A Legacy Wagon, But Taller
The idea of a wagon on stilts isn’t exactly new. One just has to look at the AMG Eagle 4×4 Wagon to see where it all began. Still, Subaru was inspired by that, hence why it built the Outback. It made its home market debut in 1994, around the same time as the RAV4. The rest of the world followed in 1996.
The formula was simple: take a Legacy Wagon, add a couple more inches of ground clearance, and give it more rugged styling. For the next six generations, Subaru didn’t change the recipe, and that’s all thanks to the Legacy Wagon. For as long as it was around, the Outback’s lineage could continue.
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New Direction
The seventh-generation Outback still rides on the Subaru Global Platform, but it’s no longer directly related to the Legacy because, well, it’s been axed. For this redesigned model, it’s more like a shortened Ascent. The body is much bigger than before, and the roof is higher up.
Overall, it looks more like a crossover now than a tall wagon. It’s as if the Outback had well and truly embraced its SUV genes. The loss of the Legacy had forced Subaru’s hand to do that, but the company has something to say about comments saying that the Outback is no longer a wagon.
Subaru Swears it’s a Wagon
More specifically, it’s Subaru Australia that insists on calling the current Outback a wagon. That’s according to a report from Drive during a recent get-together with Australian motoring media.
“Australians still want more out of their vehicle. They want substance. They don’t just want to look the part, [they want] vehicles that deliver confidence when the road turns rough. Outback has been and will remain our greatest all-terrain wagon,” said Scott Lawrence, general manager of Subaru Australia.
Admittedly, calling it an ‘all-terrain wagon’ is another way to avoid calling it a crossover. Then again, SUVs were classified as wagons before the term was coined, so perhaps Subaru Australia is clinging on to that. It’s a stretch, but it’s something.
Meanwhile, in America…
It seems as though the communications for the new Outback aren’t aligned worldwide. While the Australian office still calls it a wagon, Subaru North America has dubbed it an SUV. According to CarBuzz, customer clinics wanted more SUV elements in the redesigned model, which is why it looks the way it does now.
Either way, the seventh-gen Outback’s new direction will spark more debate down the line. If different Subaru offices can’t decide on what it really is, the lack of a ‘one voice’ makes this new model a bit of a category-buster.
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