(By Tom Lohnes) – Have you ever wanted a Subaru Outback built for off-road use, and being called about the most generic off-roader name of them all? I didn’t either, until I saw the Outback Wilderness.
This is not a normal Outback. Yes, it is on the same chassis and uses the same 2.4-liter turbocharged Flat-4, but it’s CVT is tuned for off-road use, with a final drive ratio that ranges from 4.11:1 to 4.44:1. Suspension is the biggest revision, allowing the lifted Outback to swing more than the street-based models. New bumpers and a 0.8-inch suspension lift give this Outback better departure angles, so you can get through that crazy pothole on the way to adopt another dog.
Put the Wilderness into X-mode, and you’ll find sharpened throttle response, an overboost function that gives the flat-4 an impressive 290 horsepower, and the best implementation of Subaru’s famous Symmetrical AWD to date.
Don’t think of the Outback Wilderness as competition to the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota 4Runner, rather as a great rival to the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk and Ford Bronco Sport. Pricing for the Wilderness hasn’t been released yet, but expect Subaru to keep up the trend of pricing far below competitors.
Looks like it should be a good idea. My father has a Subaru Forester that he uses for hunting trips and other off road use.
I LIKE IT!!!!!
and the tow hooks are where?
please, for the love all things, keep Subaru owners out of the woods…. they’ll only get stuck.
yeah, like Jeep guys never get stuck. Why do they have winches and straps?
sbg despises Jeeps, he has some-type Toyota. Tom, the term “four wheel drive” is evolved to be generally used for something with a 2-speed transfer case, the Subaru would be called AWD, only. As for off-roading, all those pics look to me like they still have roads in them so they’re probably safe places for that car. With that, at-least somebody is still making wagons.
I care far less about the brand then I do manufacturers who don’t put tow hooks on allegedly off-road vehicles.
and last count, I have 4 4x4s, including a JK… but that story… it’s a good one except for missing facts.
I was intrigued until I saw “CVT”.
Tow hooks are removable ones the screw into the chassis behind those yellow covers, and are actually pretty generous and stout.
Having seen how far a well driven Outback can go offroad I think these would do OK, to a point.