Michaell's 2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R

Michaell · July 2015

After living in Colorado for 22 years, and being married to a native of the state for 18 of them, we finally acquired our first Subaru - the unofficial state car for Colorado.

In February, we purchased a 2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R with pretty much all the bells and whistles.

In short, the wife loves the car - it's her daily driver, and to her, it's a luxury car. In the five months we've owned the car, we've done the following:

Taken one 1700 mile road trip
Explore all the technology the car has
Deal with the first recall (see point above)

I'll cover those topics, along with how and why we bought this car and what it's like to live with on a daily basis, in subsequent posts.

I'll have to find a picture of it to post, as well.

Michaell · July 2015

How did we come to have this Wilderness Green Outback end up in our driveway?

A combination of factors, really. And a bit of a back story on our previous car is in order to set the context.

Prior to the Subaru, the wife drove a 2010 Mazda CX-7 GT AWD. Loaded with all the bells and whistles for the time - nav, Bluetooth, rear camera. Zoom zoom, as the Mazda folks would say. Bought it as a leftover with about 3000 miles on it. This car was equipped with the 2.3L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, which made lots of power (wife likes that). No real problems with the car - one small recall issue which was handled by the dealer.

However, there is a known issue with this engine that could result in a failure of the turbo, requiring an engine rebuild. From what I'd researched, Mazda seemed inconsistent as to whether they'd cover the repair costs, in whole or in part. So, this has been in the back of my mind for some time.

The wife was ready for something new - more "wagon-y" in her words. So, no SUV this time around. That didn't leave a lot of choices on the market. Specifically, the Outback, the Toyota Venza and the Volvo XC70 seemed to be the only options. The Volvo was pushing $50K when optioned up the way we like it - out of our budget. The Toyota was dismissed after she saw it in person, so that left the Subaru.

After configuring the car she wanted on-line (3.6R trim in Wilderness Green with Ivory Leather, equipped with the Nav and Eyesight package), I contacted the local dealer to arrange a test drive.

They had no 3.6R's on the lot, at all. There was one car that was already sold to a customer that they would let us drive, but that just seemed weird to me, so I passed.

Got on-line with other Subaru dealers in Colorado, and found what we wanted at two dealers - one in Denver, the other in Colorado Springs. Since we live equidistant from both, I left it up to the wife as to which dealer to visit. She chose Denver (happened to be the sister store to the one where we got the Mazda).

The car in question was "in transit", so we went to the dealer to drive a similarly equipped car in a different exterior color. The test drive went very well, so we left a (refundable) deposit on the Wilderness Green car that would arrive at the store in a couple weeks time.

Right on schedule, the salesman called us and let us know the car was on the lot. Went down the next day - which happened to be the last day of the month - and made the deal.

Before arriving at the dealer, I took the Mazda to both a local CarMax and another operation - Echo Park, owned by Sonic Automotive - for a fair trade value. Glad I did this, as the Subaru dealer initially offered $2K less in trade than those quotes. Once that was settled, the rest of the deal went pretty smoothly. Subarus are pretty hot commodities here in Colorado, so I wasn't quite able to secure the selling price I had hoped, but got a decent deal nonetheless. Wife came in later to sign paperwork, and we were on our way.

We arranged to have tint added to the windows and a clear bra applied, so the 'customer service' team would reach out to us to schedule that in the next week or so.

Michaell · August 2015

Here is a recent picture .... after it got all spiffed up:

stever · August 2015

Outbacks sure have changed since my '97 Limited.

MarkHolthoff · August 2015

That's a great color!

Michaell · August 2015

MarkHolthoff said:
That's a great color!

Wilderness Green Metallic ... new for 2015. Only color the wife wanted. Ivory leather interior. Will get photos of that next.

Michaell · August 2015

The Outback (nicknamed Star Lorde - don't ask) is mostly used for commuting duty, but not every day. Wife and daughter work for the same employer, so they'll split the driving duties.

However, in June we did take it on a road trip - 1700 miles round trip from our home in Colorado to Sedona, AZ. This was the third trip we've taken to Sedona, each one in a different vehicle ('08 VUE, '10 Mazda CX-7 and now the '15 Outback).

One great feature of the Outback that was very apparent on this trip was the range - never have I driven a car that could do the 800+ mile trip on only two tanks of gas. 18 gallon gas tank coupled with actual MPG of around 27-28 (right on the EPA estimate) allowed us to drive to Santa Fe, NM easily and then to Sedona the next day.

The Outback is very comfortable and quiet on the interstate. The H6 engine pulls nicely up the hills and mountains of I-25 and I-40. The Eyesight-based adaptive cruise control allowed me to set the cruise at 80 (outbound) or 84 (return trip) and not worry about slower traffic. Once you set the distance between you and the car in front of you, the car automatically slows down and speeds up. Very stress free.

Plenty of room for a weeks worth of clothes, golf clubs and other road trip accoutrements; only had to fold one half of the rear seat down and rearward visibility was never impaired.

All in all, a car that I'd gladly drive across country, should the opportunity present itself.

Michaell's 2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R

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