Cars such as the Audi A4 Allroad, Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain and Volvo V60 Cross Country owe their existence largely to the first generation Subaru Legacy Outback. The idea came from Subaru of America, which wanted to piggyback on the growing popularity of SUVs in the early 1990s. The Outback – named after the Australian wilderness and promoted with Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan – was marketed as just as capable, but a lot more economical.
Subaru Outback with naturally aspirated four-cylinder
According to Subaru, more than 303,000 Outbacks have been sold in Europe since 1994. But unfortunately, if it is up to the Dutch market, there will probably not be many more. Subaru is sticking to a 2.5-liter four-cylinder boxer engine without turbo or hybrid technology for the new Outback. And that is disastrous for the price (which will be announced later). Because with such an atmospheric power source you cannot escape a relatively hefty BPM fine nowadays.
Outback is allowed to tow a trailer of 2000 kilos
The Subaru Outback 2.5 delivers 185 hp and 239 Nm of torque. It has a CVT automatic transmission and four-wheel drive as standard. In other countries, the Outback is also available with a 2.4-liter turbo engine with 264 hp and 376 Nm, but that version is not coming here. The Outback 2.5 can tow a trailer of up to 2000 kilos and – for better off-road work – has two off-road modes: snow-sand and snow-mud.
