2022 Subaru Outback Interior Review - Seating, Infotainment, Dashboard and Features (2023)

Station wagons have become very scarce these days, and whenever you see one there is a high chance that it would be a Subaru Outback. It remains the sole production model in the category at this price point.Subaru just used the traits that a modern crossover SUV has on their station wagon and added many desirable technical and safety features. The 2022 Outback has a raised suspension, body cladding that gives it a tough and bold look. But when you sit behind the steering wheel you realize it has a more car-like feel to it.

The interior of the 2022 Outback is quite contradictory to its exterior. Where on one hand the exterior screams adventure, thanks to the body cladding and raised ride height, the interior presents itself as being more functional than fancy. The base trim offer limited features, while the higher trims do enjoy more fancy features such as ventilated and heated front seats, heated rear seats, and a few more. The 2022 Subaru Outback is the only offering in the segment so there are no direct rivals. However, it gives close competition to a few similarly priced crossover SUVs like the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson and Toyota RAV4.

2022 Subaru Outback Interior Design, Dimensions, and Comfort

The 2022 Subaru Outback comes with a subtleand functional interior. It uses good qualitymaterials on the inside and comes with basic features that you will find in similarly priced rivals of the day. The base trim comes with manually adjustable front seats, cloth upholstery, automatic climate control, and two 7.0-inch touchscreen displays. Taking a step up to the Premium trim, the front driver seat gets power adjustment capabilities, dual-zone automatic climate control, and a massive 11.6-inch touchscreen infotainment display.

The Onyx Edition XT offers 8-way power-adjustable front passenger seat and heated outboard rear seats as standard. The Wilderness trim offers trim-specific design elements like anodized copper-finish accents.The top end Touring and Touring XT trims come with fancier features like a heated steering wheel, power-operated sunroof, premium audio system, leather upholstery and ventilated front seats. Even with the raised ride height getting in and out of the Outback is easy and visibility all around is also great. The driver has a good view of the road ahead thanks to the elevated seats. Moreover, the seats offer excellent support and comfort.

Speaking of the seats, the base trim comes with Slate Black cloth upholstered seats. The Titanium Gray or Warm Ivory interior color choices are available from Premium trim. A leather-wrapped steering wheel is also standard from the Premium trim onwards. The Limited trim comes with leather upholstered seats while the Touring trim comes with Nappa leather upholstery in a single color choice that is Java Brown. Moreover, the Onyx Edition XT comes with a unique Gray StarTex with green stitching. This is a vinyl-like material that is water repellant making it more usable during off-road adventures. The Wilderness trim uses the same material with orange stitching and has exclusive ‘Wilderness’ logos embossed on the headrests. The overall space available inside the Outback is competitive compared to a lot of compact crossovers.

The 2022 Subaru Outback offers adequate space and a seating capacity of five in both rows combined. However, the 2022 Hyundai Tucson is the most spacious among the listed rivals, closely followed by the Honda CR-V. Moreover, the 2022 Tucson offers the most legroom in the rear and its interior looks more premium than the rest. The Toyota RAV4, though it looks bigger on the outside, the overall interior passenger space it offers is the least in the comparison. The maximum passenger volume is offered by the Outback, followed by Tucson, CR-V and RAV4.

2022 Subaru Outback Infotainment

The 2022 Outback comes with two different infotainment setups. The base trim comes with two 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment displays. The screen placed in the center of the dash manages all the infotainment duties while the screen placed below it houses all the controls for the air conditioning. Other standard features include the likes of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and Bluetooth connectivity. From the Premium trim, you get a big 11.6-inch vertically oriented touchscreen infotainment display powered by the updated StarLink infotainment system.

The graphics on the base unit looks datedand the response is quite average. The portrait style infotainment unit comes with higher resolutionand touch response is comparatively better too. The in-built navigation systembecome standard from the Touring trim, whereas it is optional on the rest of the trims. For your music needs, the base trim comes equipped with a simple four-speaker sound system and the Premium trim comes with a six-speaker system. However, for the best experience we recommend you to get the 572-watt 12-speaker Harman Kardon Premium sound system, standard on the Limited and Touring trims. Other optional features include WiFi hotspot and additional USB ports.

Some key infotainment features are:

• Two 7-inch touchscreen display
• Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
• 11.6” touchscreen display (Optional)
• 4G Wi-Fi hotspot
• 4-speaker sound system
• 12-speaker Harman Kardon Audio System (Optional)
• Wireless smartphone charging pad (Optional)
• Built-in navigation (Optional)
• StarLink infotainment system

2022 Subaru Outback Cargo Capacity

The 2022 Subaru Outback is not your traditional crossover SUV; it is a station wagon so it is quite practical. It offers 32.5 cubic-feet of space behind the second row of seats. As per our estimation, thiscargo space is enough to store enough camping equipment required by four people or up to 11 carry-on suitcases.

The second-row seats come in a 60/40 split-folding configuration. It folds flat down to increase the available cargo space to 75.7 cubic-feet. The Onyx Edition XT model gets crossbars on the roof rack for even more storage space whereas the Wilderness model comes with model-specific roof rails that offer a carrying capacity of 700-pounds. The Onyx Edition XT, Wilderness, Limited, Limited XT, Touring and Touring XT trims comewith hands-free power rear gate for enhanced convenience.

The Honda CR-V comes with the most standard cargo space, while Hyundai Tucson has the highest maximum cargo capacity rated at 80.3 cubic feet. The Subaru Outback despite being a wagon offers the least amount of space as standard. However, when it comes to the maximum cargo space, the 2022 Toyota RAV4 is the one that disappoints the most, considering its exterior dimensions.

Additional Interior Storage Spaces

You get generous in-cabin storage spaces as well in the 2022 Subaru Outback. To name a few, you get a small-overhead compartment, glove box, center console bin. An underfloor cargo storage compartment is also available and the door pockets on all four doors are also deep enough to store in your daily use items. A total of eight cup and bottle holders are also present inside the cabin.

2022 Subaru Outback Creature Comforts

The base trim is priced at $26,945 and is the least equipped in the lineup. Features include cloth upholstery, manually adjustable front seats, single zone automatic climate control, and two 7.0-inch touch screens to handle the infotainment duties. A ten-way power-adjustable driver seat with heating function for both the front seats becomes available from Premium trim. Two rear USB-ports, dual-zone automatic climate control, a leather wrapped steering wheel, and the bigger 11.6-inch infotainment touch screen display are also standard in the Premium trim.

The Limited trim brings power-adjustability to the passenger seat and a two-position seat memory function for the driver’s seat. Heated rear seats, keyless access with push-button start, a hands-free liftgate, and premium 12-speaker sound system are also standard on the Limited trim. The Limited XT trim comes with a power-operated moonroof, heated steering wheel, and navigation. The Wilderness and Onyx XT trim come with StarTex water-repellent upholstery.

Verdict

The 2022 Subaru Outback’s interior is more practical and ergonomic rather than luxurious and plush. It comes with decent quality materials and has few desirable features offered on the base model. The higher trims come with premium quality materials, better features, advanced multimedia and technology,which gives an alluring feel to the entire interior. Also, you get quite a lot of storage options inside the cabin, courtesy of clever interior design by Subaru. Surely, the 2022 Outback is a decent offeringin terms of practicalityin our review.

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