The 2026 Subaru Outback is already a contentious vehicle. To some loyal buyers, taking the vehicle that proved wagons could work in America if you just raised them up, added cladding, and eliminated the last vestiges of wagon-ness, is a form of betrayal. Never mind that the Legacy is dead and thus any reference to a sedan can no longer be made, so the type of person to buy an Outback usually does so because they don’t want something blocky and chest-beating in appearance. Holding the line on pricing would’ve gone a long way, but the line has most certainly not been held: while the old Outback starts at $31,415 including freight, the new one will run you at least $36,445. Ouch.
Granted, they aren’t exactly equivalent trim levels. It seems that Subaru missed the memo that people want simple and inexpensive cars again, so the base trim is gone for 2026 and the range now kicks things off with the $36,445 Premium trim level. With a digital gauge cluster, pleather, and a power liftgate as standard, it gets some of the toys the old Onyx Edition had, but the result is a machine $1,965 more than the old Outback Premium and $5,030 more than the old base Outback. That’s a somewhat strong ask considering the new Outback still uses the same naturally aspirated 2.5-liter flat-four as the old one.
Want a typical blend of mod-cons like a moonroof, heated rear seats, leather upholstery, and premium audio? The 2026 Outback Limited will run you $43,165, including freight. That’s $2,025 more than the old Outback Limited with no real changes in equipment, other than the digital cluster that every new Outback gets anyway. It’s a similar deal with the $46,845 Outback Touring, $3,145 more expensive than the old one, with the only add being hands-free highway driving assistance.
Then we get to the turbocharged models. The new $45,815 Outback Limited XT is $2,335 more expensive than before, the ruggedized, $46,445 Wilderness trim is $3,315 more expensive than before, and the $49,445 Outback Touring XT is $3,295 more than before. Same 260-horsepower 2.4-liter turbocharged flat-four, same CVT, the only adds over the outgoing models other than the engine are 19-inch wheels and a 360-degree camera system on the Limited XT.
Oh, but it doesn’t end there. The new Outback Wilderness also offers two option packages, one that costs $2,045 and includes a moonroof, a 360-degree camera system, and GPS navigation, and one that costs $4,090 and includes all of that plus ventilated leather seats. Tick that second box, and you’re looking at a $50,535 Subaru Outback.
While four-figure price hikes could be understandable if something dramatically new of significant engineering substance was going on beneath the surface of the new Subaru Outback, it rides on the same platform as the old one, uses the same powertrains as the old one, and seems more evolutionary than revolutionary under the polarizing skin. Plus, dropping the base trim just doesn’t feel like a good read of the room. A few grand at this end of the market is enough for the new Outback to butt heads with some brilliant family-hauling machinery like the Hyundai Santa Fe and, for high-tier trims, the posh Toyota Crown Signia, options that really give shoppers something to think about. Thankfully, if you’re looking for a deal, the new Outback hasn’t arrived yet, and now might be the time to pick up a 2025 model before the big changeover.
Top graphic image: Subaru
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Just listened to an episode of Marketplace (NPR radio show) from a few days ago. This is almost certainly going to be repeated across the market. Big price hikes with new model years, probably dropping the lower margin base trims, and not saying the word “tariff” lest Orange Julius Caesar point his toilet time thumbs in their direction.
But wasn’t the Outback already too expensive?
Holy crap,that is horrible. Subaru have really dropped the ball on this one. They seem to really have no idea what people want and just pile on shit to justify a price hike.
Uglier and more expensive? And still with that CVT? “Sign me up!” holler Subie enthusiasts.
It’s looks like and costs similar to a loaded 2005 Chevy Avalanche.
$36k and it has vinyl? Lol no thanks.
So New SAAB vs SAAB CLASSIC? Why use the old name that is still successful instead of keeping producing the old favorite and introduce a new maybe more successful vehicle?
Really love how every industry has been so infected with Pareto Principle Brain that their only markets are marks, rubes, and whales.
1-If I were in the market i d run and get a 25. The new one is taller. Uglier. More $.
2-The car is made in Indiana so tariff impact is somewhat mitigated.
3-If you are capacity constrained and they sell like hotcakes, I d jack the price too.
4-I think I read somewhere that 100% of Crosstrek and Forester is moving into this plant. So see point #3.
Non Subaru people: “Wow that 26 outback looks a lot like the Ascent in size and shape, why bother?”
Subaru People: “NO they are completely different and here are the 30 reasons why!”
I mean I hate to play the devil’s advocate, but it does make a lot of sense. The current Outback starts at exactly the same price (right around $30k) as the current Forester making the two have almost comical overlap and probably a lot of self-cannibalization when it comes to showroom sales.
No other brand does that: between the CR-V and Passport there’s almost $15k; the RAV4 and Crown Signia, also $14k; the Rogue to Murano is $12k; the Tucson to Santa Fe has $7k in it; and the VW Tiguan to Cross Sport is $8k. And in any case it’s almost impossible to option up their C-segment CUVs to even the starting price of the bigger one whereas at Subaru it’s just a matter of going one or two trim levels down to make an Outback cost the same as a Forester.
So, at the end of the day, the Subaru is still among the cheaper midsize offerings and closer to the Forester than most at a $6k starting price gulf. And if you want the bigger one without having to pay for it, now’s the time to run out and get it.
Exactly. It seems as if Subaru is more interested in selling Forester, which makes sense since it competes in the highest volume class of passenger vehicles. Might was well move the Outback a little up-market. Also, the new premium is realistically at 600ish dollar premium over the 25 premium with the option pack that has blind spot. That’s a pretty sweet value with the improvement infotainment and other assorted changes.
ROFL – no, “people” do not want simple and inexpensive new cars – those still available barely sell. Kids with no money on the Internet want cheap new cars (so they can buy them even cheaper used). People who are actual new car buyers want nice cars/trucks with all sorts of toys, which is why the average new car price is nearly $50K. This thing is actually mostly below average in cost for today. I certainly agree they aren’t worth the money.
Porsche said it best long ago “the entry level is a used car”.
Also, AWD, a CVT, and a couple inches of lift do not an SUV make. These things off-road ability is marginal at best. I probably took my ’82 front wheel drive Subaru further into the woods than any buyer of one of these ever will. I did so much stupid stuff with that car as a 17yo dumbass.
If you go fast enough, it is pretty much just like 4 wheel drive.
Approaching half ton truck pricing for a Subaru Outback? Good lord.
New Outback over here making the Tribeca look pretty.
Do they even have a design department anymore?
This new Outback looks like it was just extruded from a machine.
Ugly for sure.
Until recently, I had daily driven Subarus for 20 years. Back when I got my first WRX, the brand was actively trying to lure the enthusiast crowd. With a company that seemed to listen to it’s followers, a whole lot of people became loyal owners.
These days, however, the brand has completely lost touch with reality. They haven’t cared about performance enthusiasts for many years now, and they also don’t seem to care about the off-road enthusiasts who would buy a Wilderness Edition of their models. A starting price in the mid-30s isn’t awful, but the problem is prices just skyrocket from there. No Outback should be hitting $50k, no matter how many options you tick.
Looks like their sales peaked in 2022, and they saw a big drop the following year and they haven’t recovered since. Companies only learn when it hits them in the balance sheets, so some fairly poor sales years since 2022 might set them straight, but the MSRP on this new Outback makes me think they haven’t learned their lesson yet.
I think there are a lot of very good NA 4-cylinder engines in the world, maybe not the most powerful, but enjoyable and powerful enough.
I don’t love CVTs, but there are a few perfectly inoffensive CVTs in the world that do their job without drama or displeasure.
However, the Subaru 2.5 NA and their CVT are two of the worst I’ve ever driven and I’ve driven Nissans a bit as rentals. The word gutless didn’t even begin to describe how they drove unless you brutalized the gas pedal which then upgraded acceleration to “almost acceptable” if it weren’t for all the noise.
The fact that people buy so many of these things tells me that more people prefer form over function. They don’t do anything special. They’re just lifted economy cars with some gingerbread in ’em. If they were inexpensive, I could see their place in the world, an OK car for an OK price. When they cost as much as they do I cannot square what compels people to sign their name on the sales contract.
I guess people really like the idea that they can “go anywhere, do anything, anytime” even when they just drive them to work 99% of the time. It clearly resonates with a lot of folks and I suppose one might have to tip their hat to Subaru’s marketing to have tapped into that latent feeling of insecurity among the many and got them to open their wallets to solve it.
I spent a week in my BILs Outback 3.6R and could not for the life of me understand how an engine so big can turn power into dull noise and a lack of acceleration. There are countless cars that do the same thing and better, but they’re selling so one cannot argue with success.
The typical arguments I hear for these things are “I need to drive to a trailhead” (if you like hiking so much, maybe walk there?), I have a steep driveway, I need ground clearance, etc. To that I say, there are Corvettes, Miatas, and Mustangs all over the place that get around without much drama most days. I guess that marketing is really pervasive.
I ignored everything after the whining of that combo (which is perfectly adequate) and the very tired Nissan bashing (they make fine cars). Good lord.
Fiancé had one when we started dating and I couldn’t agree with your synopsis more. AWD, decent gas mileage, and adequate cargo room made it a good rig for her as she was doing clinical rotations just out of college in semi-snowy Iowa but I despised when I had to drive it (actively tried to avoid it). Wheezy, anemic, couldn’t get out of it’s own way, simulated shifts sometimes got lost in the translation, auto start stop that killed batteries and sometimes just wouldn’t start back up without turning the car off and on again, and that stupid tablet touch screen. It’s cold. My butt is cold. It’d be nice to have my heated seat on level 2, all you have to do it take your glove off, take your eyes off the road, press the button for heated seats on the screen, tap once or twice to get to level 2 and then close the heated seat pop up window, look up at the road again to make sure you are still in your lane and then put your glove back on… man that’s way better than a button! /s Also android auto and apple carplay looked like a microwaved turd on that vertical screen. Recently switched to a Honda Pilot and have never been happier.
Preach. I’ve rented Nissan Rogues with the 3 cylinder and cvt and found them to be totally acceptable as a rental runabout. The subaru 2.5 and the cvt? Horrific and garbage to boot. I had one in 2013 – brand new Legacy. I dumped it after a year because it was sucking my will to live.
Subaru has apparently given itself over completely to consumer research and surprise, it’s stupid and is never accurate because of an unfixable problem called survey bias, and this Outback reflects that. Overrepresented opinions regarding vehicle size and perception of “toughness” in addition to misleading data on price resistance (consumers in surveys always overestimate how much they’re willing to pay) has led them over time to go from a competitively priced niche filling vehicle to this dumb thing.
I’m sure Consumer Reports is going to love this thing!
/s