Subaru Outback
The Subaru Outback is as Australian in origin as its name suggests. The model as we know it today finds its roots in the Legacy Wagon (named Liberty in Australia), which evolved in other global regions into the Legacy Outback.
When the SUV arrived in Australia in 1996 the Legacy part was dropped leaving just Outback and the naming tradition continued into almost all other subsequent global introductions.
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Frequently Asked Questions
About the Subaru Outback
The Subaru Outback is as Australian in origin as its name suggests. The model as we know it today finds its roots in the Legacy Wagon (named Liberty in Australia), which evolved in other global regions into the Legacy Outback.
When the model arrived in Australia in 1996, however, the Legacy part was dropped leaving just Outback and the naming tradition continued into almost all other subsequent global introductions.
It is not to be confused with the Outback Sport that was a wagon version of the Impreza first offered in the US in the 1990s.
Now in its sixth generation, the Outback has adopted Subaru’s Global Platform (SGP) and, like its closely related Forester sibling, is popular among drivers that want a good balance of on-road manners as well as respectable off-road ability.
The latest Subaru Outback, still more of a high-riding wagon than conventional SUV, was introduced to Australia in 2021 exclusively as a 2.5-litre non-turbo flat-four petrol coupled to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and the company’s proprietary all-wheel-drive system.
It was joined in 2022 by two high-performance XT variants, which borrowed the 2.4-litre turbo engine from the WRX.
While any five-seater SUV could be listed as a rival, about the only true direct rival in concept to the Subaru Outback is Volvo’s V60 Cross Country wagon.