Excellent vehicle except.. battery dies in a week if not driven unless plugged into a maintainer.
2016, new Nov. 2015. Has been great with no issues, drives well,great mileage, quiet, comfortable seats and adult leg room front and back, good Navigation system, EyeSight system good, good size for active couple. But ..
Original battery died once at about 2000 miles after being parked in garage for several days, dead as a door-nail. Jump started OK, dealer tested, said no problems, just needs to be driven more often to maintain battery. Didn't think much about it until I was out of town, wife had her dependable new Outback with only 4300 miles. Had not been driven and in garage for a little over a week when she went to start it. Dead as a door-nail, again. I got home, discovered battery was really gone, just enough to start after 3 days on charger, bad cell. Dealer replaced with better, up graded battery. However ... We are still concerned that we will come out to our Outback at a trail head or in some other location after leaving the car sit for a few days and find we don't have power! We are among (apparently) many Outback owners whose battery died unexpectedly.
The 'standard' factory battery is junk and in all cases is replaced with a much better, higher grade/amperage battery (as was ours). All because the new design (2015 +) Outback is apparently DESIGNED with a fairly large (70mA) constant parasitic draw for the computer! Why aren't all customers apprised of this drawback when they purchase their vehicles?
Only other complaint thus far is that the standard sound system is lousy, if you like good sound. While the non- Harmon system supposedly has an equalizer function, it is factory equalized to prevent to user from actually contouring the sound. The bass is set so that no matter what you do, it is going to be excessively 'boomy' and 'thumpy', and there is very little real contouring allowed for the upper bass and mid-ranges, despite what the graphics show in the screen.
Recommended
Verified Owner
