Subaru NZ’s announcement of local spec and prices confirms the performance engine availed in its biggest market is a no-go here.

AN enhanced specification arriving with the next, sixth generation of Subaru’s national sales staple, the Outback, appears to have impacted on the car’s pricing, especially at flagship level. 

With the 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine having been retired, and the new performance powerplant that goes into the car in North America - a feisty 2.0-litre turbo petrol outputting, in US market format, 193kW and 360Nm - having failed to make the right-hand-drive conversion, the focus at least for now falls wholly on one engine, a 2.5-litre normally aspirated, direct injection flat four that has a touch more power and torque than its outgoing equivalent.

This powerplant avails in three levels of specification, though model naming conventions have changed for two of those cars.

The entry consideration that was previously called the Sport is now simply the Outback, while at the top of the line comes a Touring, whose equivalent in the outgoing family was the Premium.

Between those is an Outback X, that derivative only arriving in the current shape last year. 

The new versions price respectively at $49,990, $54,990 and $57,490.

In the outgoing line, the entry 2.5-litre car cost $47,490, the medium spec was $49,990 and the 2.5-litre Premium cost $52,490. The most expensive model in the outgoing line was the 3.6-litre Premium, a $59,990 car.

Although Subaru NZ has announced prices and specification details today, it will not have the new car on sale until mid-February.

There is no mystery about the MY21’s look and details as it has been on sale Stateside for more than 12 months, with the world getting its first look when it was revealed at the 2019 Detroit motor show.

The recipe is highly familiar: A high-riding wagon with a constantly variable transmission always full-time all-wheel-drive, with styling that is very derivative of the outgoing car’s look, though the body is slightly larger and roomier and the car bases on a new underpinning, the Subaru Global Platform (SGP) that debuted with the latest Impreza. 

In developing 135kW of power and 245Nm of torque, the new engine makes 6kW and 10Nm more than the outgoing engine, yet Subaru says this belies that it is a 90 percent new unit.

 The MY21 car has an uprated towing capacity of 2000kg – an increase of 25 percent over the current model.

Subaru New Zealand’s managing director, Wallis Dumper, has used today’s announcement to again reinforce that the new car is a step up for sophistication; to the point where it will be marketed as ‘the greatest Outback of all time.’

 “Subaru has made a conscious decision to take the Outback considerably upmarket, confirming its status as the flagship in the Subaru range. It’s certainly the biggest, safest, most technologically advanced and luxurious Outback ever.

“The aggressive, rugged design, along with the suite of luxury features, technology, infotainment and safety inherent in every Outback will only add to its rock-solid reputation for value and whole-of-life costs,” he says.

The new car delivers a 11.6-inch infotainment touchscreen and the latest generation of the company's 'EyeSight' driver assist system, including a driver awareness monitoring system using facial recognition software that arrived with the Forester.  

Lane centring, autonomous emergency steering, emergency lane keep assist, speed sign recognition with intelligent speed limiter, lane departure warning with steering wheel vibration and lane departure prevention are standard.

Other available technologies include forward and reverse autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera. 

The model adopts as standard the updated X-Mode selectable terrain response system that has been an ingredient of the current Outback X and also first showed in the current Forester.

This combines driver-selectable drive modes for terrain and weather management with differential locks and hill descent control to simplify and improve capability on non-optimal driving surfaces.