Used 2020 Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT) Consumer Reviews
Used Outback for sale
2020? Don't do it. Keep your 2019.
Tugboat Captain, Staten Island, NY, 01/06/2020
Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT)
101 of 127 people found this review helpful
Traded in my 2019 Outback, that was a Good car. Wanted to get the Wife a Touring model. Went into the Dealer to check out the new 2020 Outback's, and there was a Touring XT model, XT meaning 2.4 L turbo engine. All new 2020 Outback models have " Stop/ start ", what a mistake! The Wife loved the car so we bought it. The car road nice, but the Stop/ start is annoying to turn off through the infotainment panel. After owning for a couple of months, things started happening; started the car one morning, push start, car sput and sputtered sounding like " Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Next, forgot to turn off stop/ start, left a parking lot, stopped at a stop sign, car cut completely off, jerked the steering wheel out of my hand, all the lights on the dash on, and barely got it started again. Backed up twice in my driveway, car sensed the hedges behind, when 4 feet away, automatically slammed on the brakes, and car cut off. Also, found it funny that this car would not answer the remote when 15 feet or more away, could not lock car, my 19 did, about 50 feet away. And should have read the 2019 reviews on the Ascent, which has the same engine transmission mine did, boy are they bad, and apparently transmission troubles too. Lost confidence in the car, in fact, hate the 2020, wish so much I kept my 2019 Outback instead of wasting the money to upgrade to 2020, if that's what you call it, it turned out to be a Downgrade for sure. I will never buy a Subaru again!!!
Big Disappointment
charles kidder, Cary, NC, 04/26/2020
Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT)
20 of 24 people found this review helpful
After reading many reviews, I was looking forward to trying the 2020 Outback. Even picky Consumer Reports gave it a very high score. A couple of test drives in Turbo models went pretty well, although in at least one car I noticed an odd lag in acceleration. I figured that I just wasn't used to the car, they all drive differently, etc. I went ahead and took the plunge, buying a Touring XT off the lot in February 2020. The ride and handling were excellent, better than my 2016 Outback 3.6R, which was pretty good. Seats were comfortable, although we never took it any long drives. That's the end of the good part. The big touchscreen is a huge pain, as many other reviewers have noted. Too many steps to do the simplest things. I was certainly aware of this feature from my test drives, but dealing with it every day is another matter. The auto start-stop is also annoying and requires diving into the screen menus to shut off. Every time you start the car. I think by keeping just the right amount of pressure on the brake, you can probably trick it into not engaging much of the time. The deal-breaker was the lag in acceleration. Everything is okay until about 15-20mph, and then acceleration goes flat. You give it more gas, and nothing happens. A bit more gas, and still nothing. Finally, more gas, and the car accelerates more than you want. This was a consistent issue, and I occasionally worried that the car behind me might run into my rear bumper. But mostly it was just awful response to the throttle. Not what you expect from a $40K car. I noticed some comments on this issue on an owners forum. I took it to the dealer, they drove it and said they did notice some lugging at low speeds. (When the car decides not to accelerate, I had noticed that the rpms dropped considerably due to a shift in transmission ratios.) The dealer said that Subaru had no " fix" at this time. (Or ever..?) I was so upset that I wanted out of this car ASAP. With only 386 miles and less than a month of ownership, I traded it for a 2020 Forester. I took a big hit financially, but at least the Forester is a cheaper car and my car payments actually dropped. Plus, when you give it some gas, it actually responds accordingly. And more things are controlled by hard buttons, etc. BTW, a friend of mine recently bought an Outback Limited XT and a Legacy Touring XT. He has not noticed the issue on either car. Either I am way too picky, or he is a bit clueless. Also, I haven't seen any mention of the " lag" on the Subaru Ascent, although it has the what appears to be the same drivetrain. What was Subaru thinking on the Outback turbos??!!
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I was so sick of it I got rid of it after 5 months
Disappointed Outback Buyer, Strum, WI, 03/28/2020
updated 01/04/2021
Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT)
73 of 92 people found this review helpful
Unless you're someone who plans on never adjusting anything, I would not buy this car. After two months of frustrating ownership, I have given up on a lot of things. In order to set the car up the way I prefer, I need to perform TEN functions on the infotainment screen and rear view mirror each time I drive. There are several functions that reset each time the vehicle is turned off. A few include the compass on the mirror. At night, the big red letters draw my attention. It can be shut off but it comes back on after restarting the car. The compass could easily be shown on the center screen. Auto vehicle hold is a nice feature but also resets each time. It is also one of the features that is in a sub menu on the screen. After turning it on, you then have to press a few icons to get back to either the radio or whatever else you want showing. The navigation screen is junk because it hardly shows any road names. Seat climate control functions are also buried in a sub menu. Any pleasure derived from driving are very quickly overwhelmed by the idiotic infotainment system. There are only 18 total presets on the radio between AM/FM and Satellite. You can't split the screen between radio and navigation unless you're using Apple Car Play or Android Auto. There's plenty of room on an 11.6" display to show more than what it does. It may seem like a rant, but I can't hardly say anything good about the infotainment screen. It's slow to react, both upon start up (the radio sometimes is delayed over 30 seconds) and upon touching icons. If you receive a text while on Bluetooth, the notification will stay on the screen until you press Read or Ignore, then you have to press another icon or two to get back to radio or whatever else you were on. And if it's bright out, you'll probably have a hard time seeing anything on the screen. Driving is also fairly frustrating. This is my first vehicle with Lane Keep Assist so I can't compare the Subaru system to other manufactures but this LKA if very erratic. It doesn't hold you in the middle of your lane. It veers towards one side of your lane then over corrects towards the other side. Steering is very stiff while LKA is turned on so you find yourself kind of fighting with it. It also gives you no warning before it gives up on trying to navigate a curve. If it thinks it's not going to make it, the LKA just shuts off, gives you an audible and visual alert and you better have your hands tight on the steering wheel. Thankfully, LKA is easily turned off with a button on the steering wheel. Cruise control also seems very aggressive. If you crest a hill, it almost feels like it's slamming on the brakes to hold you to your preset speed. Then it aggressively has to speed back up to regain the speed. While in Dynamic Cruise Control, it will hold the distance between you and the vehicle in front, but again, fairly aggressively. I do, however, like that you can easily adjust your speed in 5 mph increments. While you're dealing with the frustrations of driving, you are also confronted with the overly loud climate fan. I've had several vehicles with climate control and this is by far the loudest and most difficult to adjust. A few more disappointing features: The interior lighting is bright but doesn't spread the light out. They are more like spot lights than flood lights. There is very little interior storage. There's a slot for your phone that barely is big enough. While the gear selector is in park, you can barely get your phone in or out. The center console storage is split into a small lower bin and even smaller upper bin. The cup holders are very close together so if you have two cups, they will hit against each other. The door bins are also quite small. There is also a LOT of wind noise with the sunroof open either in the tilt or slide position. As for my overall driving: With the 2.4 liter turbo, nearly 5,000 miles, I am averaging 26.5 mpg on mostly 55 mph roads. This is improving, my last two tanks have been close to 30 mpg. I have driven in a couple of mild snow storms and I would say this is DEFINITELY a car that can handle it. I felt very secure on the road. On dry roads, the car seems to handle quite well with LKA turned off. Overall cabin noise is quiet and it absorbs most small bumps easily. But any positives are SO easily removed with all the negatives. The infotainment system is absolute junk!! I went so far as to trying to trade this car in after only two weeks of ownership. I was willing to accept several thousand dollars of depreciation but couldn't accept the loss of what I was being offered. I did test drive this car twice, but nothing could prepare me for the disappointment of day to day driving. The only thing worse than the design of the infotainment system and interior is my decision to buy it. After 2 months, I would be happier driving almost anything else. I traded a 2015 Accord that I now miss so much.
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Car has been dependable
Disappointed, Trenton, NJ, 02/09/2020
updated 11/25/2024
Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT)
57 of 73 people found this review helpful
Adjusting seat heating and cooling on the touchscreen got much better after software update changed the design of the screen. Navigation system voice controls sometimes can't recognize an address, but that may be my New Jersey accent. I have had the car for five years now and it has been very dependable. I had some issues at first but they have worked out, except the lane centering has not benefitted from any of the dealer updates and is still too dangerous to use. The Eyesight system works well if the weather is nice but cuts out if it rains or snows, which of course is when you need it. I still miss rain sensing wipers and a head up display so I don't think I would buy it again.
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Touring XT
Dan, Randallstown, MD, 04/09/2020
Subaru Outback Touring XT 4dr SUV AWD (2.4L 4cyl Turbo CVT)
9 of 11 people found this review helpful
I had a 2016 3.6r and traded for 2020 touring xt. I really like this car it has more features and just as much luxury as premium brands for a lot less and drives and handles great. There are 2 drawbacks the auto stop/start, any gas savings are going to be eaten up in batteries & starters. Turning it off everytime you start the car is a pain, my work around which doesn't bother me, I guess because i'm used to driving stick shift as I come to a stop I pop the car into neutral, then when I stop back into drive it doesn't shut off. The other is the driver recognition system if it doesn't recognize you your radio settings go back to default (treble/bass). So then you have to go into the menu and pick default then yourself. I set default the way I like it and turned the system off but that doesn't work either, it does better with the system on and it recognizes me 75% of the time, maybe there will be a software upgrade down the line. Hopefully it will also speed up the screens response time. Sometimes the screen stays blank for a few seconds after starting, rarely but a pain. As long as the electronics don't start breaking this car looks and drives great and is super comfortable and is fun to drive i enjoy it better than my wifes Infiniti. I gave it 4 stars it's more like 4.5
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