Test Drive with Nik Miles – 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition

Join Nik Miles as he goes over the ins and outs of the new 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition. Nik takes us on a test drive and tells us about all the newest upgrades, how the car feels while driving, and gives us an honest review of the vehicle.

After the video make sure to check out our amazing selection of Subaru Outbacks at our dealership in Vancouver.

Dick Hannah Subaru Outback – Wilderness Edition inventory

Transcription:

I’m Nik Miles and we’re at Dick Hannah Subaru in Vancouver. Today we’re going to take a look at the Subaru Outback, one of the best outdoor vehicles in the United States. This is the special Wilderness Edition, but the Outback has been the go-everywhere vehicle that people have taken skiing and on adventures for many years. We’re gonna put it on the road, we’re gonna take it for a drive, show you the inside, and tell you all about how it makes the perfect adventure vehicle.

So, what Subaru did is basically take the Premium Edition of their Outback and turn it into a Wilderness Edition by adding some very cool extra features. Now it still has the 11.6-inch touchscreen on the center console, which is basically this huge tablet on the inside, but they’ve added this anodized copper accents throughout the vehicle. They’ve also added lots of logoing, some badging, they’ve added these very durable seats on the inside which are waterproof, and if you take your pets in the vehicle, they get muddy, they get hairy, they’re easy to clean off.

Now let’s talk about driving dynamics. Improved steering in this vehicle, plus automatic stop/start, and let’s talk about a 2.4-liter turbo. Yes, 260 horsepower. Need a little acceleration? Feel that go. It’s a sudden injection of power and with an extra almost 10 inches of ground clearance this suddenly becomes a very capable and fun off-road vehicle that can do a lot of fun off-road driving. Married with what Subaru has in every or almost every one of their vehicles, that all symmetrical all-wheel-drive system, the boxer engine, which has the low center of gravity. This vehicle is extremely stable, it’s extremely easy to drive, and it’s a lot of fun. Take it off-road. It can now ford water. It has an ingress and an egress angle, which is much improved because of the height of the vehicle. And you can get quite a lot of speed out of it which is an awful lot of fun.

Now the low center of gravity and the symmetrical all-wheel drive mean not just in bad weather or inclement weather but makes it a much more dynamic fun to drive vehicle. But, if you take this into some camping roads, forest roads, and some off-road conditions, it’s also extremely capable. It not only looks good, but it performs really well in some of those off-road conditions. Now the Wilderness gauges, the Wilderness badging on the inside, and some very nice interior materials including that anodized copper on the inside and pedals and floor mats put a smile on my face.

Now to support your off-roading adventures or your snowy adventures this vehicle has a couple of extras which are absolutely necessary when you should decide to transverse something that’s a little bit difficult to get through for any normal vehicle but fairly simple to get through for any Subaru Outback in the Wilderness trim level and that is a 180-degree camera up front of the vehicle. That lets you see what you’re about to drive through. It also helps you navigate through water and helps you navigate around rocks, tree stumps, or anything else that might be in your path. Super useful to make sure that you don’t bash anything at the front of the vehicle. The other thing that this vehicle has is X-Mode and that X-Mode allows you to activate certain systems in the vehicle. Those systems allow you to retune the engine or the engine is re-tuned, all the vehicle dynamics are retuned to allow power to go where it needs to go so you could traverse some of those difficult terrains whether it be mud and ruts, whether it be snow and ice, or whether it just be nasty conditions that most vehicles aren’t able to get through. If you’re going for some kind of outdoor adventure X-Mode will help you. Plus, once you hit the camera button you can go through that deep snow or mud or the snow and dirt setting, and you can get through those because of the engine tuning and see exactly where you’re going. That’s a very very useful situation if you’re looking to take your Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition into some kind of adventure situation.

Now there is of course EyeSight that’s available in Subarus and EyeSight uses a camera system which looks at the road ahead, helps you with Front Collision Warning Systems, also Lane Departure Warning really keeps an eye on the road and what is going ahead of you. It also helps you make sure that when the vehicle ahead of you at the traffic light pulls away if you’re looking down at your phone that you know that that vehicle has pulled away and it’ll give you a couple of beeps. It gives you Starlink as well, also four months of Sirius Satellite Radio that comes with the vehicle, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay they come as part of this 11.6-inch infotainment screen. Plus, it’s easy to read, easy to navigate, and being touch screen means that you take little time to take your eyes off the road, select what you need, and put your eyes back on the road. Even the HVAC controls are easy to use because they are all digital. You can even select the seat heating at the bottom of the screen at any time you can turn that on if the snowy cold outside is too much for you and you need to warm your backside.

Now, most people are familiar with the exterior of the Outback, but the Wilderness Edition gets some other additions of some very cool things on the outside. It gets this reflective piece of material on the hood and that’s when you’re off-roading you don’t get the sun bouncing off of the hood into your eyes. Now we chose a black version of this vehicle because it looks so cool but there are multiple different versions of the vehicle available. It gets a 9.5-inch lift all around the vehicle and that means anything from this simple gravel all the way through to water, snow, mud, and even ice are no problem for this vehicle whatsoever. It gets a very unique bumper up front, and you can see these anodized copper inserts here at the front. This makes it unique and a Wilderness Edition as well.

If you come around to the sides it gets unique cladding above the wheels, a unique wheel version as well, the Subaru Wilderness badging on the doors. I love the shape of these monochromatic dark, matte mirrors. There’s a signal light embedded in the mirrors, and I think the look of the black is great on the doors here with the matte window trim and of course the matte cladding all the way along the back. You see the body line swoops up towards the back of the vehicle, it has this arrow spoiler on the back of the liftgate, the cladding around the back, the very cool wheel look which is unique to the Wilderness Edition as well.

I love the rear of the Outback Wilderness as much as the front. LED lights at the back that have this smoky glass over them, all the badging at the back, the Subaru name, the symmetrical all-wheel drive badging, the Outback badging, and the Wilderness badging has that dark smoky look to it as well. This of course has a tow package on it. It will tow 3,500 pounds. It has a unique bumper, it has this anodized copper badging at the back as well, unique tailpipes as well, an automatic trunk that can open with a kick or from the key fob can be unlocked.

In the back, you can see once it’s open there is huge amounts of space here. A cargo mat comes standard. The cool thing about this, by the way as well, is under the back here there is a full-size spare as well. But there is 32 plus cubic feet of space, put all the seats down and there is over 75 cubic feet of space. That’s a lot of space to get all of your family’s gear and haul it around. Plus, if that’s not enough space, there is a ladder roof rack on top of the vehicle.

Now let’s check out the back seat. Over 39 inches of legroom in the back of the Subaru Outback. That is a lot of legroom. And there are also USB ports in the back here, two 2.1 amperage, and heated rear seats with two different heating modes. Don’t let the kids get too comfortable back here. You can also get five people quite comfortably in the back, lots of headroom here, there are map pockets in the back of both seats, and of course plenty of room for cup holders and bottles in the back. So great for a long journey and comfortable seats.

If you’re interested in test driving a brand-new Outback or the Wilderness Edition, they have them in stock right now at Dick Hannah Subaru in Vancouver. Just give them a call, come down, and test drive one of the most exciting adventure vehicles available today.