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Key Points in This Review
- With new styling, new equipment, a new interior, and dramatically better controls and displays, Subaru has addressed every issue we ever had with the old Outback — making a veritable masterpiece of family transportation in the process.
- The styling might be dramatically different, but it serves a purpose: The new Outback has more headroom than before, which will help taller drivers.
- On-road or off-road, the Outback is unswervingly comfortable and extraordinarily capable.
We understand the angst. After six generations of softly styled, wagonlike Subaru Outbacks, the company has seemingly gone off its rocker and created a seventh generation that’s a complete styling departure from any that came before it, or even anything else in the Subaru showroom. But there’s a method to that madness, if you’ll bear with us for a moment. A Subaru representative actually put it in a way that makes sense: With the discontinuation of the Legacy mid-size sedan on which the Outback was always based, the company was freed up to make the most Outbacky of Outbacks for 2026 — an Outback in its purest form, what its customers really want it to be, unhindered by the need to also make it a family sedan.
Related: What Does the 2026 Subaru Outback’s Pricing Mean for Shoppers?
That’s resulted in the 2026 Outback you see here. It’s dimensionally nearly the same as the old car but for one measurement. It’s taller by 1.4 inches, which has translated directly into more headroom, more cargo room, and a bigger cargo hatch for better loading and unloading. It gets a stronger roof structure for a rack that can hold more weight both when resting and in motion. And most obviously, it gets chunkier styling that may give some Outbackers fits, but which really does give some butch off-roader vibes to the classic family truckster.
We went to Sedona, Ariz., for two days of driving the new 2026 Outback on both smooth two-lane blacktop and rubble-strewn forest roads to see if the chunky-style Outback could live up to its predecessors’ … um … legacy. (Per our policy, Cars.com pays for its own travel and accommodations when attending such manufacturer-sponsored events.)
How Much Does a 2026 Subaru Outback Cost?
Starting prices (including $1,450 destination fee) by trim level follow:
- Premium: $36,445
- Limited: $43,165
- Limited XT: $45,815
- Wilderness: $46,445
- Touring: $46,845
- Touring XT: $49,445
At the start of production, you’ll have a few choices of Outback. The old Base trim is gone; the lineup now starts with the Premium, which is more expensive than the outgoing lowest trim but includes a lot more standard equipment. The Limited and Touring models add even more equipment and progressively nicer interiors, while opting for an XT model swaps the standard 180-horsepower, 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder engine for a 260-hp, turbo 2.4-liter four-cylinder. All versions have a continuously variable automatic transmission. Coming soon is the Wilderness model, which gets the more powerful engine and changes up some styling and equipment to better handle off-road driving, not that the standard Outback is any slouch in that department. More on that later.
My test car for the run around Sedona was a turbocharged Limited XT, not the top Touring trim that comes with Subaru’s new Highway Hands-Free Assist system. That feature, as well as the naturally aspirated engine, were the two things we weren’t able to test on our day of driving, but we did get an excellent idea of what the Outback can do on-road and off-road on our voyage through Arizona. We also were able to thoroughly evaluate the Outback’s totally new interior. And in short, it’s an exceptionally impressive package.
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Redone Inside — and Better Than Ever
- Takeaway: There’s little to complain about with the Outback’s interior, as the issues we’ve had with the prior generation have been addressed, from more buttons for essential controls to increased headroom.
Get past the chunky styling and slip into the totally new interior, and you’ll be greeted by a truly impressive, redone cabin that shows Subaru listens to customers and journalists alike. There’s very, very little to complain about in there, as all of the issues most of us have had with the prior-generation Outback have been addressed.
Let’s start with something that should qualify the new Outback for Car of the Year immediately: the return of buttons. The last Outback had a terrible vertically oriented touchscreen multimedia system that also incorporated climate controls, vehicle functions, drive modes and so much more in a poorly executed grid that was slow, tedious, hard to see in bright sunlight and difficult to connect a phone to.
All of that has been binned in favor of a new 12.1-inch touchscreen multimedia system that sits beside a new 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster. The infotainment system’s software resembles Toyota’s multimedia system but has a home screen, so it’s better executed. Climate-control buttons and knobs are below the screen in a dedicated panel but still fairly high up in the dash, while massive cupholders capable of accommodating many sizes of beverages have been relocated on the center console along with more dedicated buttons for things like cameras, engine stop-start deactivation and automatic vehicle hold. Everything is well laid out, easy to find, easy to read and easy to use. That Subaru has successfully executed this stellar configuration after so thoroughly getting it wrong on the last model is revelatory; it gives us hope for other automakers (looking hard at the entire Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz showrooms) that have gone all touch-sensitive controls. Massive kudos to the interior design team for making the new Outback so, so much better to use.
The rest of the interior is also outstanding. There’s plenty of room in the comfortable front seats, especially for taller drivers. One of the big reasons for the Outback’s boxy styling was to boost headroom, which Subaru said was one of the biggest things Outback owners complained about. Taller drivers would hit their heads on the headliner — especially in cars with a moonroof — but that’s not an issue anymore. The second row is spacious, as well, with plenty of leg, hip and headroom for everyone. The upright styling also means that there’s a lot of window real estate, which boosts visibility in combination with the low beltline. Even the view forward isn’t obstructed much despite a taller hood and a screen that sticks up into your view. Cargo room benefits from the lifted roofline, and Subaru has redesigned the hatch opening, too, to make it more square and better at handling boxy cargo loaded into the larger luggage area.
Overall, the Outback’s new interior is stellar, though its off-road intentions might be a little at odds with its fabric-covered dash and doors, which might be hard to wipe clean. It does lose some of its wagon feel with a seating position and taller roof that makes the Outback feel more like an SUV than before. That might not sit well with some repeat Outback buyers who liked the lower, more intimate wagon feel of the outgoing model, but I honestly think driving and using the new Outback will win them over.
Out on the Road
- Takeaway: Overall, driving the new Outback on pavement is a calm, easygoing affair; it’s refined, quiet and comfortable, just as it should be.
Heading out on Arizona’s lovely paved roads reveals a smooth-driving family SUV with decent power from the turbocharged 2.4-liter engine, solid and responsive handling, and remarkably quiet operation at speed. The engine has the same displacement and configuration as the one in the prior-gen Outback XT, and it has the same power and torque output, but Subaru says it has been significantly refined with a slew of new parts, all of which are aimed at improved efficiency, reliability and smoothness. In that regard, they’ve succeeded — it’s quiet, even when floored, without the kind of droning awfulness that a CVT often brings with a four-cylinder engine. Acceleration is best described as adequate, but then no Outback owner buys one for its stoplight drag-racing chops. It can merge onto a highway confidently, has plenty of usable low-end torque for urban use and motors along nearly silently on the highway. That said, I’m not sure I’d be as enthusiastic about the base non-turbo engine; 260 hp feels adequate, but I’m not sure 180 hp would.
Ride quality is excellent even with the 19-inch wheels that came on my test car (which are a first for an Outback). Highway operation is also very quiet with very little wind noise, which might be surprising for such a boxy design sporting a roof rack. Subaru says that a lot of aerodynamic tweaks were made to refine the airflow on the new Outback to create that quiet highway ride, and it’s paid off. The brakes operate as they should, with a firm and progressive feel. Overall, driving the new Outback on pavement is a calm, easygoing affair. It’s refined, quiet and comfortable, just as it should be.
Up in the Dirt
- Takeaway: From smooth dirt to washboard surfaces to some seriously rocky scree and obstacles, the Outback proved to be exceptionally capable, far more than one might expect.
Unlike many other SUV drivers, Outback owners apparently really do use their vehicles for outdoorsy activities. With that in mind, Subaru sent us on a very, very extended off-road drive, something that’s fairly easy to do in Arizona where varying degrees of dirt and rock roads abound. From smooth dirt to washboard surfaces to some seriously rocky scree and obstacles, the Outback proved to be exceptionally capable, far more than one might expect. There is an X-Mode button that’s now on the steering wheel (instead of in the touchscreen) that activates a low-speed off-road mode that adjusts engine response, shifting traction control and more to help with more challenging off-road terrain. Ground clearance for the standard Outback is unchanged from the prior model at 8.7 inches, which is more than many competing SUVs and was plenty for scaling some truly rocky forest service roads. Not once did the Outback I was driving bottom out despite driving for extended periods on some terrain that I would not have thought suitable for it, but that didn’t faze the Subaru at all — even with its 19-inch all-season tires instead of knobbier all-terrain rubber. That the Outback Limited is as good as it is in the dirt even with its standard suspension and all-season tires makes me look forward to trying the Wilderness variant with its higher ride height, two-mode X-Mode off-road software, unique shocks and all-terrain tires.
More Subaru Outback News From Cars.com:
- 2026 Subaru Outback and Outback Wilderness Up Close: Practically Perfect, In Every Way
- All-New 2026 Subaru Outback Searches for a New Middle Ground
- 2025 New York Auto Show Best in Show: 2026 Subaru Outback
- 2025 Subaru Outback Review: An Oldie but Very, Very Goodie
- Buy This, Not That: 2025 Subaru Outback or 2025 Toyota Crown Signia?
Value to Boot
The new Outback is more expensive, but even a loaded-up Touring XT still doesn’t crack the $50,000 mark (but only just). Lower trims come in well under the average price of a new car these days, and given the space, efficiency, and all-weather and all-terrain capability of the new Outback — plus just how good it is to use — it represents an outstanding value for families whether they’re outdoorsy and adventurous or not. The Outback has always been a popular choice in the American market, and the new model’s massive usability improvements should solidify its standing as an excellent choice — that is, if everyone can get past how different it looks.
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