10 Things You Didn't Know about the Subaru Outback (5th Generation)

hey everyone i'm here with a 2018 subaru outback and today i want to do 10 things that you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback that had model years 2015 to 2019 in the north american market so the first thing you didn't know about the fifth generation outback is that it actually is now classified as a crossover sport utility vehicle for this generation the previous generations were classified as station wagons according to the national highway traffic safety administration in the united states now with the increased weight due to the six-cylinder horizontally opposed boxer engine as well as the overall height length and diamond overall footprint of the vehicle it is now classified as an suv for the fifth generation the second thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that for the 2018 model year which this car actually received a refresh for which included new styling bits new interior features new wheels new trim among another you know many hosts of changes but it also gained a reinforced crash structure on the passenger side of the vehicle in order to meet the rigorous institute for highway safety crash test a small overlap crash test and so the passenger side was reinforced and now it gets a good on the passenger side in addition to being having a good rating on the driver's side so the 2018 to 2019 uh post refresh outbacks are just a little bit safer than the pre-refreshed ones 2015 to 2017. the third thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that for models built after september 2017 so october 2017 and onwards through the 2019 model year they actually got a slightly better headlight design the 2018 and newer models the high-end models had led swiveling lights but for october 2017 and newer they actually were re-aimed and readjusted and designed just a little bit better in order to meet a good rating in the institute for highway safety's headlight test so now it is you know much more robust and you're able to see even farther during the night time so it improves your overall safety during nighttime driving and the easiest way to tell that your car was made october 2017 or newer is to go over to the driver's side door jamb and take a look here at the door card and you can tell this one was made october 2017 which is in the upper right hand corner and so now you know that this one is does have the uh the better headlights that came with that month build date for 2018 model year subaru outbacks the fourth thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that in order to improve side crash safety this is a very common thing with all subarus but in particular the outback has a metal rod that's part of the anti-intrusion beam and if you look underneath the door it's kind of hard to see at first but it actually has this reinforcement locking pin that connects to the anti-intrusion beam and this pin as the door closes actually lines up with this little notch here that keeps it locks it into the frame and some of the reinforcement bits of the body panels on the side they call this the door aperture there's usually reinforcements here so it sounds pretty solid there's probably two or three panels body panels that come together right here that this locks into so it keeps the door from intruding any farther into where your kids might be sitting in the back seat in a really severe side collision and it doesn't affect like the way the door closes it's pretty much almost invisible so it's a really nice feature for safety that subaru includes on most of their models including the fifth generation subaru outback the fifth thing you didn't know about the subaru outback is that it actually has long range radar sensors mounted in the rear bumper of the vehicle that not only can detect cars coming from the side so it has rear cross path detection with rear automatic emergency braking to prevent you from hitting anything that might be behind the vehicles that the rear sensors sonar sensors would detect but the long range radar sensors are mounted in the rear corner of the rear bumper and basically it can detect almost a football field behind the vehicle and as you're driving it'll monitor for traffic that's fast approaching from an adjacent lane next to you so that if you turn on your turn signal it'll flash the light mounted on the inboard side of the rear view side mirrors so it's really hard to tell but basically it's a light that's mounted right here so it's kind of a good indicator for you to look and see if someone's fast approaching and let's say you're doing you know 60 miles an hour on the highway and someone's doing 90 plus miles per hour this car will sense that person coming really fast this way and will warn you when that car is still a football field behind you so that way it'll make you aware that someone is coming up really fast and not to change lanes the sixth thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that when you actually disconnect the battery like during a replacement of the battery or if you do a battery load test you actually have to reprogram all of the automatic up and down windows on the vehicle and this really only applies to the touring model of the outback but it's a best practice to use if your rear windows still don't work after performing this operation on the front automatic windows for base through limited models so when you disconnect the battery and you put you know reconnect the battery it resets a lot of computers on the car during that process including the automatic up and down windows and i suspect that's because the uh automatic uh up down windows on this passenger and side doors are hooked up via the electrical can bus system that basically you will not have control over the automatic up down function of the windows after reconnecting the battery so the thing you have to do is actually go around to every single door and hold up on the window switch for five seconds so you do it five seconds on the driver's side then you walk over to the passenger side hold up the switch for five seconds to when the window is fully up then you go over to each of the rear doors perform the same operation and hold up for five seconds on each door switch with the windows fully up and that will reset all the automatic windows so they will do auto down and auto up from any door and from the master switch on the driver's door so that is something that most people don't know when they reconnect the battery on these cars that subaru dealers know and some master techs will know during the service procedure for battery replacement on these cars but if you're you know a do-it-yourself kind of person that's something you should know about these vehicles so that way the windows work properly after getting a new battery or disconnecting it doing any other repairs the seventh thing you didn't know about the subaru outback the fifth generation subaru outback is that all these vehicles have a electronic parking brake that actually doubles as a emergency brake in emergency situations if you look in your owner's manual you can actually if the long as the car is in gear or neutral so reverse driver neutral and you're going over four miles an hour if you pull this parking brake button for a few seconds i think it's 1.5 seconds or so there's a slight delay just to make sure that you really intend to slow the vehicle down it'll actually pull on the the rear rear electronic parking brake at a moderate force not enough to lock up the brakes on even wet surfaces maybe on snow or ice but in you know most surfaces it will just bring the car to a really quick stop as an emergency and it will continue to hold the rear brakes even after coming to a stop you'll have to turn off the parking brake once you come to a stop so it's a really nice feature on the fifth generation outbacks as a safety measure is that this parking brake doubles as an emergency brake in addition when you get out of the vehicle with your seat belt off and the car is in drive or in reverse or neutral so basically in gear and the doors are unlocked and you attempt to exit my seat belts off and the car thinks oh this person might get out of their car and uh the car's in gear and you open the door it'll then chime very loud to move the shift lever to park and that's a safety feature to alert the driver or whoever's in the vehicle attempting to leave while the car is in gear so that's a really nice feature to get the driver's attention to prevent roll away risk for these vehicles the eighth thing you didn't know about the subaru outback the fifth generation is that it actually has these approach lights that are mounted on the mirror that are a optional accessory they don't even come with a trim level i think they're optional accessories that come with the auto dimming rear view mirror and they're they double as puddle lights but they're also approach lights and exit lights so right now the lights are on as you can tell they just turned off but if i open the door they open they turn on again and when i get out of the vehicle and i lock the door that light will remain on so if i lock the door using the button here infrared that light at night will actually stay on until i'm more than about 20 feet away from the vehicle once i get about 20 feet away from the vehicle the lights the puddle lights will automatically turn off and at night if you if it senses you have the key on you and you walk up towards the vehicle while it is still locked before it unlocks the door before you grab the door handle to unlock it if you approach and the it's night time the dusk sensor in the windshield senses that it's night nighttime before you even get to the vehicle if you're within 20 feet it'll actually turn on the puddle lights on the ground from the mirror as an approach lighting feature to kind of welcome you to the vehicle before you even get there and unlock the door yourself now if i unlock the door and get in and turn on the vehicle it will turn off that side light because when i lock it that light will fade away but if it was night time that light would stay on until i'm 20 feet away from the vehicle and it senses that the key's on me so it's a really nice feature that these outbacks and it also applies a subaru legacy for the fifth generation 2015 to 2019 that basically is a nice little kind of you know entryway into this this kind of new era of using lighting as a technology and welcoming and exiting feature for modern vehicles the ninth thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that it actually has front seat cushion airbags that are mounted at the bottom of the seat cushion and it's basically underneath here it's really hard to tell but underneath the seat cushion it has an airbag that will actually push the bottom seat cushion up by a few inches in order to keep someone who's wearing a loose-fitting seat belt or is very short or small in stature from sliding underneath the seat belt which is called submarining and that would cause the seat belt to basically cut into your abdomen so this feature by lifting the front of the seat bottom seat cushion by a few inches during a frontal collision and you can see the srs srs airbag tag right here indicating that the bottom seat cushion has a airbag it will prevent you from sliding underneath during a severe frontal collision which could cause the belt to uh rip into your abdomen causing severe internal injuries so it's really nice that subaru thought about that and more and more cars are starting to get this feature but the subaru outback for the fifth generation was one of the first starting in 2015. and the tenth thing you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback is that underneath this cargo floor it actually has a tether built in that will allow you to if like you're changing out your tire or something and need the jack and need some tools that are underneath here which is really nice for subaru to include includes a tow hook as well so to pull somebody out of the ditch or to get yourself pulled out of the ditch you can attach that to the frame of the vehicle just right there there's a little notch in the bumper that you take the cover off of and put that tow hook in there but if you need access to this it's actually really nice because subaru includes a little tether here that you can hook onto the body and it'll actually allow you to hold this up on the weather stripping and you see this on a lot of german cars but basically this hook will allow you to hook it onto the weather stripping up here in order to keep this from getting in your way if you're trying to change a tire on the side of the road so that's really nice feature and then there's also a little baggie here that you can put your tire in um in case you have a dirty tire let's say you got stuck in some snow or mud and got a flat tire and you got to put the dirty tire in here you just put it in this bag here that basically expands and um that way it doesn't get your cargo area all dirty after you change your tires so subaru is actually very proactive in allowing their customers to remove um and get like a spare tire that's underneath the floor so it's really nice that subaru includes all that makes it really easy for owners to do maintenance and fix fix things on their fifth generation subaru outback so that's ten things that you didn't know about the fifth generation subaru outback and many of these things many owners already know but i hope that you learned a few things today that you know if you're an outback owner or if you're looking in the market for one of these vehicles now you know what kind of special features might be hidden underneath the skin that you didn't know about these cars and what makes them special what makes them unique and makes them pretty much a joy to own and uh and drive in they're super comfortable super actually super fun to drive for a crossover sport utility vehicle maybe they could use a little bit more power but the new ones have the turbo engine for 2020 and newer which will be a completely different video that i hope to make in the future but if you're in the market for one of these cars they're fantastic and i hope you learned something today if you have any questions or comments put them in the section below thanks everyone for watching bye

Channel: Born to Drive ™

Views: 14,937

Keywords: subaru, forester, crosstrek, impreza, ascent, outback, hybrid, toyota, fast, slow, safe, safest, dog, love, dogs, puppy, commercial, forest, wildlife, factory, plant, PHEV, PZEV, boxer, engine, electric, features, technology, eyesight, test, vs, versus, honda, nissan, wrx, sti, failure, head, gasket, transmission, CVT, problems, issues, fail, environment, off-road, off, road, interior, exterior, iihs, NHTSA, NCAP, united, states, japan, japanese, used, new, LED, best, worst, wagon, AWD, all, wheel, drive, symmetrical, mpg, fuel, economy, secret, asian, hidden, rev, brz

Id: EQ-7eTsfUnQ

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021