Used 2018 Subaru Outback Consumer Reviews
Used Outback for sale
The OUTBACK TOURING 3.6 is a real WINNER
Ted K, 04/08/2020
updated 06/10/2024
2018 Subaru Outback 3.6R Touring 4dr SUV AWD (3.6L 6cyl CVT)
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
PROS: Drives and rides like very nimble sedan. The 6 cylinder engine has lots of power - accelerates effortlessly. Driver's view is excellent - front, sides and rear. The seats are very comfortable - .well-shaped and expertly crafted. My Outback crosses expansion cracks in the road without feeling them unlike the Ford Edge. Steering and brakes are very responsive. Rides better than a Ford Edge or Lincoln MKX.and with much better visibility all around, even for the second row passengers. Car is very quiet with good sound insulation making 70mph highway cruising a pleasure. Lane departure and blind spot warning systems are very effective. CONS: The car is very stiff in cold weather - the suspension, steering and ride quality is noticeably effected by temperatures below 32F. I have owned a dozen cars in my life and this one is by far the most effected by the cold. After a half hour of driving, it improves substantially but still not as good as it is at 50F or warmer. I am NOT satisfied with the voice command system which is finicky and does not always do what it is told. Entertainment system is okay but playing files back from a USB drive is a little iffy regarding folders and sequencing. The radio plays back incoming text messages and converts text to voice. The CD-MP3 player is fine. Excellent navigation system by Tom-Tom with clear maps that do not keep re-scaling as some systems do. . The headlights are fantastic - they light up suburban streets with a wide angle of light and they are bright. Overall, a great car - highly recommend. 15 MONTH UPDATE: The tinted windows starting on the 2nd row are way too DARK. At night, in unlit areas, it is virtually impossible to see out the rear when you try to back up. After 3 years, I traded in the OUTBACK for the big brother Subaru ASCENT. I bought a used 2020 model with 12,000 miles on it. Bigger more substantial car that rides better and quieter but is not as nimble as the Outback. The Ascent also does not suffer from the cold weather stiffness like the Outback.
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I will never buy a new car again.
Margaret, 03/13/2019
2018 Subaru Outback 2.5i 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
Yes, this is a Subaru and will drive excellent in the snow. That's about how much good I can say for this car. I bought it brand new and right away had issues that the dealership did not want to address. The brake rotors were out of tolerance and caused shuddering when braking at speeds greater then 40 mph. The dealer tried to tell me it was because the brand new machine ground brakes were 'too rough' and that their brake lathe could do a better job. I work in manufacturing and know this is BS, they remove 0.050" of new brakes around 2000 miles and this fixed the problem only now i'll need new brakes before too long. This a real quality control problem and reflects badly on the overall reliability of the cars parts. In addition to having mechanical issues out the box, the head unit is an absolute piece of garbage. I have drives where it turns white and is basically frozen. I have had it 'ghosts' the controls and flip between radio and AUX and then repeat the same part of a song over and over without touching anything. Most dangers and annoying is that the master volume control will randomly lock the music (AKA you cant turn it down) and start only effecting the volume of the GPS voice - even if you aren't using it!! This will happen for a few minutes or a few days - turning the car off and on does nothing but it will go away just as randomly as it starts. The dealership refuses to look into this unless i can re-create it there, and given the nature of the problem- it happens at random - this has not been possible and there is no fix. Basically everything new about this car is terrible. Having owned an older model I am seeing a real decline in quality and performance and considering Subaru of America doesn't care about these issues and likely wont fix them I wish I never bought this car. I would not recommend it.
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Caroline Burns, 06/23/2018
2018 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
Love this car and the new car smell. I am small (5'2") and the front seat is super uncomfortable where the lumbar hits my back. I now have 1500 miles and still struggling with this problem. Besides this and the heavy weight of the back hatch i absolutely love this car...could use better gas mileage but willing to put up with that for the awesomeness of my new subaru outback!
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All electronics in this car is messed up
Alec Yarov, 10/17/2018
2018 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl CVT)
13 of 15 people found this review helpful
We are leasing Subaru Outback 2018 and this is a horrible car. All electronics inside the vehicle is messed up. Trunk doesnt open from the remote control, when leaving a car with flash lights on you cannot lock it, trunk is not opening from the inside of the vehicle, abrupt stopping if getting closer to the obsticle make even worse the situation etc. We’ve recorded multiple of videos and reported to Subaru dealer center but none of the representatives responded or fixed the vehicle. Horrible customer service. Be aware of those problems and we wouldn’t recommend buying this model.
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Good car but a couple of REALLY STUPID things
Hanx85258, 11/19/2017
2018 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited 4dr SUV AWD (3.6L 6cyl CVT)
85 of 107 people found this review helpful
I'll get to the good parts about this car in a moment. After all, I did like it enough to buy it. But here are a couple of really STUPID things about the car that Subaru should FIX. 1. The radio does not mute when the navigation voice is speaking. So, if you are listening to the radio or other source at anything over a whisper, you cannot understand the navigation because it is garbled along with the music or talk on the radio. Also, the radio buttons are badly placed. They are at the top of the radio and you have to lean forward awkwardly to get to them. They should be at the bottom so you don’t have to strain (and potentially lose focus driving) to get to the buttons. 2. The digital speed readout is great, so long as you are not on the phone. In that case, you get a stupid little indicator that you are on the phone that replaces the speed readout. Guess what, Subaru, I fricking know I am on the phone. After all, I’m talking here!! What I need to know is how fast I am going while I am talking. And yes, I know I can look at the analog speedometer, but one of the biggest reasons I got this car instead of some others (I talking to you, Lexus) is because of the digital speed readout. You also lose the digital speed readout when you use navigation, but if you are willing to go through the menu using the buttons/levers just below the steering wheel, you can navigate back to the speed readout, but you have to do it after every time the navigation tells you about a course adjustment. 3. The radio turns on when you start the car. Every time. It doesn’t matter if you turned it completely off before you turned the car off. It just comes back on by itself. And sometimes the Starlink system just freezes on startup. There is nothing to do except re-boot by restarting the car. 4. If you are listening to anything other than the radio, say a CD or music on your phone, and the screen has all of the apps showing, there is no way to get to the screen that shows what you are playing. You have to stop listening to what you were listening to by selecting select radio and, once the radio is playing, then you can go back to your selected source and the screen will show what you are playing. 5. You cannot open the trunk unless the doors are unlocked. So, even if you are sitting in the car in park and you push the “open trunk lid” button on the dash, it will not open unless you first press the door unlock button. This also means that you cannot use the button on the trunk itself unless the doors are unlocked. Just an annoying, wasted extra step. 6. The auto bright beam to regular beam function is so sensitive that some street lights, the reflection of the car’s own lights, and lots of lights other than a car coming towards you, will trigger it. It basically just turns your brights off most of the time. You can go off “auto” mode for the lights and manually turn on your brights, but then you are likely to forget to put it back into auto mode to have the lights turn on at all the next time you drive at night. 7. The navigation system gives you waaaaay too little time to spit out an address. Where I live, some street numbers have 5 digits, and the street names are long Spanish derived words (try to say 15343 E Via De La Escuela in 3 seconds). So it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get the whole address out in time. And even when you do, the system more often than not misunderstands you. 8. And speaking of speaking to the system, mine will perfectly do all of the things it is supposed to do except set the temperature. I have tried to set the temperature (using the exact phrasing required by the system) loud, soft, slow, fast, and I have had 4 other people do the same, and it misses it about 90% of the time. I am a very clear speaker with precise enunciation. I have zero problems dictating long letters with Dragon Naturally Speaking and, as I said, the Subaru understands all of the other commands perfectly well. Subaru needs to improve the voice recognition and issue a software update. 9. The windshield wipers do not have a rain sensor mode. 10. Only the front windows are automatic. If you want to put the rear windows up, you need to hold the levers the whole way. The front windows are automatic. Would it have broken the bank to just use the same feature on the rear windows? 11. The interior light is weak, very weak. I guess someone thought using a blueish LED was cool and contemporary, but all it is is a very weak light. 12. And finally, for an even dozen, the garage door opener. Oh, I’m sorry, the HomeLink system. I spent 10 minutes looking through the various manuals for “garage door opener.” Isn’t that what everyone calls it? But no, there is no listing in the contents or index for “garage door opener.” You have to figure out that it is called “Homelink” before you can find it. Would it have killed them to call it by the name everyone knows it by? Or at least
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