Driving a 2017 (Gen 5) Subaru Outback

It was time to say goodbye to my ‘ol Ford F-150 4x4 Lariat Super Crew. Although it was paid for, it was already starting to show signs of expensive repairs. The A/C was beginning to go out, and the transmission was starting to buck here and there. Most importantly, my 60-mile round trip commute every day was taking a toll on the pocketbook with an average fuel economy of 12-14 miles per gallon. Although we had good times, I realized it was time for another!

This 2017 Subaru Outback immediately caught the eye of the author!

Figuring I could get a decent trade-in, I began my vehicle search for a low-mileage pre-owned vehicle. I wanted something that got decent gas mileage, room enough to haul tents, ice chests, and whatever else you would need for outings with my kids’ Scouting adventures! As much as I tried to convince myself, on the contrary, I decided on no more trucks. I needed something that was easily maneuverable in a low clearance parking garage as well as being able to dodge and weave through the Austin, TX rush-hour traffic.

Since all-wheel drive or 4x4 was a must, I narrowed my selections down to a Kia Sorento, Jeep Cherokee, Toyota Rav 4, and either a Subaru Outback or Forester. After checking reviews, prices, and test drives, I finally ended up with a Subaru Outback.

At first, all I wanted was a base 2.5i that I could add some aftermarket upgrades over the next year or two. Admittedly, I am not a big fan of the 4-cylinder powerplant, with only 173 horsepower and 174 pound-foot of torque, it is a bit underpowered for a vehicle weighing in at over 3500 pounds and I come from a family of race car enthusiasts where power is everything! Reality kicked in though, and I knew a majority of this vehicle’s time on the road was going to be spent in rush hour traffic. No Autobahn driving for me anymore!

Meandering through various car sales apps on my phone, I finally started checking local dealership inventory. At first, a fully decked out Subaru Forester caught my eye, and I was really dead set on buying it at the dealership that is literally in walking distance from my house! Then I remembered a couple of dealerships I pass every morning on the way to work (one of those deals where you see them so regularly, they become out of sight and out of mind!)

After filtering through the online inventory, there it was! Right there on the phone screen in front of me! A 2017 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited, leather seats, cargo basket, with aftermarket wheels and all-terrain tires! To top it off, it only had 43,000! Boom! Jackpot!

One thing I have learned after 15 years of marriage is to always take your wife along with you to see how she likes the vehicle. Since she hates to drive, passenger seat comfort was essential. I even had the kids in-tow to ensure there was plenty of legroom in the back. Since my 6’2” husky sized frame was able to sit comfortably in the back seat, I knew my kids would not have a problem! After my test drive, I knew I had to have this car! I handed over the F-150 keys for my new (to me) Subaru.

Aside from the prior owner’s add-ons, the 256 horsepower and 247 pound-foot of torque the 3.6 liter flat (boxer) 6 cylinder was really the selling point. Although it loses a few miles per gallon from the 2.5 liter four cylinder, the Outback’s smooth acceleration is not going to give me anxiety should I ever jump on the toll road with its 85 mph speed limit!

The first few weeks of driving were strictly limited to my daily commute and running errands around town on the weekends. Fuel mileage with the stop-and-go traffic averaged around 22 mpg. The A/C blows cold, and the power seats are comfortable, but the real road test was soon to come!

As a Scouts BSA leader, I volunteered to drive my son and other boys from his Troop to San Isabel Scout Ranch, located 9,000 feet in the Wet Mountains near Rye, CO. This trip was originally slated to be taken with my wife’s 2011 Ford Expedition EL and its 7-passenger seating, but that was scratched when she traded it in for her Rav 4 (she figured if I got a newer car, she could too!) Luckily, we had enough vehicles in our convoy to allow me to take the Outback, despite the only having room for 4 passengers!

Our trip consisted of traversing over 2,000 miles. We departed Bastrop, TX (316 ft above sea level) and headed to our first overnight stop at Caprock Canyon State Park outside of Quitaque, TX where elevation is at 2,500 feet. Keep in mind, there is nowhere in Texas where you can escape the heat! By the time we pulled into camp, it was 106 degrees outside! Did I mention the Outback has a wonderful A/C?

Even as the sun began to set, the temperatures still hovered in the triple digits!

During this trip, my son decided to ride with the Scouts his age in one of the other leader’s vehicle. This left me with 3 of the senior Scouts, ranging from 14-17 years of age, and a couple of them creeping up on the 6’ tall mark! Like most teenagers, they were plugged into their phones, either listening to music or watching movies. Since our troop has a rule that once we leave the car, electronics stay put! Once they realized the back seats partially recline, they were in heaven! Even with my front-seat passenger reclining his seat back, the rear passenger behind him still has plenty of legroom! The larges Scout sat behind me. With my seat all the way back, I occasionally felt knees being pressed through.

The sunset over Caprock Canyon (TX) State Park

Overnight, I slept in the Subaru. Clearing out a section on the passenger’s side of the vehicle, I lowered the rear seat, pulled the passenger front seat all the way forward and then reclining it back, I was able to make a space to put an air mattress and stretch all the way out! Had I swapped the cargo basket for my cargo carrier, I would have had a lot more room for things like my CPAP and fan, but I was able to make it work.

Top: With the rear seats folded down, and the front seat pulled forward and fully reclined, there was enough room to fit the author's 6'2" large frame along with an air mattress. Bottom: To keep bugs out, mosquito netting was used to cover the windows with magnets attached along the door. 

Sleep was cut short for me after my son fell ill. To ensure he did not have something that would spread I left early Saturday to find the nearest hospital to have him evaluated. We still had enough room to shuffle my passengers to other vehicles, and I was off to find a hospital in the middle of nowhere (Lockney, TX).

Luckily my son was alright. The combination of heat, anxiety, and a bit too much candy and/or greasy foods contributed to his stomach problems, but we were told he was not contagious, and we could continue or journey! After I ate a quick breakfast at the hospital and downed a couple of cups of coffee, we were back on the road, with my son sleeping most of the way!

After several hours of drive time, we found ourselves climbing the mountains into Trinidad, CO, only to be greeted by a heavy thunderstorm! With high winds and torrential rain, I decided it was best to stay the night, although the camp was about an hour and a half away. I continued driving down the mountain into Trinidad. The Outback did great on the wet mountain road, even with the high winds, I felt I did not have to fight the steering winds with the gusty cross-winds and had no issues with hydroplaning.

Heavy rains and gusty winds were encountered.

Alas! We found a hotel and bedded down for the night! The next morning, we continued our journey, well-rested, into the Wet Mountains to find camp. Traveling through Colorado City, and up the highway, I found the heavy rain to have washed good-sized rocks onto the roadway. For those that I could swerve to miss, the Outback was responsive and handled well. For those rocks that were unavoidable due to oncoming traffic and/or no shoulder, the Outback’s ground clearance was a godsend! I will note the average clearance for a stock Outback is over 8 inches, my Outback has about 11 inches of clearance. I do not know if this was due to tire size, or if the previous owner added a lift kit, which is a popular and easy modification.

After playing dodge rock along the highway, we finally arrived at the San Isabel Scout Ranch. The dirt road was heavily rutted from the heavy rainfall, and still muddy. This gave me the chance to use Subaru’s X-Mode feature, which changes the vehicle dynamics to a more off-road friendly AWD system. With the combination of X-Mode and the BF Goodrich Comp T/A KO2 tires, the car made it up and over the mountain drive without any issue. X-mode also controls downhill braking, keeping the car at a consistent speed, which kept me from having to ride the brake into camp due to the 10-mph speed limit.

The Outback and the author's son get a chance to rest in the Wet Mountains at the San Isabel Scout Ranch in Colorado.

Since we were confined to camp, the car stayed parked until mid-week when we loaded back up and headed up to Salida, CO to take the boys white water rafting on the Arkansas River. I opted not to float the river, but drive the dirt roads which parallel the river to get some good photographs (and to check out off-road handling without passengers!)

My river route took me along improved gravel roads (I say improved as they are graded and maintained); however, this gave me a chance to see how the car handles cornering when traction was limited. On several turns, I tried to initiate oversteer and understeer. The Subaru’s AWD system performed as expected, working to keep the car from going into any type of a skid. Granted, I did not really press the limits but tried to simulate emergency maneuvers to see how the car handles off of the pavement.

Subaru’s suspension on the Outback is well-tuned! While it is not designed to take on a Baja race, it absorbed the bumps and jolts gracefully. One turn had a very bad washboard to it. Normally, this would create oversteer conditions on most vehicles (particularly my truck), but the Outback would have none of that! I eventually made it back to the pickup point, loaded the boys back in the car, and traveled the 80 miles back to camp!

After six days at camp, it was time for us to pack up and head back to Texas. We kept the same seating arrangements and headed to our overnight stop at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, just south of Amarillo, TX.

The first half of the journey home, the boys slept like a rock in the car, not a peep out of them, other than occasional snoring! In fact, one of the boys mentioned he was glad he got to ride back with me because the car was so comfortable! I will agree with him on that! Even with a bad back, the front seats of the Subaru made for a very comfortable drive!

The roominess and comfort allowed for my passengers to fall asleep almost as soon as they buckled their seat belts.

As I did at Caprock, I slept in the back of the car while at Palo Duro Canyon, although it was a much more restless night! Too much coffee resulted in me staring at the stars all night long, which made the Outback’s moon roof a nice feature! A family of noisy raccoons and the yelp of a red fox in the area kept me up the remainder of the night! Miraculously, when my alarm sounded at 5 am, I felt energized and ready to go! This may have been due to the fact at the end of our drive, I knew I would be sleeping in my own bed with electricity, running water, and plumbing! It is amazing how using an outhouse for 6 days with 30 other people will change your perspective!

It seemed my scouts had a good night rest as well. After their after-breakfast nap, they realized how great the Harmand/Kardon stereo system sounded! John Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads, never sounded so good! Luckily too, the boys also liked listening to 80’s rock, so it made for the energetic ride home!

After a 2,000-mile journey, I can say I am very pleased with my purchase! The 3.6R delivered more than enough power up mountain passes. Of course, with more power comes more fuel consumption. I averaged around 27 mpg round-trip. Again, that was with a roof rack and all-terrain tires.

Subaru's CVT transmission did not seem to have issues with the steep grades and transitioned smoothly as we traversed up and down steep mountain grades. I have had experience with CVTs over the last decade and am accustomed to their lack of shift points commonly felt with traditional multi-speed transmissions. Subaru has programmed what I like to call faux shifts, where the transmission imitates an actual upshift or downshift. If you are smooth enough on the accelerator, you can trick the CVT to do what CVTs are supposed to do: Deliver smooth, shift-free power! The wheel-mounted paddle shifters did allow for convenient downshifts going downhill to allow for more than adequate engine braking.

There are very few cons to this car. One of the most annoying of them is road noise. More specifically, the howl of the BFG KO2 tires permeated the cab. It wasn’t enough to where you couldn’t hear the person next to you talk, but after a full day journey, it got really old, really quick!

One of the other cons I found is the lack of a constant on 12-volt power source! This would have come in handy when sleeping in the car as I could have plugged in my CPAP and fan! Also, the USB ports for the infotainment system lack the amperage to quick-charge modern smartphones and tablets.

An odd annoyance I found was with the Outback’s projector-beam headlights. While it has nothing to do with performance, the fog lights and daytime running lights seemed to be brighter and clearer than the projector beams, which emitted an almost yellowish hue, in contrast with the bright white color of the other lights.

This car came with Subaru’s blind-spot detection system, which is a good thing since there is a huge blind-spot behind the pillar located behind the front seats of both the driver and passenger side. To help out with this, I bought a pair of small fish-eye stick on mirrors that have dramatically decreased the blind-spot!

Home Sweet Home!

All-in-all, I would have to say this Subaru is a great car! The Outback is very practical, fun, and roomy! I’m looking forward to many family and scouting adventures in years to come!