Subaru Outback a good vehicle for me?

[Bearded Man]

Although I currently work from home most of the time, I generally have commuted 80+ miles a day most of my career, regardless of where I've worked.

Thus I need a fuel efficient and reliable vehicle, more so than most. But I'd also like to have a vehicle that I can camp in the back of, and haul stuff with. I can always get a trailer hitch installed by U-Haul for a few hundred bucks, but it would be ideal if the vehicle came with one by default.

But is Subaru my only option? Does Hyundai or another manufacturer make something similar that I can get used at a reasonable price?

[Left]

Subaru is good if you need the awd... if you don't, you are overpaying for it. I overpaid and don't regret it though, happy customer... bought used

[Cromacster]

I like my 2013 hyundai elantra gt (wagon).  I average around 39mpg.  On the highway going 60mph around 45-50mpg.

I have my rear seats removed, and with some minor modifications you can sleep in it and I have.  For reference I am 5'10" and had plenty of room.  I take trips regularly with it. Loaded with gear, food, and a dog there is plenty of room.  Fully loaded with two adults, gear, and a dog I averaged 42mpg on a 5 hour trip to northern MN.

If you add a hitch or roof rack you could comfortably transport 4 people plus gear for a trip.

My main gripe is with the rear hatch.  It has a ~6 inch lip or edge.  Whereas I believe most subarus are flat out the back.  It's a minor thing, but makes it harder to fit large objects into the back.

[thd7t]

Subaru's are not very fuel efficient.  Crocmacster mentioned the elantra wagon.  I have the Elantra Touring (the previous generation of the same car).  It was the only small wagon that was rated to tow a trailer (it doesn't come with a hitch, though).  Also, the older version doesn't have the lip Croc mentions.

[infogoon]

I have a 2008 Outback - it's a great car, especially in winter or dirt road situations, but the mileage is awful for a car with a four cylinder engine. I generally get around 20mpg in city driving. Part of that is that the AWD stuff adds so much weight; I think the curb weight on my wagon is a little over 3000 pounds.

That said, I had a Legacy for years and traded it in on an Outback. Aside from the mileage, I've had great luck with Subies.

[Cromacster]

Also, the older version doesn't have the lip Croc mentions.

Ack!  I know.  If I had known this before I had purchased my car I would have gone with the touring.  Such a silly design for any hatchback/wagon.

[clarkfan1979]

A better value would probably be the Hyundai Elantra Wagon (2011 - 2013) or the Pontiac Vibe (2007-2009).

[seemsright]

I love my '12. I am sure I could have found a car that was cheaper but I love the thing. It has more clearance than most trucks. And the last time it snowed it was awesome. And the look we got from the guy in the big ford 350 that was stuck as we just went by was priceless. I plan on driving that thing to the ground.

I have had a few issues with it that is annoying like hubby gets to spend about 6 hours fixing the sunroof before spring. The thing goes through light bulbs faster than we can keep up. We are now buying them in bulk. And changing the headlight is annoying.  But over all worth the effort.

[Bearded Man]

I see a lot of recommendations for the Hyundai Elantra Wagon. Any years to avoid? Mileage to look for and price for said mileage? I will look up KBB values of course, but curious as to what years have known issues. Wish I had done that type of research for my Honda Civic. Blown head gasket at 70K miles. Ugh...known issue for that model and year. That was almost 3 years ago though, and while I plan on keeping my Honda a bit longer, especially since it is paid off, I am doing preliminary research to know what I want when the time comes. Although I could just pay cash for a used Wagon and sell this for 4-5K...

[ncornilsen]

I'd avoid Subaru. Between my parents and friends who have had them, I have seen far to high an incidence of engine or transmission work. (Moms: 2 head gaskets, 1 rear diff, 1 tranny rebuild at 115K. Head gaskets @ 90 and 145K).

Their fuel economy is poor, they're heavy, and expensive.

[dannyb]

I love my subaru its a tank in the snow, but you will get bad gas mileage. Maybe a mazda 6 wagon or a mazda 5 would be a better solution, the elantra wagon sounds like a good option too.

[Sean Og]

Thumbs up for Subaru here, truly fell in love with my Outback on an 8hr drive to Denver, 5hr in a blizzard. The most surefooted car I've ever owned, granted I have it on Legacy GT springs and dampers. The amount of stuff I have hauled in it is incredible, a Honda FRC800 rototiller or a 10hp woodchipper are probably the biggest items with the hatch closed but regularly bring lengths of lumber home with the front seat down, I have a hitch but havent seen a need to buy a trailer yet! Do an annual trip from KS to PA each Christmas fully loaded also.

I have a 2005 Outback 2.5 limited with 255k and a 2007 Legacy 2.5 base with 115k seen below outside some cheap motel in Ohio!



I'll admit, as was said the mpg isn't great but its a trade off I knew I was making, and after just moving from europe (crazy gas prices) when I bought the outback it didn't feel bad to me. I have tracked over 22k miles in the outback using Fuelly and it averages 26.8 mpg over mixed driving but mostly highway. The Legacy does almost exclusively city driving and gets about 23.8 mpg around town.

I do all my own maintenance and haven't noted anything out of the ordinary,excluding the HG issue. The Outback I've had the longest with wheel bearings, prop shaft and starter being the only non routine items but even those are routine for the mileage really. Both cars do have the usual HG weep, the Outback has had it for over 100k at this point, not much but enough to warrant a drip tray in its parking spot. Actually when looking for a second one, I searched for ones with that issue and bought at a discount (paid $3500 for the 07 Legacy, still in my queue to fix but going fine)

I purposely bought the straight 2.5 non turbo models for ease of maintenance as they age. I have had quite a few turbo cars (mostly non subaru) when I lived in Ireland I am done with fixing them.

Heres my outback in its natural habitat....(battle scars from an F150 and all!)

[thd7t]

I see a lot of recommendations for the Hyundai Elantra Wagon. Any years to avoid? Mileage to look for and price for said mileage? I will look up KBB values of course, but curious as to what years have known issues. Wish I had done that type of research for my Honda Civic. Blown head gasket at 70K miles. Ugh...known issue for that model and year. That was almost 3 years ago though, and while I plan on keeping my Honda a bit longer, especially since it is paid off, I am doing preliminary research to know what I want when the time comes. Although I could just pay cash for a used Wagon and sell this for 4-5K...

Regarding the Elantra Wagon, you're looking at around 31 MPG EPA rating (you'll probably do better) in the models through 2012.  In 2013, they changed to the GT which is what Cromacster has.  This gets way better mileage, but the storage isn't as good.  It's a tradeoff, but both of these cars are a little uncommon on the used market.

Regarding snow driving, any of these cars will do pretty well if you're willing to put snow tires on.  They make a really big difference (bigger than AWD/4WD).

I totally understand all of the support for Subaru.  I still drive a 1993 Subaru Loyale (2WD). We're still a 2 car family.

[Digital Dogma]

Some outback model years are notorious for head gasket failure FYI, that coupled with additional wear and tear on tires makes owning one long-term a bit pricey compared with regular fwd or rwd hatches. If you put a lot of miles on it, dont get lots of snow where you live, and use it mainly for commuting its probably more than you need. And have you really ever slept in a car? I  thought the same thing about getting a cap for my truck till I stopped to consider all the times Ive slept in my old Jeep Cherokees in the last decade... I never ever have. Not once.

Having said that, my SO has a forester and loves it, my sister has a forester and loves it, various friends have owned outback (with a head gasket failure), legacy, and imprezza and they love it. The newer models have a CVT transmission which seems to yield OK mileage at about 25 to 30mpg in the forester. You could do much worse than buying a subaru, however its not a frugal option unless you have special considerations for traveling in snow frequently.

[Glenstache]

MMM wrote a thread a few months back about how useful AWD actually is. It is worth reading before you buy. I have a number of friends who have winter tires (referring to soft rubber instead of studded tires) and drive FWD cars to the snow with no problems on a regular basis. I have frequent enough need for AWD that I found the mpg tradeoff worth it.

A lot of people love them and they are fine cars. That said, I swapped out an outback for a Rav4 and am much happier now. The Rav4 is better to work on, is happier with lower octane gas (the subies should have 89 or 92 due to the engine design), and just lower maintenance all around.

From what I've seen, Subarus seems to be great until just over maybe 120k or so, at which point they have a number of failures. Mid 2000s had terrible problems with head gaskets and I would recommend against one or be extremely diligent about your mechanical background if you do buy one. One of my happiest car moments was seeing my 2001 outback for the last time, though to be fair it was a bit of a lemon so I am biased against the brand.

If you only tow once a year, look at the cost/benefit of just renting a pickup for the day instead of owning a car with the requisite towing capacity. That decision saves me about $700/year in gas and I paid about $120 for towing needs in 2015/2014. YMMV depending on your towing needs.

Also, almost every modern car is very easy to install an after market hitch on. I installed on on my outback and my Rav4 in 15-30 minutes each and very few tools. That is less time than it would have taken to get to the front desk at a nearby U-haul.

[monkeyman]

If you can go with something smaller i would recommend 5 door subaru impreza. I have a 2010 and love it. Last winter in Boston with a good set of snow tires was great. When cars were spinning around me on the highway I would just have to ease off the gas and engine brake slightly. One thing to note is because subarus are all AWD (except for brz) they don't get good gas mileage. Mine has manual transmission so I'm able to squeeze anywhere between 27 and 29 mpg. If you don't drive in an area with lots of snow and don't need a lot of room I would recommend either toyota corolla or honda fit. 

[Skunkabilly]

Hello!

Just discovered this most excellent site 2 months ago and registered on the forums to chime in on this post.

I have an 06' Outback XT turbo that I adore, with 170k miles, however it is not with its caveats. To address a few of your points:

Where do you live and where do you plan to do your camping? Reason I ask is I just moved up to Washington from California. In California almost all parks and campsites are either paved all the way to the top, even to the trailheads at 9,000 feet, save for sometimes a nicely graded dirt road navigable by 2WD vehicle. However, now that I'm in Washington, even the popular trailheads require a half hour of driving one way on some pretty bumpy dirt roads just to get to.

Advantage of Subaru vs other AWD vehicles: beefier suspension. I had a solid Honda CR-V before, but its suspension was just not up to the task. The beefier suspension however does add to the weight and the Outback is pretty heavy. The Subaru AWD is also pretty smart in that if you get the car up on 3 wheels, the system will transfer the power to the other three wheels on terra firma. Some AWD systems are smarter than others.

However the older Outbacks don't have the best mileage... my '06 gets about 19-23 mpg combined which is SUV territory. The main advantage of the Subaru over the SUV, IMO is the lower center of gravity yet still having high ground clearance. When I switched from my Honda CRV to the Subaru, it made a difference on the really winding, narrow, paved roads of northern California. If you are living out in the desert southwest (AZ, NM, inland southern California) and need to drive through rutted dirt roads after the rain, an SUV will give you better approach angles than the Subaru. If you camp at unestablished sites and need to do an 11 point turn to back out off of a single lane mountain dirt road, the Subaru has better visibility than, say, a pickup with a topper, and will make this task easier.

If you are interested in camping in your car, the Subaru Outback actually sleeps two adults (I'm short, at 5'5", though), whereas a 4Runner might not. The newer Impreza wagons are large enough to sleep in. I think both the newer Outbacks and Imprezas get 30+MPG.

Newer Subarus get much better mileage than the 04-07 era.

[nawhite]

I'm going to add to the Anti-Subaru crowd. I had a '99 Outback that I took up to 200k miles and boy was it a lemon after 120k. Head gasket, all the struts, cams on the alignment adjusters seized so it destroyed tires and never tracked straight, wiper motors, odometer, speedometer, engine cooling fan all failed, more suspension issues, rust, ignition switch, trunk latch, trunk hydraulic arms, exhaust pipe (3 holes over 3 years), all of the heat shields rattled and then fell off/needed to be removed, 2 window motors got flakey, and then finally it blew an engine rod.

I sold it off the tow truck to a recycler for $400 and never looked back. Bought an 06' Pontiac Vibe and I love it. Cost $3000 less than a similar age/mileage outback in my area. Way better gas mileage (33 in the city in winter ~40 in the summer on the highway), back seats fold flat into a very comfortable sleeping area, much cheaper to repair, and just as much usable storage space. I could install a tow hitch and tow up to 1200 pounds if I wanted to but I don't have a need. I keep chains in the trunk and use them when needed here in the mountains of Colorado but I've never missed the AWD (I will admit I do miss the ABS though). And I can tow it behind the RV we're planning to travel the country in soon :-) Can't tow an AWD Subie.

Only problem the Vibe has had is the roof rack connection to the roof is made of plastic and in the sun it eventually gets a little brittle. I had one of the factory rails blow off on the highway with my 13' kayak. The newer Vibes and all Matrixes don't even have roof racks so it's a non-issue.

[Mrs. Healthywealth]

Subaru is good if you need the awd... if you don't, you are overpaying for it. I overpaid and don't regret it though, happy customer... bought used

Agreed.  Love our Subaru b/c of the space, bought it used.  If you keep your cars forever and drive it into the ground, than the sticker price isn't too painful--but it ain't cheap.

[paddedhat]

I can always get a trailer hitch installed by U-Haul for a few hundred bucks, but it would be ideal if the vehicle came with one by default.

There is no excuse for paying U-Haul, or anybody else, several hundred in installation fees and huge mark-up on the actual hitch, to handle this job. If you can successfully pick your nose while walking, you have enough of a skill set to install your own trailer hitch. Step one, log on to etrailer.com and find a hitch. Step two, watch the online tutorial on the site, learn what tools you need, and how to conquer the task. Step three, drag the big UPS box over to the car, grab a wrench and get it done.

The last one I did was for our CR-V. The hitch was $130, with free delivery. It took about 45 minutes to install with basic hand tools.  Not only did I avoid paying $4-500 to have the same thing installed, I know that this one was done right. I only paid to have a hitch installed once, as part of a deal for a new camper. Not only did I waste a few hundred bucks paying list price for the hitch and installation fees, but the knuckle dragger who did the work F'ed it up so bad that I had to remove and reinstall everything after the first camping trip.