2025 Subaru Outback Review: Luxury Features Without The Premium Price

There aren't a lot of surprises when it comes to Subaru, and especially the Outback. When you drive a Subaru Outback and use one for any amount of time, you get the gist pretty quickly. It's capable, convenient, not at all pretentious, and a solid choice for anyone with children of the human or furred variety. There's a reason why my family has had the same Subaru Outback since 2015. It grows on you a bit.

When the 2025 Subaru Outback Touring XT arrived on my drive, it was more like seeing an old friend, idiosyncrasies and all. After all, it was only last year that I reviewed the 2024 Outback Touring XT, and the 2025 model is much of the same. Indeed, Subaru notes that the biggest changes for the 2025 model year really only pertain to the Limited trim of Outbacks, which get a few more luxurious options like a heated steering wheel.

This review cycle, however, I was able to test more of the Subaru's mettle. I was blessed/cursed with the advent of a lot of snow, which can be a playground for some more adventurous drivers, and a nerve-wracking endeavor for others.

Much like its 2024 iteration, the 2025 Subaru Outback Touring XT is the brand's best interpretation of a luxury car. It has Nappa-leather heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, and a Harmon Kardon sound system. On a realistic level, the very appearance of leather and premium audio would make this a bona-fide luxury car. Compared to brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW however, it's lacking some bells and whistles like a tech-forward infotainment system (more on Subaru's Starlink later), suspension tweaks, and of course, the price tag. But, for all intents and purposes, I think this is a luxury car.

The "XT" denotes the real draw to this particular Subie, and that's a turbocharged 2.5-liter horizontally opposed boxer engine that throws down 260 horsepower, a sizable bump from the base model Outback's 182 horsepower. It's by no means the fastest car I've driven recently, but it's definitely quick for a family-oriented station wagon, and a comparative rocket to base model Subarus.

All that grunt would come in handy when trudging through the aforementioned snow. Without resorting to hyperbole, the Outback was a monster despite winter's best efforts to derail things. It rolled through snow banks and poorly prepared roads like it was nothing, and not once did I feel the weather gain an upper hand. I was driving prudently and giving right of way to snow plows and emergency vehicles, and it still required my head to be on a swivel, but it was a dream to drive in inclement weather.

The Subaru's famed all-wheel drive system did exactly what it was supposed to do when Jack Frost shows up drunken and uninvited. I never felt like I was about to lose control, and it remained just as controllable in single digit temperatures with seven inches of snow still on the pavement as it would when it's 75 and sunny. It doesn't really acknowledge the weather all that much. 

I have no doubts that a base model Outback would perform just as safely as the Touring XT I was in command of, but the extra power under the hood and the presence of some luxury items in the cockpit made the ride a lot more enjoyable and, dare I say as a jaded car reviewer, a lot of fun. No matter how old I get, it's never a dull time whipping a family station wagon around the icy parking lot of what used to be a K-Mart.

On the practical end, the Outback XT is only moderately fuel efficient, netting 25 miles per gallon. Expect that number to drop when you're hammering the throttle and thrashing around. For cargo, you get 75.6 cubic feet of storage with all of the seats folded down, and 32.6 cubic feet when the seats are in place. Base models get 2,700 pounds of towing capacity, and the XT trim gets a boosted to 3,500 pounds. It's worth noting that the adventure-oriented Wilderness model gets the same drivetrain as the XT.

In all, I really liked the Outback Touring XT. The drivetrain is stellar, even with its less than exciting CVT. The interior is comfortable enough, and you already know it's capable of doing just about whatever task you can throw at it, within reason. Nearly all of my complaints, however, can be aimed at the technology that's nestled within the Outback's utilitarian frame. As I noticed with the 2024 model and every other modern Subaru I have driven, the driver assistance technology is extremely zealous.

Never more than 10 minutes would go by without steering wheel vibrating, warning me that I was what felt like a nanometer outside of what it considered the center of the lane. It was almost always telling me to focus on the road, despite my head and eyes being resolutely pointed forward. It was a grave sin, according to the Outback, to turn my head in any direction. To some, that might be a bonus, and I can see it being handy for newer drivers; I found it annoying.

Starlink–not at all related to Elon Musk's satellite internet service–was another source of ire. It's just not all that intuitive, and tasks like pairing your phone or adjusting the climate control take more taps than you would think. Sometimes, it's a total guess whether or not you actually accomplished what you wanted, as it seemingly forgot hard-fought settings. I could not, for example, keep my phone consistently paired.

A lot of those dashboard foibles can be forgiven, when you consider the 2025 Subaru Outback Touring XT's price. It's a bargain compared to other luxury or luxury-adjacent cars. The base price is $42.795 and the only extras my review model had were floor liners for $141. With the $1,420 destination charge, you end up at $44,356. For comparison, the base model Outback starts at an already very reasonable $28,895.

Other cars, like the $50,300 Volvo V60 Cross Country, may be a little more "refined," but if all you want are leather seats and something to capably tackle the snow, I can't think of a better option than the Subaru Outback Touring. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class All Terrain isn't even on the same planet, at $76,100. 

If you're looking to save even a little more money, it might be worth looking for an outgoing 2024 model, as there is no material difference aside from some new car smell and current model year clout. If I were to nitpick, a hybrid drivetrain like the one enjoyed by the Forester would be a huge benefit, but that's really all I can think of when it comes to major changes that the Outback needs. Sure, it's more of the same, but when the "same" is already really good, that's not a bad thing.