Video: 2026 Subaru Outback Wilderness Expertly Balances Capability, Comfort: Review

But I happen to know that you are gonna be driving this way more on-road than off, which asks the question, have any of the things that make this better in the dirt or the mud made it any worse on something like a highway or a parking lot? Well, let's go with the trails and the pavement to figure that out. (gentle music) Chances are, if you buy a Subaru Wilderness Product that could be Crosstrek, Forester, or Outback, you are intending to at least occasionally take it off road, take it off the beaten path, and that could be a fire road, could be a ranch road, could be a trailhead, could be something a little bit more intense. But the point is you are buying it primarily because it has an elevated offered capability over a standard Subaru product. That being said, you're also probably going to drive it more on-road than you are off-road and sometimes off-road focused vehicles cannot be the greatest on-road. The handling kind of suffers for all-terrain tires, fuel economies can be kind of terrible. They can feel like they're on stilts and there's some more road noise. So let's answer that right away. No, the 2026 Subaru Outback Wilderness does not suffer for the extra off-road hardware and capability when you take it on road, 'cause remember, that's primarily where you're gonna be driving it. This, of course, does have all-terrain tires, but they are very well balanced between on-road use and off-road use and they're really not overly aggressive. Subaru crossovers these days generally handle pretty great and these all-terrains do not really detract from that. In fact, these tires, plus the new electronically adjustable or adaptive suspension, this thing rides and handles lovely. That's really the trick. You won't even really notice that this has all that extra offered capability. This becomes especially impressive once you compare this to something like, well, I don't know, a 4Runner, a 4Runner TRD Pro. Yes, that is a significantly larger vehicle and definitely more capable off-road, it being body on frame. But I would be willing to bet that most 4Runner drivers, regardless of configuration, are definitely using theirs more on-road than they're off-road. And in that regard, in a lot of cases, you gotta look at what you really need a vehicle for. I think this might be the one to pick. So yeah, really no penalty paid here for the Wilderness badge. I will have, having driven old Wildernesses, Wilderness products, Wilderni, whatever the plural term is there, they definitely felt a little squishy. They felt a little tall, not overly compromised for sure, but this is definitely not the case with the new Outback Wilderness. And of course, all the great things about this new generation Outback are also still here. Most Subarus have great visibility. This is definitely the case here. This is fabulous visibility, great seating position. And oh my goodness, the return of the hard buttons here on the center console, fantastic. Now, I will say, having just driven the Forester Wilderness a couple months ago, if I had the money, I know that is often the deciding factor in buying a vehicle. If I had the money, I would get the Outback Wilderness even if I didn't need the extra space because specifically of this engine, this is the Turbocharge 2.4 flat four with 260 horsepower. It is just so much more powerful and usable than the naturally aspirated powertrain in the Forest Wilderness. And I have am aware that some people don't put much priority on power at all, and I understand that, but in this case, what are you buying an SUV for? Are you buying it just to drive yourself around? Which could also be the case. Usually you're putting people inside, you're putting dogs, you're putting kayaks, you're throwing a tent on the roof, especially if you're buying a Wilderness. That adds a lot of weight, that turns it into a bit of an anchor. And if your Forester's really already not that quick, you are absolutely gonna feel it, especially if you get into the mountains. That was my biggest problem with the Forester Wilderness. I liked everything about it except for the powertrain. Now basically, we get a slightly larger version of the Forester with an adaptive suspension and there's all those extra goodies, and I get the turbocharge engine. That is just, what a great package. If I were in the market for a mid-sized-ish crossover with genuine off-road capability, I can't imagine I would buy anything other than the new Outback Wilderness, provided, of course, I could afford it. Now, the last time I said something like that, I said if I had to be in the market for a compact crossover, I'd buy a Subaru Crosstrek Sport and I ended up buying a Subaru Crosstrek Sport, so time might tell what this thing. So now off the main road, we are, well we're off road and we are honestly, on some terrain that I would expect most Outback Wilderness drivers to take it on, in the sense that if they ever go off road, probably not gonna do it on a much more aggressive terrain than this. Even though, based on past experiences with other Wilderness products, you can. Now, one of the biggest problems with the Wilderness Outback has been its approach angle or basically, the upfront overhang, but it seems like they mentioned they did improve this and haven't had too many issues. I have scraped it a few times. This is the second time I've been on this off-road course here. We're out on the NorCal back roads here on some two track trails and they're fairly tight as you can kind of see. I'm weaving through some trees and you know, as usual, I'm not able to see sometimes when the nose gets lifted up. So we have a handy dandy front 360 view camera so I can see right where my front nose is going and the trail ahead of us, which is kind of a relief when I'm coming up over hills in an unknown terrain. The only complaint I'll have with that is that it, you know, compared to other companies or automakers, Subaru's camera system turns off at a rather, I would say low speed. That's okay. I'm glad that we just have the system to begin with. When you toggle these X Mode terrain modes on the hill descent control, it's automatically turned on as well. And by the way, when you see me look down and look at the center console, hit a button, that's when I'm turning on that front camera so that I can see where I'm going up over a hill. And like I said earlier, I like that hill descent control is automatically toggled on when I'm in X Mode, so I don't really have to worry about hitting a button, setting it and all that kind of stuff. It's just on natively and it just cancels when I'm above a certain speed. Really the biggest change I'm gonna notice over previous generations of Outback Wilderness is just how compliant and comfortable these new electric dampers are. Seriously, the ride composure over, well, a mix of kind of slow, undulating, rocky, semi-rocky two tracks like this, and over faster kind of corrugated dirt ranch roads, very impressive for the segment. It is really remarkably comfortable. And again, as I said earlier, that pays tons of dividends on road as well. I mean, it's just kind of a generally extremely comfortable vehicle to ride around in, both daily and well, when you're getting a little dirty. Now, honestly, all standard Subarus, regular Subaru crossovers, they have phenomenal ground clearance 'cause of their packaging. But with this Wilderness Outbacks specific suspension, you get 9.5 inches of ground clearance versus the standard 8.7 inches of clearance. That's excellent for the segment, which means really, unless you're seriously out in the sticks, you're not gonna have really any problem at all. Yes folks, the new Outback Wilderness is the best of the Wilderness bunch and it comes down to this combination of this powertrain with this suspension. You know, I love a good Turbo Subie. Not much more needs to be set about that. We know this powertrain, we love this powertrain and in this platform it is excellent, especially when you get out in the mud and have gotta head up a hill, it's phenomenal. But that suspension, wow, out on these rougher roads and when we're out on the regular soft tarmac, it rides nice, it handles beautifully, it soaks up the bunts, doesn't get much oscillation, very impressed with this adaptive suspension. Now it is gonna be extremely difficult to beat the Outback Wilderness's balance of comfort and off-road capability. And I have some more things to say on the new 2026 Subaru Outback Wilderness. For my full thoughts and review, you gotta go to cars.com/news. (gentle music)