A fairly hectic title, sure. But what you need to understand is Subaru are launching the all-new Outback at a testing ground most modern utes are launched at. Drop-offs, slippery hill climbs, scenic views, and a wide variety of conditions make up a 4WD proving ground near Kauri Bay at Boomrock.
If you aren’t aware, I am a bit of a Subaru tragic. So naturally I still get invited along to Subaru launches even though they’re not hardcore four-wheel drives as such. But the rally DNA is prevalent even today. All-wheel drive. Turbocharged boxer engines. A firm, great-handling chassis. My personal performance vehicle is a 2013 WRX STi Spec C and I’ve owned countless Subarus over the years, so I feel right at home behind the wheel of a rumbling boxer.
Although Subaru isn’t the rally-bred brand it once was, they’re truly honing in on the adventure market, with the Outback and Forester at the forefront of that movement. Getting out into nature is the ethos, and the cars are being designed to do that safely, with the capability of a larger SUV and enough on-road grunt to keep the petrolheads happy.
This is the seventh-generation Outback. Completely redesigned, more upright, more SUV than wagon. Standard variants now sit at 220mm of ground clearance, while the new Wilderness stretches that to 240mm — the highest ever offered on an Outback.
I was late to this event, so as I arrived I jumped straight into the Wilderness-spec Outback with another journalist. We were to do a 100-kilometre road drive to see how it performed.
The Wilderness runs Subaru’s 2.4-litre turbocharged boxer engine, producing 194kW and 382Nm. That torque number matters. It arrives from just 2,000rpm and hangs around through the mid-range. Coupled with the Lineartronic CVT and Subaru’s Symmetrical AWD system, it’s an incredibly smooth and effortless combination to haul a family around New Zealand.
What I noticed first was the ride quality. On the gravel road leaving the venue, the taller Wilderness — with its electronically controlled dampers — seemed to soak up bumps, rocks and ruts in a way I haven’t experienced lately in a new vehicle. It felt compliant without being loose.
I did wonder how that would translate onto sealed roads. Would it feel like it wanted to lean excessively?
The answer was no.
Subaru has managed to pair that softer damper tuning with solid roll control. It corners flatter than you’d expect for something sitting 240mm off the deck. Hard cornering is met with predictable body movement rather than drama. Although I’m not a huge CVT fan generally, you cannot fault the smoothness. In automatic mode it simply feeds in torque and gets on with it. Select the paddles and you can hold simulated ratios if you want a bit more involvement.
With the road drive done in the Wilderness, it was time to swap over to the naturally aspirated standard Outback.
I loved the green of this vehicle and I prefer the tail lights on the non-Wilderness model. It’s classier in my opinion and more timeless. Sitting 20mm lower than the Wilderness, the standard Outback is the entry point to new Outback ownership, starting at $54,990 in AWD form.
The non-turbo 2.5-litre boxer produces 137kW and 254Nm. It isn’t as punchy as the turbo model, but it’s smooth and linear. If you want to get somewhere quickly, you just keep it in the rev range. It relies more on RPM than torque, but in modern-vehicle terms it’s perfectly adequate.
Ride quality between the two was remarkably similar. With the lower ride height, the 2.5 felt marginally more stable when pushed hard, but most road-going users aren’t going to explore those limits like we did. At the end of the day, it’s a large AWD wagon designed to get adventure-seeking humans where they need to go safely and comfortably.
X-Mode Time
With the ‘fun’ road section done, we were about to hit the dirt.
Most modern utes are launched at this exact location. Subaru was game enough to bring the Outback knife to a modern ute gunfight. Ranger, MGU9 and others have been launched on these very grounds. I thought they may have found us a slightly toned-down route. Maybe some farm tracks. But no — we were tackling the same drop-offs, climbs and uneven terrain.
The first obstacle was a sharp drop-off. I was convinced I’d drag the rear bumper, but with 240mm under the Wilderness, it just brushed lightly. X-Mode engaged, and the Outback descended with calm brake modulation through the hill descent control.
Making our way up through the paddock, the next obstacle was a leaning clay ramp. To get onto it, traction control needed to mitigate a bit of spin, but once the system sorted torque distribution, it walked up without fuss. Subaru’s Active Torque Split AWD system works quietly in the background, shifting drive front to rear as required.
Next came the significant hill climb. As with most launches here, momentum was key. With road-biased 225/60R18 tyres at around 38psi, it was never going to be a pure traction test. Plenty got stuck here due to hesitation, but everyone made it eventually. Under load, you can hear the traction control doing its thing in both models, managing the 254Nm in the 2.5 and the far stronger 382Nm in the turbo.
The Wilderness, with its dual-mode X-Mode and revised gearing, felt slightly more relaxed in loose terrain.
We finished the day with another steep drop-off, a slippery grass climb, and a scenic stop at the top of the course.
The Wrap
Across the range, towing capacity sits at 2,000kg for the 2.5 and 2,100kg for the turbo Wilderness. Cargo space is a practical 530 litres. Pricing runs from $54,990 through to $74,990 for the Wilderness Apex.
But numbers only tell part of the story.
What impressed me most was how composed the Outback felt in an environment that genuinely challenges vehicles. It isn’t trying to be a dual cab ute. It isn’t pretending to be a rock crawler. What it is, is a genuinely capable, full-time all-wheel-drive SUV engineered specifically for New Zealand conditions.
Safe, powerful in turbo form, refined on road and more capable off it than most owners will ever demand.
Subaru has leaned fully into the adventure identity with this generation, so unleashed might not be such a hectic title after all.
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