I owned a RAV4 Adventure for a year. 2020 or 2021 model. It was nice in most Toyota ways. I had 3 issues that made me go back to Subaru.

Tailgate issue that Toyota or at least the dealer, was very difficult to get them to fix. A big deal. The tailgate wouldn’t open at times. It was intermittent but about every 2 or 3 days it just wouldn’t open. You would eventually have to try every button/way and eventually one of them would work then it was fine for another day or two. Toyota sucked and never actually even really tried to fix it until I just got ugly with them. Totally surprised by their GAS attitude.

The transmission. It was a standard old school transmission. No CVT which seems to get all kinds of complaints. Every shift was like a small kick in your back. Rough shifting, unexpected shifting, ugh. CVT on all my Subaru’s was way better. I could have lived with this issue.

Engine. 202 hp in a fairly heavy crossover/SUV felt underpowered all the time. At the time I lived on a lake with a big hill. Every trip up that hill was an exercise in the transmission hunting for the right gearing and an emotional exercise of wishing it had another couple dozen hp. Underpowered for size. My Crosstrek with the bigger 2.5 would smoke that RAV4 and feels appropriately powered. Toyota needs a bigger motor in this one.

I've had my Outback for about a year now. It's a 2023 Wilderness. This is the first Subaru I've owned (I've had a LOT of cars during my life), and I love it. It has the 2.4 turbo, and 8 speed (I think) transmission. It tows my motorbike on the trailer better than my Tacoma! (I got the factory tow package, I heard horror stories about aftermarket hitches, mostly in the way they have to carve out the plastic fascia trim on the back.) Cargo room is great. Comfort is good. I get mid 20s gas mileage, not as good as my 10 year old Mazda 3 which it replaced, but that wasn't my main criteria. It's taller than my Mazda3, so to get my mountain bike on the roof rack I need to keep a folding stepstool in the back.

My wife has a RAV4 and she loves it. It's the hybrid top trim level. Her next car will probably be another one.

One funny story - I was listening to one of John Sanford's Prey series ebooks. One of the characters was describing a car. "You know, the lesbian car!" "A Subaru?" "Yeah!"

My sister is looking to replace her Mazda so I got dragged into the process including test drives. She is leaning towards a Crosstrek but we took the Outback Wilderness for a ride. It was the only test drive that I made her pull over so I could take a spin.

It is a great vehicle. That motor is perfect. I don’t get enthused by fast cars with huge motors. It’s not my thing, but I do like efficient cars that have enough go to be smart without getting into the ludicrous range. This car is that. I’m sure that was horrible sentence structure but my point is, an Outback with 260hp turbo motor just works well. And is comfortable. And has great visibility. And great safety and features and and.

I don’t need a new car. That Outback would be on my short list. I think the screen complaints are not as big a deal as some are making them sound. I’ve never owned a car with some big screen functionality that occasionally required a shut off and restart to get back to normal. Kind of the nature of electronics. Guess what? Big airliners sometimes need to same thing, power down to zero, count to 10, start over. Shit happens.

My wife has a 21 outback touring XT and we both love it. It has locked u a time or two (touch screen) but it happens rarely. As someone sais its a pain to change temp when you have to go to multple screens. Just swapped out the battery that made it three days!!

So much fun to drive

200k on our 2016 Forester and the only issue has been the rear wheel hubs do not last. You do have to check the oil about every 3k miles. It may use about 1/2 qt in that time depending on the oil and my wife’s driving

210k on our 2010 Forester and the only issue is head gasket leaks which the 2016 does not have.

I like Subarus. We just bought my wife a Forester. First new car that wasn't a minivan in 21 years. We chose the Forester as this is the last model (I believe) where you can change the HVAC with a knob instead of a touch screen. I plan to go back to a Subaru or a Honda when I leave my current BMW. It will be a pleasure to have twisty knobs again, and be able to change those settings without taking my eyes off the road.

Still astonished at the jump off the line of an NA Subbie.