2020 Subaru Outback vs Toyota RAV4

What's the difference?

The Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium is exceptionally good in terms of value, practicality, its design and build quality, safety and in the way it drives. Many might overlook it as just a station wagon and go for a tall SUV instead, not realising that the Outback is exactly what they need.

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My feelings of hope for improvements from Toyota have given way to expectation. Traditionally its cars have been safe, well-built, and high quality, just boring to drive and imbued with a bit much of a "just enough" attitude. The RAV4 GX Hybrid might be nearly forty grand on the road but it has an excellent safety package, genuine fuel-saving hybrid technology and plenty of room for you and your stuff.

Fun to drive SUVs don't always have the blue halo of electrification. Somehow Toyota has injected (a sensible amount of) fun into the RAV4 which is kind of funny given how much money the brand has spent pretending it's fun. But it's happened and that's a good thing.

Is the Subaru Outback a wagon or an SUV? Well, it’s sort of a cross between them and it could be the perfect vehicle for people who don’t want an SUV but still want the elevated ride height, extra ground clearance and practicality of a sports utility vehicle.

The Outback shares much of the Subaru Liberty sedan’s underpinnings and this is good for its ride comfort and handling, but more on that in the driving section below.

I’m a fan of the Outback’s tough plastic wheel guards and chunky side skirts, oversized fog lights and hardcore looking roof racks. The seriously dark privacy glass to the rear and back windows looks great and so does the roof top spoiler.

What are the Outback’s dimensions? The Outback is large at 4820mm long, 1840mm wide and 1675mm. Ground clearance is 213mm. Regular cars normally have around 170mm and the Toyota RAV4’s is 195mm.

'Crystal White Pearl' was the colour of my test car, but there are 10 hues to choose from including 'Crimson Red', 'Wilderness Green', 'Dark Blue' and 'Crystal Black.'

The 2.5i Premium’s cabin feels sumptuous with soft-touch, high-quality feeling materials and an excellent fit and finish.

There are hints that the cockpit is starting to age from a styling perspective and the new generation Outback coming by 2021 will surely see the interior move to a more modern look.

To those new to Subaru it can be a bit confusing working out where the Outback fits into the brand’s SUV range, which can look a bit samey. So, what you need to know is that the XV is the small SUV, the Forester is the mid-sized one and the Outback is the large SUV-ish station wagon.

I do like the new RAV4 more than the old one. A few angles are a little too... um, angly, and from the rear seems to have pinched its look from the VW Tiguan. Sometimes in traffic I double take because the badges and tail-lights don't match. I doubt it's completely deliberate, but the resemblance is there.

Further similarity to the competition is evident in the nose, with a distinct whiff of Forester. Either way, the RAV4 is more interesting and much sharper than its flabby predecessor.

I really dig the interior, though. Not so much for its beauty - its left-field competitor, the Peugeot 3008 wins that race hands down - but for, again, how much better it is than the old car, and how clever it is.

Everything looks and feels much better, with nicer materials and some lovely touches like the industrial motif in the rubber bits that line things like the the cupholder, boot floor and the tray cut into the dash. The rubberised climate control dials are a nice touch, adding a halo of ruggedness and practicality. I prefer the cloth interior, too.

The Outback is a spacious five-seater wagon with excellent head and legroom in the second row. I’m 191cm tall and could sit behind my driving position with about 40mm to spare. Space up front is good, too, with plenty of elbow and shoulder room.

Cabin storage is great, with four cupholders (two up front and two in the second row), large door pockets, a deep centre console storage bin, map pockets in the seat backs, and a covered area in front of the shifter which houses two USB ports and a 12-volt outlet.

There are two USB charging ports in the second row and directional air vents. Another 12-volt outlet is located in the boot.

The cargo capacity of the boot is 512 litres with the second row in place, and 1801 litres with the rear seats folded down.

Large, tall and wide opening doors along with the raised ride height makes getting in and out a breeze, and also means putting little kids into their seats is easy on the back.

The roof racks are standard on all Outbacks and their toughness (I’ve danced on them – see the video) and design means they’re more than just for show.

Take a look at the front and rear door sills, too . They’ve been widened for you to stand on while loading your kayaks/mountain bikes/queen-sized mattress onto the roof.

Under the boot floor is a full-sized spare alloy wheel, and this pleases me big time. Many SUVs seem to promise adventure but only come with a space saver spare which will limit you to 80km/h and a few hundred kilometres at the most.

Finally, here’s something that not many people know about the Outback – you can lock and unlock it without a key, using a PIN number. To find out how watch my video above. You’ll also see me lock myself out of the car while the keys are on the dashboard.

The RAV is very nicely packaged, which isn't something you can say about the Corolla or C-HR. Front seat passengers score a big phone sized cubby hole in the console as well as couple of litres underneath the armrest along with a little tray.

The two cupholders are placed just ahead of the armrest. The dash also sports a Kluger-style split, thoughtfully lined with rubber for your passenger's bits and pieces. Just the one USB port, though, which is a shame - the GXL and up have another four. Seems a bit stingy for rear-seat passengers.

Rear seat dwellers score two cupholders and all four doors have bottle holders. There is also plenty of space back there with good head and leg room and air-con vents.

The boot has a clever two-position floor to eke out a few more litres if you need them. In its lowest position you have 580 litres (assuming you don't have an optional full-size spare).

Set it higher, and level with the boot loading lip, you have 542 litres. As is Toyota's habit, the company doesn't have an official figure for a folded seat situation.

The GX Hybrid is obviously a bit more than (and a commensurate improvement on) the 2.0-litre GX, costing $35,490 ($39,606 drive-away) before any of the very skinny options list is added. So skinny it's basically a full-size spare and only available in this grade.

Base models just aren't what they used to be, especially not at Toyota, and particularly not when the price starts with a 35. You get 17-inch alloys, a six-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, central locking, front and rear parking sensors, active cruise control, sat nav, auto LED headlights, auto wipers and a space-saver spare.

It's also a Toyota with (clears throat) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on its prominent 8.0-inch touchscreen. Massive win.

Joining the belated digital revolution is DAB+ radio with a dire interface that reminds you how bad the embedded software is, despite a hefty upgrade in the last year or so.

I should note the car I drove was a pre-November 1, 2019 build and was yet to have CarPlay activated, but the identical system on the C-HR and Corolla has it.

The Outback 2.5i Premium has, you guessed it, a 2.5-litre petrol boxer engine making 129kW of power and 235Nm of torque. Personally, I prefer the much more powerful and torquey 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine in the Outback range, but you’ll have to step up to the pricier 3.6R grade to unlock that beastie.

Boxer engines are different from traditional ones in that the pistons move horizontally like a boxer punching rather than up and down. One of the benefits of this is a lower centre of mass which improves handling.

All Outbacks are all-wheel drive and have a continuously variable transmission (CVT) which isn’t my first choice when it comes to automatics as they seem to take the torque and just turn it into a droning noise.

That said, if I had to live with a CVT for the rest of my life I’d choose a Subaru CVT as they seem to get the drive to the wheels better than those made by other brands.      

The Outback 2.5i Premium has a braked towing capacity of 1500kg.

The cheapest RAV4 Hybrid comes with a 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine allied to an electric motor and a CVT auto driving the front wheels. Toyota is famously conservative with its mixed-power numbers, quoting a combined 160kW (up from 152kW in the non-hybrid and 127kW in the GX 2.0-litre) and down from the AWD's 163kW.

The company will only quote the combustion engine's torque figure, which is a fairly ho-hum 221Nm. It's clearly more than that with the electric motor boosting away, but alas, we don't have a proper number.

If you feel so inclined, the GX Hybrid will only tow a 480kg trailer (braked or unbraked), which rises to 1500kg braked for the AWD model.

Subaru says the 2.5-litre engine with the CVT should use 7.3L/100km over a combination of open and urban roads.

I drove 213km in my test car doing urban commutes into the city, as well as forays onto dirt trails and country roads, and used 26.6L measured at the fuel pump, which works out to be 12.5L/100km.

There weren’t many motorway kilometres in there and I should point out there were only 646km on the odometer when I started the test, which may account for the high fuel usage.

Given it's a hybrid, this is a rather important part of the package. The official Toyota figure comes in at 4.8L/100km on the combined cycle. 

Here's the astonishing bit. I got it. A week of driving around as I would normally and I scored an indicated 4.8L/100km. I did a bit of digging to see if there is a corresponding WLTP figure (as opposed to the ADR) and found it was bang on 4.8L/100km.

It's lucky, really, because the tank is a smidge on the small side (for long runs, anyway) at 55 litres.

The Subaru Outback feels like a car to drive but has the ground clearance to go where a regular car can’t. And when I say 'like a car to drive' I mean the Outback doesn’t feel tall and wobbly like an SUV.

The Outback’s boxer engine combined with a relatively low overall height gives the car gives a low centre of mass. This, and sharing the Liberty sedan’s platform means it handles better than almost every SUV in this segment, and feels planted with only modest body roll in the corners.

The ride is also composed and comfortable, the steering is accurate and well weighted, and pedal feel is excellent, too.

While the Outback isn’t a traditional four-wheel drive (with transfer case, diff locks, etc) and wouldn't be the ideal choice for serious off-roading, its 213mm ground clearance and full-time all-wheel drive system make it impressively capable on dirt and gravel roads.

The Outback has what’s called 'X-Mode' which is activated by pressing a button and manages the engine, transmission and all-wheel drive system to maintain optimum traction on loose surfaces.

There’s also 'SI Mode' which allows the driver to switch between a sports mode or a more fuel-efficient setting.

Toyota's experience with hybrid is unquestioned. The company has been doing it for donkeys, but mostly in the terminally dull Prius.

Now it's working its way through to other cars, including the refreshed C-HR, last year's all-new Corolla and here in the RAV4. This isn't the plug-in hybrid overseas markets get, which is a shame, but given what we already know about the fuel economy, not a massive let down.

During the week I had the car, I tried to see how fast I could go under electric power only. The battery is a small one and anything more than breathing on the throttle starts the combustion engine. A leisurely trundle down a long straight street near me saw 36km/h come up on the screen before hydrocarbons stepped in.

The hybrid system does a great job of getting you off the line, which in traffic is the bit that burns a lot of fuel. You can stay on electric in stop-start messiness when you're gentle on the throttle but it's not like, say, an Ioniq PHEV where you can get a good shove from the electric motor.

While it does whir and click a bit, the system is otherwise unobtrusive, although the initial bite on the brakes is a bit soft, which is understandable. You have to get used to it and it's not something from which other hybrids I've driven suffer. The transition from energy recovery to actual braking is a little awkward but once you're familiar, you'll stop noticing.

In terms of dynamics, the RAV4 is really nice to drive. There's enough feel in the steering to know what's going on, it rides well and responds to your inputs without the traditional Toyota pause or protests from either engine or tyres.

It doesn't roll too much, which is a massive improvement. And I'm sure a better set of tyres (over the OE Bridgestone Alenzas, which sound like an Aldi brand) would improve its overall grip.

I drove an AWD RAV4 straight after this one and I can't say there was a marked difference. So, unless you need all four wheels in action, you won't need to spend the extra.

The RAV4 ships with seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, trailer sway control, blind-spot monitor and reverse cross-traffic alert.

'Safety Sense' is standard across the range and includes lane departure warning, lane keep assist, forward AEB (with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection), road sign recognition, auto high beam and active cruise control.

There are two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors.

ANCAP awarded the RAV4 a maximum five star rating in May 2019.

The Outback is covered by Subaru’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and Subaru recommends servicing the Outback 2.5i Premium every six months or 12,500kms.

A five-year/125,000km capped price servicing plan covers the Outback and you can expect to pay $316.38 for the six-month service, then $316.38 for the 12-month visit, $404.64 for the 18-month service, $549.74 for the two-year check-up, and so on.

Over five years the total routine service bill should come to no more than $4560.49, according to Subaru.

The Outback also comes with 12 months of roadside assistance.

There isn't much more Toyota can do here - a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, seven years warranty on the engine and gearbox (if you keep it serviced by the book) and seven years of roadside assist.

On top of that, every 12 months or 15,000km you'll pay $210 per service, which is a bargain. This program covers the first four services, taking you to four years/60,000km.

For most people that's going to be fine and Toyota says it can knock the service over in 90 minutes, if you're happy to wait.