2024 Subaru Outback

The volume 2024 Outback Premium uses the naturally aspirated 2.5L FB25 BOXER four rated at 182 hp; the 2.4L turbo on Onyx Edition XT, Limited XT, Touring XT and Wilderness makes 260 hp. 2024 is a carry-over year within the sixth generation (2020– ), one year after the 2023 facelift, with no powertrain change.

The volume 2.5L makes 176 lb-ft and makes it high in the rev range at 4,400 rpm, which is why a loaded Outback feels lethargic on grades and needs revs rather than a squeeze of the pedal; the turbo's 277 lb-ft from 2,000 rpm changes the car's character entirely.

Edmunds instrumented a 2024 Outback with the base 2.5L at 8.8 seconds to 60 mph, consistent with the 8.5–8.8 s band this unchanged powertrain has posted since 2020 in a ~3,650 lb permanently all-wheel-drive wagon. The turbo XT cuts roughly two and a half seconds off that.

Around town and at light throttle the 2.5L boxer is quiet and unobtrusive, but with peak torque at 4,400 rpm any real demand sends the CVT to high revs, and reviewers of the 2024 car consistently describe both engines as transmitting vibration and the base unit as strained and loud under load. Merging and grade-climbing require planning.

Subaru's Lineartronic CVT with an 8-speed manual mode and paddles is among the better-calibrated units of its kind — decisive and unfussy in ordinary driving — but sudden throttle still produces the rubber-band sensation and the simulated ratios do not disguise the drone under hard acceleration.

Symmetrical full-time all-wheel drive is standard on all nine 2024 Outback trims with no front-drive version sold anywhere in the range, paired with 8.7 in of ground clearance (9.5 in on Wilderness), standard X-MODE with Hill Descent Control, and the dual-function X-MODE calibration on Onyx Edition, Onyx Edition XT and Wilderness. Only the absence of a true low range keeps it below the top of the band.

Two genuinely distinct gasoline engines — the 182-hp 2.5L NA and the 260-hp 2.4L turbo — span economy to real thrust across nine trims, but there is no hybrid, plug-in or electric Outback for 2024, leaving it behind wagon and crossover rivals that all offer at least one electrified option.

The volume 2.5L AWD Outback is EPA-rated 28 MPG combined for 2024, a strong figure for a vehicle with permanent all-wheel drive and no electrification; the 2.4L turbo trims give up 3 MPG and the taller, knobbier-tired Wilderness 5 MPG.

26 MPG city is competitive for a non-hybrid all-wheel-drive wagon, but the city cycle is where the absence of any electrified assist costs the Outback most — there is no regenerative braking or engine-off creep to recover stop-and-go losses.

32 MPG highway is the Outback's best cycle and the foundation of its long-haul range, helped by the wagon body's lower frontal area than an equivalently sized SUV; the lifted Wilderness drops to 26 MPG.

An 18.5-gallon tank against the 28 MPG combined rating yields an EPA total range of 518 miles, well above the wagon midpoint and a genuine road-trip strength; steady highway running stretches toward 590 miles.

EPA's standard 15,000-mile assumption puts the volume 2.5L Outback at $2,200 a year on regular fuel — mid-pack in absolute terms, with the cost of standard AWD and no electrification visible against hybrid wagons and crossovers that run several hundred dollars less.

Every 2024 Outback engine, the 260-hp 2.4L turbo and the Wilderness included, runs on regular 87-octane unleaded, so there is no premium surcharge anywhere in the nine-trim range and no plug, adapter or charging arrangement to manage.

The 2024 Outback carries NHTSA's top 5-star overall rating, with 5 stars in both the frontal and side crash programs and 4 stars in rollover — the standard result for this sixth-generation (2020-2025) wagon.

The 2024 Outback is a 2024 IIHS Top Safety Pick — its 16th consecutive year of recognition — earned under criteria IIHS deliberately tightened that year (Good required in the updated side test, and Acceptable or better in the revised pedestrian evaluation). It is held out of the top band by the one blemish on its record: the updated moderate overlap front test, which adds a rear-seat dummy, returns Marginal, and that shortfall is what would cost the car its award the following year. Scored above the 2025 car, which lost the award outright, and below the peers that carry a clean sheet.

EyeSight is standard on every 2024 trim including Base, and it is complete on the forward-facing side — pre-collision braking and throttle management, full-speed adaptive cruise with stop-and-go, lane keep assist with lane centering, and lane departure/sway warning. The gap is behind the driver: Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert is unavailable on Base, a $1,400 option package on the volume Premium, and standard only from Onyx Edition up; Automatic Emergency Steering is bundled with it and inherits the same trim walk. A Premium as typically ordered can leave the lot with no blind-spot coverage at all.

EyeSight's stereo-camera AEB earns Good — the top grade — in IIHS's revised pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation, the harder single test that for 2024 folded the old daytime and nighttime programs together and runs the adult-dummy crossing scenarios in the dark. Nighttime pedestrian detection is where most camera-based systems give ground and this one does not. Held short of the top band only because IIHS published no updated vehicle-to-vehicle result for the car — the original low-speed V2V test, which EyeSight passed as Superior, was retired at the end of 2022.

Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert works well as a warning system with mirror-mounted indicators and audible alerts, and Reverse Automatic Braking adds an actual intervention behind the car on Onyx Edition, Limited and above. But lane-change coverage is alert-only with no steering intervention, it is unavailable at any price on Base, and it is a paid option on the volume Premium — coverage most rivals make standard at this price.

Lane departure and sway warning plus lane keep assist are standard on every trim, and EyeSight adds lane centering whenever adaptive cruise is engaged — helped on this generation by the wide-angle mono camera added alongside the stereo pair. Owner and reviewer assessments of centering quality stay genuinely split, though: some report confident tracking through highway curves, others wander on faded markings and ready disengagement, which puts it in the functional-but-not-trusted middle band rather than with the best systems.

Full-speed-range adaptive cruise with traffic stop-and-go is standard on every trim including the $28,895 Base — no trim walk to reach it — and EyeSight's distance keeping and resume behavior are consistently rated among the more polished non-luxury implementations. It falls short of the top band because what it combines with is a hands-on lane centering function rather than an integrated highway-driving mode.

Subaru offers no hands-free highway driving system on any 2024 Outback trim. EyeSight is hands-on throughout, and the DriverFocus camera — Touring and Touring XT only for 2024 — monitors for distraction and drowsiness rather than granting hands-off permission.

IIHS rates the 2024 Outback's headlights Good, and the LED projector units are steering-responsive with High Beam Assist as standard equipment on every trim from Base up — no trim-dependent downgrade, which is the usual way a car loses points here, and it satisfied the 2024 TSP requirement that good-or-acceptable headlights be fitted to all trims. Short of the very top only for lacking a matrix/adaptive-driving-beam system.

The wagon body is a real advantage here — a low beltline, tall side glass, a large upright rear window and relatively slim pillars give sightlines most crossovers of this size cannot match, with a high driving position and no tapered greenhouse to spoil the rear-quarter view. A rear-vision camera with adaptive guidelines is standard, but camera compensation is thin: the 180-degree Front View Monitor and the LCD smart rear-view mirror are Touring-only for 2024, and no true 360-degree surround view is offered at any price.

IIHS rates the Outback's LATCH ease of use Good with extra positions — its top grade, awarded for usable anchor positions beyond the two required outboard sets. Wide rear door openings, a flat floor and a low load height make rear-facing installs straightforward, and the wagon's rear bench has the width to take multiple seats without a fight.

Every 2024 Outback trim from the $28,895 Base to the $42,795 Touring XT seats five in a two-row layout with a 60/40-split folding rear bench; no captain's-chair or third-row configuration is offered. 2024 is a carry-over year within the sixth generation launched for 2020 and refreshed for 2023.

40.1 inches of front headroom is generous even by SUV standards and the best figure among wagons scored so far — the Outback's tall, upright greenhouse is the whole point of the body style. The power moonroof, newly standard on the Onyx Edition for 2024, costs a full inch.

42.8 inches of front legroom on a 108.1-inch wheelbase is a solid mid-pack figure for the class — enough that tall drivers do not run out of seat travel, without the limousine-like front stretch of the largest crossovers.

39.1 inches in the second row sits at the top of the wagon band and beats most two-row crossovers — the roofline runs flat to the tailgate instead of tapering, so back-seat passengers sit upright with real space above their heads.

39.5 inches of rear legroom seats two adults behind two adults without negotiation and leaves room for rear-facing child seats — well clear of the segment midpoint and several inches better than the compact luxury wagons the Outback is cross-shopped against.

32.6 cubic feet behind the rear seat is an enormous figure for a wagon — more than most mid-size two-row SUVs offer — opening to 75.6 cubic feet with the seat folded. This is the single strongest number on the 2024 Outback's scorecard and the reason the body style still sells.

Storage is a deliberate strength rather than an afterthought: a deep covered console bin, bottle-capable door pockets, an underfloor cargo well beneath the load floor, a dual-position cargo cover, and integrated roof rails whose crossbars swing out of the rails themselves rather than needing to be carried separately. What holds it below the top band is the absence of any onboard AC power outlet and any innovation beyond well-executed conventional storage — even the wireless charging pad is a dealer accessory on the 2024 car rather than factory equipment.

Front seats are wide, high-mounted and comfortable over distance, with a 10-way power driver's seat from the volume Premium trim up, and the flat rear bench is genuinely usable for three across. Support is trim-dependent in a way owners call out — reviews of the 2024 car split between praise for long-haul comfort and complaints that the lower-trim cushions are firm and under-bolstered.

Long suspension travel and 8.7 inches of ride height give the 2024 Outback a genuinely absorbent ride that rounds off broken pavement better than the crossovers it competes with, and Consumer Reports rates it above some luxury SUVs on this measure. Body control stays composed enough that it never feels floaty, though the tall body leans more in corners than a conventional wagon.

Wind and road noise are well contained for the class at a steady highway cruise, helped by the acoustic windshield and thicker glass this generation introduced. The deduction is the powertrain: the 182-hp 2.5L in the volume trim is repeatedly described as loud and coarse under load, and the CVT's habit of holding revs on a grade turns a brief acceleration into a sustained drone.

Cold-weather equipment starts early and is a genuine Subaru strength: dual-zone automatic climate control and heated front seats are standard from the volume Premium trim, heated rear outboard seats from Limited, and remote engine start comes through the MySubaru app. It sits below the top band because for 2024 the 360-degree heated steering wheel reaches only the Onyx Edition, Onyx Edition XT, Wilderness and Touring trims — the Limited, the trim most families step up to, does not get one until 2025 — and ventilated front seats remain exclusive to the Touring pair.

Subaru's published 2024 pricing opens the Outback at $28,895 plus $1,295 destination, and that entry price already carries Symmetrical AWD and the full EyeSight suite — content most rivals either charge for or gate behind a trim walk. It sits in the lower third of the wagon pricing band and about $1,200 below what the same car cost a model year later.

Premium is the Outback's long-standing volume trim, adding the 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, the All-Weather Package, dual-zone climate and a leather-wrapped wheel for about $2,300 over the base car. At $32,490 delivered it undercuts effectively every AWD wagon and most comparably equipped compact crossovers.

Mechanically this is conventional, well-understood hardware — a naturally aspirated boxer four and a Lineartronic CVT on ordinary service intervals — but standard all-wheel drive means four matched tires and a driveline the front-drive wagons don't carry, and Subaru includes no free scheduled maintenance to offset the early years. Published estimates disagree by nearly a factor of two, so this is a blended figure toward the middle of the spread.

Retention is one of the Outback's genuine strengths — Subaru sits at or near the top of mainstream brand loyalty studies and used Outbacks trade on demand that does not depend on incentives. Unlike the 2025 car, the 2024 is not the run-out year of its generation: the seventh-generation redesign was still more than a year from being revealed when 2024 stock was selling, so it carries none of the changeover drag the following model year does.

Subaru's standard 3-year/36,000-mile basic coverage, unchanged for 2024 and sitting at the floor of the segment band. Hyundai, Kia and Genesis all beat it on the basic term and nothing about the Outback's positioning earns it anything back here.

The standard 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain term is the bottom of the band and half the mileage Hyundai and Kia offer. The one genuinely above-average line is corrosion coverage — 5 years with no mileage cap — which matters for a car sold heavily into salt-belt states, but it is not what this item measures.

There is no included scheduled maintenance — every oil change and service interval is out of pocket from day one, unlike Toyota's 2-year ToyotaCare or the multi-year programs at BMW and Volvo. What the buyer does get is 3 years of roadside assistance running with the basic warranty, a 3-year STARLINK Safety Plus trial (automatic collision notification, SOS emergency assistance, enhanced roadside, diagnostic alerts), a 6-month Security Plus trial and a 4-month SiriusXM Platinum trial. That is basic roadside plus connected-services trials and nothing more, which puts it just under the mid band.

$32,490 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (57% retained, or about $18,519) leaves about $13,971 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,400 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $18,371 in total.

2024 is the fifth year of the 2020-generation Outback and both forecasters put it above the fleet without putting it near the top: Consumer Reports calls it "more reliable than other cars from the same model year," while J.D. Power scores it 80/100 for Quality & Reliability — the very top of JDP's "Average" band (81+ is "Great"). The trouble spots CR lists are broader than the following year's — in-car electronics (CarPlay/Android Auto dropouts, screen freezing or going blank), climate system, noises and leaks, and early battery failures — which is notable because 2024 is the year the 11.6-inch Starlink screen became standard on every trim including the base car, spreading the generation's weakest component across the whole lineup.

The 2024 model year is Subaru's high-water mark in the brand studies: Consumer Reports' 2024 Annual Auto Reliability Survey ranked Subaru the single most reliable brand for the first time ever, ahead of Lexus and Toyota, and J.D. Power's 2024 Initial Quality Study put it 12th of 31 at 183 PP100 against a 195 industry average. The counterweight is long-term dependability — the 2024 Vehicle Dependability Study, surveying three-year-old 2021 cars, had Subaru at 198 PP100 against a 190 average, below par. Strong on how the cars leave the lot and on member-reported reliability, still trailing on how they hold up at three years.

NHTSA lists zero recall campaigns against the 2024 Outback and only two owner complaints in total — an exceptionally clean sheet for a car now more than two years into service, and the endpoint of a steady decline across the generation (six campaigns touch 2020 cars, four each for 2021 and 2022, two for 2023, none for 2024). That is the normal signature of a debugged design. The blemish is bulletin territory rather than recall: Starlink head units that freeze, blank out or delaminate are the subject of an ongoing class action covering this generation, and 2024 is the year that head unit became standard equipment on every trim.

The volume Premium trim's FB25 2.5L naturally aspirated boxer is a long-running, high-mileage-proven engine and the FA24 turbo in the XT trims has run trouble-free across Outback, Ascent and WRX duty since 2019, so the engines are not the concern. The Lineartronic CVT is — it has matured a long way since the warranty extensions on 2010–2015 cars, but a chain-drive CVT paired to full-time AWD in a ~3,600 lb wagon remains the component reliability trackers and owners flag for long-term risk, and the FB family still carries a legacy oil-consumption reputation from earlier variants. Neither shows up in the 2024 car's recall record.

For a wagon whose volume Premium trim lands in the low-$30Ks the cabin is honestly finished: reviewers describe abundant soft-touch plastics, switchgear with a quality feel, and stitched simulated leather on the dash, doors and console even on the base car, with StarTex water-repellent upholstery on Onyx/Wilderness and Nappa leather further up. 2024 lifts perceived quality a step by making the 11.6-inch vertical touchscreen standard on every trim (the base car previously got a 7-inch unit) and upgrading base dome and cargo lights to LED. It still reads durable rather than rich — the design is plain and the Legacy-shared layout dated — which is what keeps it out of the class-leading band.

A fifth-year car built on a settled line at Subaru Indiana Automotive assembles well: reviewers rate the Outback well-built with consistent panel fit, and Subaru's 2024 initial-quality result sat comfortably above the industry average at 183 PP100 (12th of 31). The complaints that do surface are scattered rather than systemic — CR owners report headliner and dashboard rattles and door-seal water intrusion, and road and wind noise remains the recurring press criticism — which is enough to keep this out of the top band but well clear of a quality problem.

Service satisfaction is Subaru's strongest suit and the 2024-vintage studies show it: the brand tied for second among mass-market SUV/minivan makes in J.D. Power's 2024 Customer Service Index at 877 (Buick 887 highest), topped the 2024 American Customer Satisfaction Index automobile study, and JDP scores the 2024 Outback itself 91/100 — "Best" — for Dealership Experience. The roughly 640-retailer network is dense in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Mountain West and Colorado where the Outback actually sells, and thinner across the Deep South and rural Texas, which is what holds this short of the top of the band.

Outback volume means OEM and aftermarket parts are stocked everywhere and repair frequency is low — RepairPal records an average of 0.3 unscheduled shop visits per year with a 13% chance a given repair is severe, both at or better than segment norms. Running costs are a shade above average rather than cheap: standard symmetrical AWD, a boxer layout that makes some routine jobs (spark plugs, head gaskets) more labor-intensive than an inline-four, and CVT service push the annual figure past the midsize-crossover average, though nowhere near European-wagon territory. J.D. Power separately scores the 2024 car 85/100 for resale, which softens the total cost picture.

The volume Premium trim carries the 11.6-inch portrait STARLINK Multimedia Plus screen, standard on every 2024 trim except the entry Base car, which keeps the older dual 7.0-inch setup. 11.6 inches is the maximum offered for 2024 and stays so through the end of the generation.

This is the 2024 Outback's clearest weakness and the criticism is close to unanimous: the STARLINK software is slow to wake and slow to respond, the screen glares badly, and almost all climate control — including the heated-seat switches — lives in a strip at the very bottom of an 11.6-inch portrait display that a driver must look down and reach for. Physical volume and tuning knobs plus two temperature buttons flanking the screen are the only things keeping it out of the bottom of the band.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are the headline technology change for 2024 — new this model year and standard on eight of the nine trims, everything from the volume Premium upward, so essentially every Outback a buyer walks out with has it. Only the entry Base car is limited to a wired connection through its dual 7.0-inch system, which is what holds this just short of the top of the band.

For 2024 built-in TomTom navigation is reserved for the Touring trims — the Touring is the first trim to include integrated navigation with STARLINK, and it does not become standard on the Limited until 2025 — so the volume Premium buyer has no native maps at all and defaults to phone projection. The native voice assistant handles fixed commands for audio, phone and climate rather than natural language, and the connected-services Concierge functions sit behind a subscription.

The available Harman Kardon system is a real upgrade — twelve speakers driven by a 576-watt amplifier — and it reaches down to the Onyx Edition rather than being locked to the most expensive trim. The base six-speaker system in the volume Premium is unremarkable but clean, which puts this solidly in the middle band rather than at the top.

No 2024 Outback trim offers a digital gauge cluster. Every car in the range, up to the $42,795 Touring XT, uses analog speedometer and tachometer dials with a small colour LCD trip display between them, supplemented by a separate multi-function display on the dash top. The full-digital cluster arrives only with the 2026 redesign.

The 2024 Outback does receive over-the-air updates, but only for the STARLINK multimedia head unit and navigation maps — infotainment software and nothing else. The update is pulled over the owner's home Wi-Fi rather than the car's own cellular modem, making it a deliberate manual errand, and none of it reaches vehicle systems the way a whole-vehicle OTA architecture would.

The MySubaru app covers the expected ground — remote engine start, remote lock/unlock, vehicle locate, diagnostic alerts, automatic collision notification and SOS — and the three-year trial means most 2024 buyers never pay during their first ownership cycle. It sits mid-band rather than higher because remote start lives on the paid Security Plus tier costing about $100 a year once the trial expires, and there is no digital-key or phone-as-key capability at all.

Both rows get modern power on the volume trim — the front console carries USB-A and USB-C plus a 3.5 mm aux input, and the rear of the console adds USB-A and USB-C charge ports — which is adequate provision for a mainstream wagon. It lands below the 2025 car because no 2024 Outback trim offers a factory wireless charging pad (Subaru sells one only as a dealer-installed accessory), there is no household AC outlet anywhere in the vehicle, and the Base trim drops the USB-C ports entirely.

Keyless Access with Push-Button Start is not standard on the trim most people buy — on the 2024 Premium it is bundled into an option package alongside the hands-free power rear gate, and the Base car uses a conventional key with a twist ignition. From Onyx Edition upward it is standard and the package is complete, and app-based remote start covers the rest, but a volume Outback can and often does leave the lot without proximity entry.

A rear-vision camera with a washer nozzle is standard on every 2024 trim — the washer is a genuinely useful touch on a car meant for dirt roads — and Reverse Automatic Braking becomes standard on the Onyx Edition for 2024, with a 180-degree Front View Monitor on the Touring trims. But no 2024 Outback can be had with a 360-degree surround-view system at any price, and there is no automated parking of any kind.

No head-up display is offered on any 2024 Outback trim, at any price, in any option package. Subaru introduced one on the Outback only with the 2026 redesign.

The Outback is close to a benchmark for the daily mechanics of family life: IIHS rates its LATCH hardware Good with extra positions — the top grade — and the wide, nearly square rear door openings, flat floor and low seat height make buckling a toddler a step rather than a climb. Behind the seat, 32.6 cubic feet swallows a full-size stroller without folding anything down. The low, flat load lip is what a crossover of the same footprint cannot match.

For 2024 the credentials are as strong as this generation gets: NHTSA 5 stars overall, an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK award under the tougher 2024 criteria — the Outback's sixteenth consecutive year — and EyeSight's full pre-collision braking, adaptive cruise and lane centering standard on every trim including the $28,895 Base. Two gaps keep it out of the top band: the updated moderate overlap front test rates only Marginal, so the award is TSP rather than TSP+, and blind-spot detection with rear cross-traffic alert is merely an option package on the volume Premium and unavailable on the Base.

The combination that matters on a long family drive is here: an absorbent ride, 39.1 inches of rear headroom and 39.5 of legroom, rear seat air vents, rear USB-A and USB-C ports, heated rear outboard seats from Limited up, and 32.6 cubic feet of luggage space that does not require folding a seat a child is sitting in. What it lacks is any rear-seat entertainment provision or rear amenities beyond the basics, and the 2.5L's noise under load intrudes on a loaded car climbing a grade.

Around town the 2024 Outback is easy company — the CVT is smooth and creep-free in stop-and-go, controls are light, the driving position is high and outward visibility is genuinely excellent for a modern car. Two things nag daily rather than occasionally: burying the climate and heated-seat controls in a laggy touchscreen makes a routine adjustment a multi-step reach, and owners report EyeSight braking hard for roadside objects that are not obstacles.

28 MPG combined from a permanently all-wheel-drive wagon on regular 87-octane is a good result in absolute terms — about $2,200 a year at EPA's 15,000-mile assumption — and there is no premium-fuel surcharge on any trim, including the turbo XT and Wilderness. It cannot reach the top band because no hybrid Outback was offered for 2024 while several rivals in and around the segment are electrified, and Subaru includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance, so every service interval is out of pocket from day one.

At 191.1 inches long and 74.2 wide the Outback is a mid-size footprint, but a 36.1-foot curb-to-curb turning circle is tidy for that length and the wagon greenhouse — low beltline, tall side glass, big upright rear window — gives better all-round sightlines than nearly any crossover of the same size. The offsets are a slow steering rack that needs more wheel-twirling than expected in a parking structure, and the absence of any 360-degree camera to help place the corners on a 2024 car.

This is a wagon, and the ceiling shows: the volume 2.5L tows 2,700 pounds — enough for a small utility trailer, a pair of jet skis or a teardrop camper, and no more — while the turbo XT and Wilderness trims reach 3,500. There is no bed, no meaningful payload headroom, and the 182-hp engine works audibly hard with any load behind it. It scores a little above the luxury wagons in the segment purely because 2,700–3,500 lbs and 75.6 cubic feet of flat cargo floor do constitute light work capability.

The hardware underneath is proven and unglamorous — the FB25 boxer has been in continuous US production since 2011 and the Lineartronic CVT has years of service in this platform — and Outbacks are common in park-service, utility and rural-agency fleets precisely because they survive gravel roads and winters. Body cladding and available all-weather rubber flooring take abuse. It is held to the middle band because the interior is trimmed for private buyers rather than for hosing out, and a CVT is not the transmission of choice for sustained hard duty.

The roof is the useful part: integrated rails whose crossbars swing out of the rails themselves, rated to 176 pounds dynamic on standard trims and 700 pounds static on the Wilderness, plus one of the deepest accessory and third-party rack ecosystems of any vehicle sold. Cargo tie-down hooks, a 12V outlet in the load area and a factory hitch are all available. It stays mid-band because there is no onboard AC power, no bed or bulkhead, and nothing designed to be upfitted in a commercial sense.

As a mile-eater the 2024 Outback is genuinely strong: an 18.5-gallon tank against 32 MPG highway gives roughly 518 miles of EPA range between stops, the ride is soft-edged over interstate expansion joints, the seats hold up for multi-hour stints, and EyeSight's full-speed adaptive cruise with stop-and-go and lane centering is standard on every trim rather than a trim-walk away. What keeps it out of the top band is powertrain noise — the 2.5L drones on long grades — and lane centering that is a hands-on system reviewers describe as inconsistent on faded markings.

This is what the Outback is for, and it is the best score on the card. Symmetrical full-time all-wheel drive is standard on every trim with no front-drive version sold, ground clearance is 8.7 inches — more than most compact SUVs — rising to 9.5 on the Wilderness, which gets a new front fascia for 2024; X-MODE is standard with a dual-function version including Hill Descent Control on the Onyx and Wilderness trims, and the roof rails and available hitch carry the toys. Only the absence of a low range and locking differentials keeps it from the very top.

32.6 cubic feet behind the second row opening to 75.6 with the 60/40 seat down, over a flat floor with a low load lip and an underfloor storage well, is exceptional gear capacity — more behind the seats than many two-row SUVs offer, and reachable without lifting anything to shoulder height. Add standard integrated roof rails with swing-out crossbars, a dual-position cargo cover and an available hitch and there is very little a family's outdoor kit cannot be made to fit.

The 2024 Outback is secure and predictable rather than agile: the low-mounted boxer engine keeps the center of gravity down for a vehicle with 8.7 inches of clearance, and Consumer Reports came away calling the handling responsive and secure. But the soft, long-travel suspension that makes it ride well also lets it lean noticeably in corners, and it does not feel as planted through quick direction changes as the lower wagons it competes with.

The electric rack is accurately weighted off-center and tracks straight on the highway without correction, but it is geared slowly and tells the driver almost nothing about the front tires. Consumer Reports notes it needs more wheel movement than expected both on the road and in a parking lot, and rates it a step below the mechanically related Legacy for crispness.

Stopping performance and pedal feel are unremarkable in the good sense — progressive, consistent and adequate to the car's modest performance, with no fade complaints in normal use and a strong showing in emergency-maneuver testing. The reservation is not the brake hardware but EyeSight's calibration: 2024 owners report the automatic emergency braking intervening hard for roadside objects that are not obstacles, which undermines confidence in the pedal the driver did not press.

At light throttle the 2.5L and Lineartronic CVT are genuinely smooth — no shift shock, no creep drama in traffic, and one of the better-calibrated CVTs on sale. Ask for anything more and the calibration shows its limits: peak torque does not arrive until 4,400 rpm, so the transmission flares the revs ahead of road speed and the simulated ratios feel invented rather than mechanical.

The boxer four is quiet enough at a cruise, but the combination of a high torque peak and a CVT means any real demand — merging, passing, a long grade — parks the engine at high revs and holds it there, producing a sustained drone rather than a brief flare. Reviewers of the 2024 car explicitly contrast this with the 2.4L turbo, which does the same work more quietly.

36.1 feet curb-to-curb is a tidy figure for a 191.1-inch vehicle and better than both wagon rivals scored so far, making U-turns and parking-garage ramps less of an event than the Outback's footprint suggests. The slow steering ratio means more wheel-winding to use it.

The driving position is one of the Outback's quiet strengths: a high, commanding hip point without the climb of a truck-based SUV, a 10-way power driver's seat with lumbar from the volume Premium up, a telescoping wheel with good range, and outward visibility — low beltline, tall side glass, big upright rear window — that most modern vehicles cannot approach. The deduction is entirely the control layout, with climate and heated-seat functions pushed into the bottom strip of a portrait touchscreen that requires looking away from the road.

Nobody buys an Outback for the drive, and the volume 2.5L does nothing to change that: 8.8 seconds to 60 mph, a CVT that mutes what character the boxer has, slow steering and a suspension tuned for comfort and gravel. It is competent, unflappable and completely uninvolving — the turbo XT trims add real pace but not real engagement.

Every 2024 Outback, including the $30,190 base car, comes with Symmetrical all-wheel drive, the full EyeSight suite (pre-collision braking, advanced adaptive cruise with lane centering) and LED headlights — content most rivals charge for or gate behind a trim walk. The base trim is genuinely spare elsewhere, though: dual 7.0-inch screens rather than the 11.6-inch unit, cloth seats, no heated seats, and blind-spot detection unavailable at the bottom of the range. 2024 pushed a little more content down the ladder (heated steering wheel standard on Onyx, Onyx XT and Wilderness; power moonroof and reverse automatic braking standard on Onyx), but the generosity is still concentrated in AWD and safety.

A $32,490 Premium delivers standard AWD, a large touchscreen, the All-Weather Package, a top-tier standard driver-assist suite, wagon cargo space and real 8.7-inch ground clearance — a combination that costs several thousand more from almost any rival and roughly $12,000 less than a Crown Signia. What holds it short of the standout band is that the value case thins as you climb: XT and Wilderness trims run past $41,000, where better-resolved infotainment and more modern interiors are available elsewhere, and reviewers were pointed about the screen and driver-aid tuning being what you accept for the price.

Nine published trims spanning $30,190 to $44,090 with two engines — the 182-hp 2.5-liter and the 260-hp 2.4-liter turbo XT — plus a genuinely differentiated off-road variant in the Wilderness (given its own new front fascia for 2024) and a blacked-out Onyx in both naturally aspirated and turbo form. The ladder is well spaced with no large gaps: a buyer can enter cheap, step up to turbo power, or step sideways into extra ground clearance. Short of the very top only because there is one body and one drivetrain layout — no FWD, no hybrid, no long/short variant.

The Outback is the best-selling wagon-bodied vehicle in the United States by an order of magnitude, and calendar 2024 was a growth year rather than a plateau: 168,771 deliveries, up about 4% year over year, inside a Subaru of America year that finished up 5.6% overall. Nothing else with this body style is within a factor of five.

Subaru's image — all-wheel drive, safety, outdoors, dogs — is unusually coherent and converts into some of the highest brand loyalty and owner-satisfaction scores of any mainstream marque, and the Outback is the nameplate that image is built on. It stops short of the top band because the pull is affection and trust rather than aspiration: there is no premium halo, and the badge does not command a price premium the way Volvo's does.

This is the weak spot of the 2024 car for a buyer: Subaru was running one of the industry's leanest incentive programs that year, with fast-turning inventory and no need to buy sales, and the finance rates offered on the 2024 Outback at launch were essentially market rates rather than subvented ones — 4.9% for 48 months, 5.9% for 63 and 6.9% for 72. A promotional lease existed and the lineup-wide $500 medical-professional and PreK-12 teacher rebates applied, so it is not a no-deals car, but there was nothing like the 0% money Subaru put on the run-out 2025.

Squarely mid-cycle. 2024 is the fifth model year of the sixth generation, which launched for 2020, but the facelift is only one year back — the 2023 refresh brought the revised front end and widened standard EyeSight content — and 2024 added its own visual change in the redesigned Wilderness fascia. Redesign risk was still abstract for a 2024 buyer: the seventh-generation Outback was not revealed until the New York show in April 2025 and did not reach dealers until that November.

Consistently recommended and, unlike the 2025 car, still holding its safety hardware: the 2024 Outback took Car and Driver's Editors' Choice as best station wagon for the sixth straight year and earned a 2024 IIHS Top Safety Pick under the institute's tougher criteria — its 16th consecutive award — though not the TOP SAFETY PICK+ that the Ascent and Solterra managed. Held out of the top band because it is a category winner in a category of two or three rather than a comparison-test winner against the crossovers it actually competes with, and reviewers were already consistent about the dated touchscreen and driver-aid tuning.