Used 2020 Subaru Outback Consumer Reviews
Declared a lemon after 6,000 miles
I just watched a 2020 Outback commercial claiming "The most reliable Outback ever" and it made my heart hurt. I traded my 2018 Outback Touring with 111,000 miles for a 2020 Outback Touring. After my first oil change I started having a hesitation type issue. At 78 MPH or so the engine or transmission would stumble repeatedly, lose speed and drop in fuel mileage drastically. Eventually the air conditioner would stop blowing cold during the hesitations. Within the three times the car was in the shop the ignition coils were replaced, the transmission was relearned and the fuel system and transmission was checked for the correct pressure. The last attempt included emptying the fuel tank, flushing the system and refilling the tank with premium gas. Nothing fixed the issue. My car was in the shop for 40 days over 2 months when Subaru decided that they were going to evoke Lemon Law and started the repurchase process. I bought the car 4/11/20 and Subaru repurchased the car 9/7/20.
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Subaru, what were you thinking?!
This is my 3rd Outback and 5th Subaru starting in 1986. I've been a very long time and loyal Subaru customer but with this "touchscreen" Subaru has lost one of its loyal customers. The car itself seems very nice but the new touchscreen needs a lot of improvement. It's amazing to me this was even put into production. It's slow to respond, doesn't remember basic settings and is much more difficult to use than the physical controls it replaced. It seems very poorly designed. The navigation system seems fairly unless when the one on my old 2015 Outback was very useful. I didn't know about the auto engine shut-off until after I bought the car if you want to disable it you will have to do this every time you start the car. It doesn't remember that setting. It doesn't remember settings with the audio system or the nav system either. You have to reset just about every setting every time you start the car. Also, the climate control system doesn't work well. It was getting the car very warm. Now it's set at 65 degrees and the interior temperature still rises to over 75 degrees. It seems with the new touchscreen Subaru was more concerned with flashy as opposed to functional and they ended up with a system that could be more distracting than texting and driving. Update: The 2021 didn't seem much better than the 2020 so I traded my 2020 in on a 2017 Outback. It's a much better car! Controlling EVERYTHING from a single screen that doesn't work very well and wasn't programmed very well is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a car.
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- Touring 4dr SUVMSRP: $27,50039 mi away
- Premium 4dr SUVMSRP: N/A31 mi away
- Onyx Edition XT 4dr SUVMSRP: $20,998In-stock online
Bought it in October and now looking to trade in
My complaints include some that you've read about here and some that need more emphasis. Please keep in mind I drove my first Forrester for 12 years and my last for 10. They stopped making the turbo Forrester so now I drive an Outback...for now. The auto stop/start feature is more than annoying. The start up is rough and feels like a really bad turbo lag. As others have noted, it cannot be permanently disabled. This is close to being unacceptable. I thought I could get used to the driver interface for all the controls. The complexity of the screens, and the sheer number of screens you have to go through to do something as simple as turn on a seat warmer is unacceptable and just dangerous. They have the feature that warns you if you take your eyes off the road and then equip it with a system like that- crazy. I had to disable some of the safety features. The lane departure system is overly sensitive. It cannot anticipate if you're on a curved road and will make a turn in a few feet. Instead it jerks the wheel or it will beep at you. I'm afraid the sum total of all of this is unacceptable on what is otherwise a great car. I do think I'll be trading this in shortly. An unfortunate waste of money.
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Very Nice
The good— Excellent ride Very smooth Good acceleration Comfort Gadgets Very convenient space features, it’s big. Sorry for lack of ‘spraining, but really roomy. Just a very comfortable ride for short or long trips. The not-as-good— The gadgets. It’s a good and bad feature. Automatically plays Bluetooth even when you have it off, music, books. Should be able to turn that “feature” off. Some have complained about auto-stop when at a red light, you can turn that off if you are experiencing lots of delays, freeway backups or city driving, so it’s not really an issue The “lane keeping” function isn’t ready for prime time yet, if you are on a pristine highway with fresh marks, probably works as it should, but definitely do not put your faith in it. Not an “exciting” car, but ranks up with the luxury class pretty well. 2020 Limited 2.5L
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Love it!
This is my third Subaru and my second Outback bought back to back. I have to say Subaru did a great job refining the 2020 compared to the 2017 I previously owned. There is a bit more hp to the engine, and the transmission shifts much smoother and quieter than my 2017. The 11.6” touch screen is easy for me to use and looks GREAT in the outlay of the dash. The technology inside is comparable to other upscale cars and the ride my be firm but smooth. This is a luxury car that you can go camping with!
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