Suburu Outback Wilderness vs 4Runner TRD

This ground clearance is slightly jaded depending on your use "offroad". The 4R clearance is to the front diff/skid and the rear diff, the Subarus ground clearance is the entire underside. The 4R has much higher frame rails and even body side clearance for "dynamics" over objects or offroad over hills. Break-over-angle is a big difference between the two. I personally OWN a '16 TRDP 4Runner, lifted with 35s and a '19 Outback lifted 2" on 31" Nittos. The Subaru bottoms out at the beach over some of the smaller spots and will high center on dunes undoubtedly.

Subaru is majority owned by Toyota so reliability is there, Subarus have subaru problems.

Tit for tat, we use the outback for beach trips, road trips, trips to Colorado and the mountains for the awd and safety aspect with the kids. Space wise theyre very similar, gas mileage is no question (her Outback gets close to 36mpg highway even on the 31s whereas my T4R gets 12) and overall pavement use hers is 100x more comfortable. Lift wise you dont have a ton of options, ours is a Touring model so it rides smooth already, we just did minor spacers and sway bar corrections and it drives like a it did stock.... lifted and looking better/more functional. The Subaru has had some warranty maintenance work and already required a battery in 2022, whereas the 4R has (outside of modified components) had no real major issues even being used as hard as it is compared to how "soft" the Outback is driven. Belows what weve done on the two roughly, Subaru has covered their part of the warranty process and provided a loaner in the "repair" phase of the process whereas ive heard Toyota customers may not get loaners.

To date, 66k miles on the '19 Outback, Subaru performed a manifold gasket replacement at 56k warrantied, Subaru replaced the rear hatch actuator strut because it was malfunctioning and misaligning the trunk when closing and then causing it to open back up at 30k, Subaru replaced the vehicles main radio interface on the dash, twice, as well as the master switch control in the drivers door for faulty electrical "happenings" that were intermittent all under warranty at 40k, battery needed at 48k (2022), needed rotors at 58k on front (not warrantied, lift went on at 25k miles), oil changes and regular maintenance.

T4R '16 with 118k miles, heavily modified and offroaded frequently... Only regular maintenance on scheduled times (didnt pay for dealership coverage and I do my own fluids maintenance), I have a leaking rear main seal at 76k and still havent fixed... monitored and hasnt gotten "worse", the rear-drivers side door window actuator failed at 110k miles, steering rack went out at 72k. No warranty work or repairs needed or performed. Toyota didnt cover my blowing of the 8.2 E-locked rear diff so I went to a Diamond 9.5 back there....

Overall, for what it sounds like youre doing, and for how that Outback took that accident, my $0.02 is the Outback Wilderness suits much better.

 

That's dumb.

 

I meant it in jest.
A 2 stroke eating oil.

 

Subaru engineers didn’t mean it in jest, lol.

 

Subarus are just too damn fugly, I'll never own one. 4runners are bulletproof.

 

Man, I love my Tacoma, but in the snow my wife's Forester can't be beat! That thing is a tank in bad weather! The Forester has a ton of room and absolutely NO blind spots at all, too. It's a damn good car! I've packed an awful lot in it with the seats folded down too. I really have nothing bad to say about Subaru at all. It's probably the only other brand of vehicle I would recommend other than Toyota.

 

You likely already know the answer to your question. But I have found the Outback to be head and shoulders better on ice and snow than the Tacoma. I like the heck out of 4R's but I would buy the Outback for a second vehicle. If I didnt already have a Tacoa, maybe a different answer.

A Subaru is not a Toyota (or a Honda) in reliability and longevity, I think maybe on par with the Nissan Xterra and Frontier I had, which is not bad. I'm currently looking at trading in the 16 Outback for a Wilderness, not even thinking about the 4R, I like them, but just no advantage over the Tacoma.

 

I just rolled over 105K yesterday on this FA20 engine with not a single issue, the FA24 in the turbo models of the Outback is a more robust engine design than this one too. They seem to have used what they learned from the years building this 2.0 and made the 2.4 better.

Perhaps if you want another Outback, look for used ones to knock off some of that depreciation hit. But if you go new they do have special financing at the moment.