Used 2015 Subaru Outback Consumer Reviews
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So Good We Bought 2
Joe P, 07/28/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium PZEV 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
21 of 23 people found this review helpful
Had a 2013 Outback that was loved by all and performed well. It had a stiff ride though, handling was just OK and the interior was so so. The 2015 is a night and day improvement...... to the point we went back and bought a 2nd. Ride quality is supreme and the power-train is quiet and smooth. The 2.5 engine has plenty of pep for most uses and the CVT is really well tuned for around town and highway use. MPG is as advertised. Handling is surprisingly agile. The height of vehicle will always limit its sportiness but I am shocked out much I can hustle the car through back roads. Steering in precise and road grip is abundant. Back road gravel/dirt roads are handled like a champ and X mode helps when going down steep muddy declines. The car will control braking and throttle so you only need to steer. No experience with snow yet. The 2013 performed well but the tires that come with the outback are crappy for winter use. I would suggest upgraded all seasons or dedicated winter tires/rims. The interior is plush and well fitted with solid materials front to back. The tan interior now comes with black door sills and door trim which hides all the dirt. Love the auto/auto front driver/passenger windows but i wish they would just make all 4 of them auto. The cloth is grippy and well made unlike the last gen cloth. Cargo storage under the hatch floor has been decreased which is sort of a bummer but there is now more room in the rest of the car. Get the accessory cargo nets as they are a real help.The power lift gate is super handy but i wish you could operate it manually. The premium trim stereo is no show stopper but when the EQ settings are tuned correctly it pumps out pretty decent sound for all genres. Hopefully they bundle the harmon kardon unit into one of the premium trim option packages down the road.The roof rack now has tie down hooks which are great for gear and im really liking the steps that are integrated into the door sills for an easy step up to the roof. IIHS safety scores are top notch and reliability flawless. Skip the hype of honda/toyota and grab a subie.
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Never owned a Subaru before
Dick, 04/10/2016
updated 05/03/2022
2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited 4dr SUV AWD (3.6L 6cyl CVT)
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
I'm finding the basic car a great value. I drive mountains a lot and the 3.6L motor just purrs along. OK mileage (23mpg for first 2K miles. Long trips about 28 mpg) but have to expect that with the typical driving I do and AWD. Entry and exit are superb. Seats are comfortable. The flat panel display is somewhat of a pain but at least there are steering wheel control for much of it. And, at least, there are a couple dials to use instead of the very stupid Honda approach. Blue tooth is excellent. The backup camera is very good...especially at night. There isn't a convenient place to hold a cell phone except for a rectangular hole which precludes attaching a charging cord. The remote key needs work (have to press the lock button three time to get a confirmation beep and can't unlock all doors at the same time with the option package that came with it). Great visibility from inside the car after I added a pair of $2.99 convex mirrors the exterior mirrors to improve close in visibility. Overall I'd say I've found the car quirky in the good sense of the word that will take some getting used to. Update after 6 months and 11000 miles. Still have a great impression of the car. Very comfortable on road trips and always a pleasure to drive. The 6 cylinder motor is wonderful. Two minor irksome things 1) Have to press the remote key three times to get a confirming chirp 2) Can't lock or unlock all doors with one click on the remote key. No rattles or squeaks in car. One potential safety thing...on cold starts in reverse, when coming to a stop the engine increases 300 RPM. When I visited with the dealer they said they would need the car overnight to verify the problem. And that they may need to adjust the bands in the CVT. With the computer technology available nowadays, this seems very primitive. Why not look at the on board log and/or use an "inflight" computer monitor which provides all the various readings at the same time. This was available in 1986 for a Pontiac I was having problems with...why not now? Finally, the gauge package, while attractive, is not well done ergonomically. One has to look down to check the time or outside temperature. And the backlighting is different on the time/temperature readouts than on the dash. In my humble opinion, time and temperature ought to be at eye level on the instrument panel. And the cylinders surrounding the clusters are non-functional and not needed. Would I buy the car again? In a heartbeat. These criticisms are minor, but irritating, in nature but would not impact my buying decision. One year update: Now have 17000 miles. Driving mountain passes is a breeze with the 6 cyl. engine. Enjoy the feel of the vehicle very much. Had some mild snow to deal with...no problem. Also had a very icy morning and had to slow considerably to maintain directional control. The feeling I had was that the AWD had no impact during that icy morning trip. The most irritating thing remains the instrument cluster. To have designed the outside temperature and clock displays in such a way that the driver has to turn his/her head and lower their eyes in a field of similar digital readouts is an egregious error resulting in a safety hazard. Nevertheless, I would buy the car again. In fact, I love the Outback which is why the unsafe time and temperature readout is something I have trained myself on workarounds. 40,000 mile update. I still like the car but now have reservations because of electrical system. Had significant battery problems. The original battery had a bad cell and had to be replaced at about 30,000 miles. The replacement battery lasted less than a year. It turns out the small original battery size makes it prone to rapid discharge (read other comments on this issue). Replaced it with a larger size non-Subaru battery and so far all is fine. The battery tray was large enough to take the aftermarket increased size battery (Hmmmm). Why Subaru used a smaller capacity battery is befuddling. Additionally, the instrument panel doesn't have a gauge to check charging and discharging. There is significant battery usage even after the car is turned off! Subaru's decision to use a small battery is a terrible error. After a year the second factory battery failed to retain sufficient charge even for a week. Think about leaving your car at the airport and returning late on a rainy night after a two week trip and the Subaru is dead because of the low capacity battery. Even the remote won't work. There are lots of unpleasant scenarios in this situation.
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Good and bad
Eric, 01/29/2016
updated 03/05/2018
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
So there are many nice things about the vehicle. A couple of long road trips with and without the luggage carrier on top. (We got about 28pg highway) The road noise is louder than I'd expect. The acceleration is SLOW, but is steady and isn't that big of a problem once you get used to it. Just don't jump out in heavy traffic, give yourself some room. The active safety "eyesight" is a love hate relationship. If you're following someone faster on the freeway you can set your cruise to 90 and it'll just maintain the speed and appropriate distance from the vehicle in front of you, which is nice. The lane sensors on the side view mirrors seem to work well, although they take a little getting used to. It is comfortable enough, although nothing I'd shout about. We did drive for several hours on the highway with up to 6" of snow before the plows came and had no problems, although we were only going about 35mph. It handled snowy driveways with some elevation change just fine as well, nothing crazy. The car is roomy enough and it's easy to get a car seat in and out of the back. There's also enough room in the cargo area to put the dog (we keep her on a doggy car harness tethered to the rear cargo hook) and a large stroller with no difficulties. The comfort level of the seats is adequate with nothing to complain about or rave about. Now for my complaints. The entire electronics package sucks. I hate it. Nothing is intuitive. I'm comparing this to both a BMW, where I can control everything with one little knob in the center console, and a dodge ram, which is super simple and intuitive. Changing anything requires a lot of taking your eyes off the road. The clock is tiny and requires looking at the console a couple of times to find where it is (it's my wife's daily driver, not mine). I had to pull over and screw with the radio for several minutes to figure out how to manually change a station, it only wanted to work on pre-sets. The voice commands are horrible. If you want to input something in the navigation, forget it. It requires pulling over. My wife driving and me entering an address.... not a safety issue. Maybe subaru should change the sensor and let you put in the address on the go if there is someone in the passenger seat. There's already a sensor there as the car yells at you for not being buckled up. I'm glad this is my wife's car, I would not own it myself simply because of how much I despise the electronics package.
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DEAD Batteries - Subaru finally replaced battery
Jon Fish, 11/14/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i PZEV 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
31 of 35 people found this review helpful
New Battery solved problem - Battery has died 11 times in 9 months I have owned 2015 Outback Wagon. Three visits (7 days without car) to Dealerships have not detected any electrical problem (other than replacing alternator on second visit ). Still the car dies. Several instances seem to result from short trips to do errands. Also extended period of open power lift gate will deplete battery even with dome light off. Would love to remove power lift gate, but dealer says it will cost several 1,000's of dollars. Best feature is Eye Sight. Blind spot warnings work well and makes one feel much safer. Have had several occasions when Eye Sight failure light up, but restarting car several times has caused problem to go away. Battery failures are so pervasive that I have no confidence that car will start and constantly have to plan where I park so I can get jump start. I do appreciate the kindness of strangers who have helped. Suspect there is a design problem with undersized battery. Attempting to return car under Calif Lemon Law. This car is not anything like previous Subaru I have owned
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Drive it weekly or have a dead battery
William Wehner, 07/30/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i PZEV 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
36 of 41 people found this review helpful
This is my first Subaru. Overall I love the car and everything about it... with one major exception. After parking the car for just over a week, the battery was DEAD. I called the dealership and was told, "all of the onboard computer systems will drain the battery if the vehicle sits for over a week." The dealership offerred a solution to solve the problem. Open the hood and disconnect the battery ground when the vehicle is to be left for a week. This is unacceptable to me. A car with the level of sophisticated electronics present in the 2015 Subaru Outback should be able to measure battery level and automatically shutdown unnecessary electronics and go into hibernate mode. The low level solution might be a battery disconnect switch (pre-installed). I have yet to convince my wife that she needs to become a mechanic and disconnect the battery ground when she is away for a week and the car is left at the airport.
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A Lot of Bang for the Buck
Arthur Dresser, 11/27/2015
updated 11/29/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited PZEV 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
14 of 15 people found this review helpful
We now have 12,000 miles on our car and it has been operating flawlessly. Other than a couple of oil changes there has been no reason the take it back to the dealer. The car is very comfortable to drive with great visibility, great tracking and very little road or wind noise. The drivers seat has plenty of adjustment and fits both my wife, who is petit and me at 6'2" just fine. The CVT transmission is a little noisy when accelerating before things have warmed up, but is fine after that. I really like how the CVT performs in cruise control when you are in hilly terrain as there is no downshifting, the engine speed just keeps changing as necessary to keep the car speed up. We live in a rural area and don't need a lot of power or acceleration to merge and keep up with traffic and find the engines power level is just fine. Fuel economy on summer gas is great. If we cruise at 65-70 we get 32 mpg and if we boost the speed up to 75-80 is drops to 29 mpg. My wife uses the power lift gate several times a day getting the dog in and out of the car and it working great. This feature was one of the reasons we traded our 2014 Subaru in as the manual gate unlatched and latched too hard. Other reasons for trading were the style of the new front grill is much more appealing and it is noticeably quieter with better visibility. Although the drivers seat is quite comfortable, you can feel the lumbar support as a lump centered on your back at times. The passenger seat has limited adjustments and is positioned in the car too low for our liking. The car handles great and has a sporty feel, especially as compared to our old Volvo XC70. Bluetooth and the phone interface are excellent with great call quality. The navigation system is not worth the investment, especially as compared to Google Maps. The voice interface is frustrating and the interface, although improved over the 2014 Subaru is still difficult, especially if you don't use it often. I wish Subaru would update the software to implement Google Auto. Owners today need to expect software updates on vehicles, especially with the premium paid for some of the features and the speed at which they become obsolete. We continue to be pleasantly surprised with the engineering of this vehicle and are always finding little features we didn't know we had that make the car easier to use. For example it pauses the radio station when you get a call and picks it back up after. 24,000 mile update: The car continues to run flawlessly. Tire wear is even and there is still a lot of tread left on them. They have been rotated every oil change.
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MPG not what advertised
kseibel, 05/16/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
19 of 21 people found this review helpful
We like our 2015 Outback but had issues with MPG when we first received the vehicle. We experienced 18 MPG overall initially and an intermittent hard start condition. After several trips to the dealer and observing a recommended break-in period of 3K miles a firmware/software update was performed and our car and MPG improved to 23 but still not close to the advertised mileage (why we purchased). We were still disappointed but were told by dealer and subaru of america this was "normal and satisfactory condition" for our region. Not happy with MPG and the response by Subaru at this point. I would caution anyone who is buying for "advertised" MPG and to expect no assistance .
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Gas mileage does not come close
A. Fleck, 01/30/2016
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
The purchase of a new car is a huge deal to us, since we are not wealthy by any means. After two years of research before buying our 2015 Outback, one of the main selling points was the advertised gas mileage. We drive the car carefully, so it is not an issue of how we drive. It gets 20 mpg city and, if we are lucky, 26-27 highway. A huge disappointment. How can they get away with lying like this?
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Want to love this car, but...
Jason Hitt, 12/23/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
First off, I commute 65 miles each way to work, best mpg average on a tank was 27 with 90% + freeway. i normally range in the 25mpg avg. - Strike one. I love the interior and Harmon Kardon Sound system except for the random blown speaker like sounds that occur from time to time. The Car has a lot of wind noise and annoying rattles. Saying the car is underpowered in the 2.5i motor is an understatement. Somthing I was willing to sacrifice for the sake of fuel economy(that I never really got). Be careful on cold mornings qhen the vehicle is still warming up, the sluggish motor runs in limp mode and could put you in a dangerous situation if expectations aren't realistic while pulling into oncoming traffic. What really drove me to write this poor review was from today's near death experince(s). I slid off the road in plowed,wet, snowy conditions. I did not have snow tires, just the factory set. I can't completely fault the vehicle, I know the tires come into play, but it was the realization of what the AWD is not. There isn't enough power generated to turn the tires in a situation where you need to pull out of a mess. Likewise, the awd senses tire slip and shuts down. There is no way to shut off the system and let me spin my tires until I get down into some dirt. My near death experience with a guard rail and once again avoiding a head on are enough to make me not want to take the outback out anywhere in the snow.
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First Subaru 4me
charlieofbc, 06/15/2015
updated 08/02/2016
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
13 of 14 people found this review helpful
Always have had Hondas and Toyotas. My last Honda, 2013 Pilot Touring was a big disappointment, very clumsy handling, and ate gas like crazy. The Subaru reminds me of a nicer CRV crossed with a smaller Highlander. The ride and handling are amazing. The engine/cvt combo works well, and mileage is very good if you drive reasonable.Have approx 9k miles and only 1 issue, the auto tailgate does not always respond to the button on the tailgate. Very comfy vehicle, I am 6'4 and plenty of room. The dog is very happy with the move to the Subie....
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5...