layout that’s more in line with the automaker’s Forester compact SUV.
Good or bad, when that new generation appears, I know exactly where I’m gonna take it.
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