2016 Subaru Outback is “Best Cars” Winner: What Popular SUV Does It Beat?

The 2016 Subaru Outback beats its own stablemate, the Subaru Forester to take home Australia’s most coveted auto award. Subaru’s new generation Outback 2.5i Premium has been named Australia’s Best All-Wheel Drive Sports Utility Wagon under $50,000 by the nation’s motoring organizations. The 2016 Forester 2.5i-S SUV takes home a close second to the Outback.

Outback voted the best by 7 automotive organizations

Subaru vehicles are known for their all-wheel-drive capabilities, and the Outback and Forester are at the top of the lineup for the Japanese automaker. It’s the Outback that gets the nod for the Best All-Wheel Drive Sports Utility Wagon under $50,000 in Australia. The high honor comes from seven different automotive organizations, the NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RAASA, RACWA, RACT and AANT who evaluated all the vehicles.

How are the vehicles evaluated?

Cars in multiple categories were evaluated by the automotive experts against a broad range of criteria including: value for money, design and function, and on- the-road performance. Subaru Australia Managing Director, Nick Senior, says, “The ABC awards are Australia’s most coveted and are highly regarded by customers for their objectivity and the ‘real world’ nature of the testing and criteria by which the vehicles are judged.”

New-generation Outback is a hit

The new generation Outback has proven to be a big success over the past 12 months down under. Subaru Australia reports the Outback wagon has its best-ever sales of 10,927 last year, since the first multi-purpose wagon launched in 1995. Sales in 2015 were up an impressive 344.7 percent year-on-year. Senior, said: “Outback’s appeal has never been greater.”

Not the first award for Outback

The Subaru Outback recreation-purposed wagon has been recognized several times with industry awards in the past including: Outback H6, Best All Wheel Drive, 4x4 Australia magazine awards in 2001, Best SUV Under $40,000, Fairfax’s Drive Car of the Year awards in 2009 and Outback 2.5i, Best Recreational 4WD, Australia’s Best Cars also in 2009.

The 2016 Subaru Outback gets a number of upgrades for the new model year. Those enhancements include the addition of Subaru’s EyeSight driver assist system to Outback diesel automatic variants (diesel models not available in the U.S.), plus a variety of Vision Assist features in premium Outback variants. Outback gets an impressive award and beats another Subaru, its own stablemate, the 2016 Subaru Forester to take home the coveted Australian award.

Source: Subaru Australia