the Subaru outback has been redesigned and updated for the 2015 model year
it's got new exterior styling some interior refinements a new drive train
and improved fuel economy but has subaru done enough to appease the faithful
while attracting new buyers so first for 2015 and I think best Subaru has toned
down this body cladding on the outback before just look bigger and kind of a
mismatch this is more streamlined and more integrated think it's a good look
they have also moved the windshield pillar forward about two inches and move
the mirror from where it was mounted here down to the door that helps with
visibility then stepping around to the front they restyled the headlights and
last but not least it has the new larger trapezoidal grille that you've seen on a
lot of other subaru products
the previous outback had kind of a utilitarian field but Subarus dressed it
up for this generation
they've also added larger multimedia screens two different sizes depending on
which trim you get this center console has also been redesigned to accommodate
larger computer tablets in fact that larger theme kind of carries on through
the whole interior the outback there's better leg room and back more shoulder
and hip room and the cargo room is slightly enlarged also subaru has
increased the padding on the center console and on the driver side arm rest
here it really helps out over long drives 4 2015 there's also new leather
which we have here thing is the standard cloth seats are really good they have
nice attention to them and they're very comfortable
so I wouldn't necessarily pick the leather just on comfort or appearances
sake
overall when you look at the interior the subaru it still tends to value
function over form but the improvements do make it a nicer prettier more
comfortable place to be
one thing that carried over from the previous outback are these roof rails as
you can see they swing into place when you need them
and they swing back and still here when you don't that's nice because it cuts
down on wind noise as well as helps with the mileage
what's new is that they redesigned the footwell I'm saying on to be slightly
larger that's really nice if you have larger feet like I do continue around to
the back
another thing that subaru has put on is sort of a pin access on the rear hatch
that's nice because what you can do is lock your keys in the car
don't have to carry them with you don't care anything with you and leave the car
lock the problem is it's only available on the highest trim level and I really
wish they made that standard across more trends as i mentioned the Outbacks cargo
area got slightly larger for 2015 with the seats up like this you've got about
thirty five and a half cubic feet of space
that's about a cubic foot improvement over what it was before when you fold
the rear seats by using these levers which i think should be mandatory on
every car that's out there
you get about 73 . 3 cubic feet of space and that's up about two cubic feet over
what it was before for 2015 you have a choice of engines
there's a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder engine that makes 175 horsepower
that's available across all trims there's also a 3.6 liter 6 cylinder
engine that makes 256 horsepower
that's only on the limited trends what's also new is before you had a choice of
transmission
there was a CVT conventional automatic and manual transmission
those are all gone now you only get the CVT
when it comes to driving the outback that CVT is a good transmission it
provides quick response and overall it was a fan of it
the other thing you'll notice is that they've gone to link it to cut down the
road and the wind noise in the outback
there is still a fair amount of engine grown with the smaller four-cylinder
engine but the larger 600 and goes a long way to cutting down on that and I
mentioned the outback gets better mileage for 2015
the four-cylinder models get 28 miles per gallon combined the six-cylinder
models get 22 miles per gallon combined
that's an improvement of about two miles per gallon over the previous versions of
the outback
so has Subaru done enough with this 2015 redesign yeah they've improved the
interior quality in the overall refinement and I think it looks better
but I'm not sure they've taken that last step that separates the best from the
very good i think that this car can compete with the best from Volkswagen
and Audi and volvo but i'm not sure it could actually draw them in and get
somebody to leave one of those cars for this Subaru owners though they may not
care
they may just be happy with the improvements to the comfort and the
utility on what was already a very good car but if Subaru as a company wants to
grow
it's a focus on that last little bit of refinement that's going to make the
difference