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My buddy is a single guy who likes to take road trips. He was thinking about a Subaru Outback , I like the looks of it but always thought of it more as a family car. What do you think?
My college age son has a 2005 outback XT that he loves. Plenty of space and enough power and traction for those ski trips to the Mts. He carries all his equipment in the back out of the weather and never worries about securing it during stops along the way.
It's an excellent vehicle for interior volume, utility, and sure-footed travels in adverse driving conditions.
Ours are comfortable, have good road manners, reasonable amenities, and decent fuel economy.
If there is a chance that your friend will be driving into inclement weather conditions, these are great AWD cars.
If he doesn't utilize the AWD capabilities or the interior volume, then there are other vehicles that will deliver better fuel economy and/or performance. It all comes down to the expectations and useage by the driver.
You marry looks, you live with a person.
Who gives about looks, is it a good car?
Btw, Outbakcs are the only vehicle that all 3 Top Gear boys agreed on as being a very good vehicle.
The newer bigger ones are definitely family cars, but they are still great.
The older ones scream single guy, college student, ski/snowboarder bum. Problem is with the older ones you have the bad headgaskets.
All in all you can't go wrong with an outback, but like the guy above said, if you don't want AWD there are better wagons out there.
Bad headgaskets were prevailent in the 2.5 NA (normally aspirated) motors from the early 2000's through about 2006. After that they corrected the issue. The XT (Turbo) versions had a different head gasket and never experience the same issues. The H6 or 6 cylinder models also were immune to the head gasket problems.
My son's 2005 XT has 85K on it and he drives it like he stole it most times. No issues with HG failure. Two CV boot repairs (left and right), rear wheel bearing replacement (on Subaru's dime), replaced PS, alt and air belts and regular oil and tire changes are the extent of the repairs thus far.
Agreed that if AWD is not high on your list of needs there are better MPG people haulers out there.
He lives in Phoenix I don't think he needs awd. I heard awd systems are more maintenance and go through tires alot faster
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