Subaru Is Asking Owners If They Want a Manual SUV Back

An Enthusiast’s Brand

Subaru is known for its dependability, ruggedness, and capability. All of these were honed over the years as the brand competed in the Rallying scene, where it was even dominant. That relationship with racing showed that it’s an enthusiasts’ brand through and through.

Times have, of course, changed, but Subaru has been one of the few automakers that has tried to stick to its core beliefs as much as possible. A recent survey circulating among US owners is generating significant excitement within the enthusiast community.

Stick Shift SUV

Reddit is a platform where content goes viral quickly, and Redditor Macgyver452 posted a screenshot of the survey in question. It was even posted on the Subaru subreddit, their community. The post’s photos show the Subaru logo and the question, “Would you consider buying a manual transmission SUV in the future?” What follows is a litany of choices to answer the question, ranging from Definitely Not to Definitely. We think we know which option the Subaru owners are likely to choose.

Surveys are generally private matters, not just sent to the public; in this case, only a select few owners received the survey prompt via email. Also, no indication was given which model would receive the treatment, but based on the current lineup, everything appears to be a candidate except the EV Solterra.

If we were to hazard a guess, though, we could narrow down the possibilities to the models that have a Wilderness variant like the Crosstrek, Forester, or Outback. Given that the Wilderness line is for hardcore enthusiasts, the manual transmission makes the most sense here, as opposed to the highway cruising Ascent or the more tame variants of the aforementioned three models.

Hoping On The Trend

For reference, the last Subaru to offer a manual was the 2023 Crosstrek; the Forester lost it after 2018, and the Outback went fully automatic after 2015. At the time, it seemed the days of manuals were numbered, and we all played our small violins as we saw brand after brand cut down on third pedal shifting.

Recently, though, the enthusiast market has picked up, with multiple marques reinstating manuals on their performance models. We’ve seen the numbers increase over time. In 2025, there were still around 32 models offering a manual, but the vast majority were performance cars.

Granted, the numbers don’t lie – the average percentages of manual car sales in the US fluctuate from 1% – 2% annually. Profits for these models won’t be volume-driven, but Subaru will be doing itself a huge favor branding-wise if they actually do it.