Picked this up yesterday fora family roadster. It was a toss up between this and the RDX

overall, this was one of the few cars with - all tech safety, LEDs, apply car play, good gas mileage, leather in the low 300s/mo, zero down.

It is a 2018 limited w eyesight and remote start. The eyesight includes turning LED and accent lights, rear auto braking, lane departure, radar cruise, etc.

the interior on the 18s is quite nice too. My only qualm is that the seats aren’t the most comfortable and the lumbar, even at its lowest setting, is still a bit aggressive. The CVT and output
no frills. But the value is great for the awd safety and creature comforts

For the 18s they added more interior stitching, such as the door inserts, front and back. New wheel. More piano black trim, larger screen, apple car play, turning LED headlights. Etc. also the HVAC knobs have a hidden LED readout which looks high end. Even the clicking of the dials is nice.

I would say the interior is on par with the current RDX, maybe half a notch nicer. My options came out to a 37k sticker versus an RDX tech watch which would be 43kish. The negotiated price was closer to 33k, 335/mo inc tax, 10k 3 year, zero down, but 1500 out of pocket, which was mostly fees registration and 1st month. So everything said and done, it was probably less than a CRV, with the quality of an RDX and better MPG and AWD. The buyout is under 23k, so that could be really tempting as well. For the options, luxury features, awd and cargo, I can’t think of anything that could touch this price wise.

The only thing missing, besides the engine output, is a birds eye view camera and parallel parking assist. While it’s no speed demon, the CVT is fairly strung up, so the car has some pounce to it, that makes it seem peppy in city driving. The ride quality feels similar or better than the RDX. Very planted and smooth. While there’s no V6, I actually prefer this engine since it takes regular and gets 30 mpg, which is pretty nice for its purpose. My 65k mile A6, which I use for city driving strictly on weekends, still needs about 80/mo in gas, which is pretty astonishing.

i guess the only real downside here is that it’s a Subaru? And I’m not a 50 year old lesbian from New Hampshire???

You didn’t add the lesbian girlfriend package?

The new XC60 leases horribly. Easily 50% more a month for a similarly equipped car. Couldn’t justify it when the car will get 5-7k miles a year.

The CX9 was too big. The older CX5 felt like a tin can, and the new ones still weren’t too different. They also scored a C for rear facing seats. A CX7 would be perfect, but...

I personally like leasing over having money locked up in a depreciating asset. Even more so, I roll everything into monthlies as possible. Wouldn’t most finance guys say it’s smarter to lease, rather than the other was around?

Anyway, for us, we both work and commute via train to NYC. Cars don’t move during the week. Literally we walk out the front door. Truthfully, we don’t need a second car. I only leased this because I didn’t want our baby in a 65k mile Audi. The Subaru serves as something safe with good awd for baby duty and daily nanny and grandma care. Even if we only put 5k miles on it a year, it will only cost me 335/mo, which I could stomach as a baby expense knowing it’s for her safety. To lay out 20k down payment on say an X5 CPO to match the same monthly payment, only to have the car primarily sit Monday-Friday in the driveway wouldn’t be a smart financial decision. In short, the car is mostly going to be driven by nanny/MIL not us.

Plus, it’s a good segway to see if my wife likes it over three year lease and then we could buy it off lease. Which will save me 10s of thousands knowing if we were to purchase a car from the onset, she would probably want a more luxurious car, not a Subaru...that she won’t use much...Not to sound douchey. Lol. But that’s how I rationalized it from a numbers standpoint.

On another note

I put the car in xmode and drove around in 10 inches of unplowed snow. Holy shit. If you were a blindfolded passenger, you wouldn’t have even known there was snow on the ground. It felt like I was driving an emergency vehicle that was highly capable. Awesome car. Kind of want to take it off roading now.

I think x mode is new on the 18s outbacks, but has been around awhile on the foresters

number wise yes. But in reality, no. Bait and switch lease-to-buy could save your 10s of thousands.

Temporarily Leasing outback. Then convincing to purchase after getting accustomed to it <<< looking at X5s and RR Sports from the onset when Wife wants a nicer car for long term ownership