2020 Subaru Outback vs VW Golf Alltrack - Off Road Wagon Battle

I'm Yuri. I'm Jacob. And we're going for a drive. 2020 Subaru Outback Premier. 2019 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack Exec Line. Why is it a 2019, not a 2020? There is no 2020 for the Alltrack. They're actually doing a weird thing where they bought up a bunch of 2019 models so that you can buy 2019 models in 2020 as brand new models while they do the golf changeover in the next generation. So we're here to compare these plastic cladded lifted wagons to see which one is the best. Yeah, so the Outback is basically a Subaru Legacy that's been lifted and stretched and wagonized and the Golf Alltrack is a Golf that's been wagonized and lifted. So let's get to the horsepower and torque. The Alltrack has 168 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque from a 1.8 liter turbo four-cylinder. And the Outback has 182 horsepower, 176 pound-feet of torque from a two and a half liter four-cylinder boxer engine with no turbo. And if you're watching a bunch of our videos without subscribing, maybe just hit subscribe so we can get to a million. Yeah, we really want to drive that Formula One car. Nobody said we could. Yeah, but we said we could, so we kind of have to make it happen. And for the record, the Volkswagen is a manual transmission and the Subaru is a CVT. You can't get the Subaru in a manual and we didn't want to get the Alltrack not in a manual. Yeah, so definitely bonus points for Volkswagen for still having a manual and I am enjoying this manual transmission so much. But when we come down to our final comparisons, we'll ignore the transmission part so it's 100% fair. Yeah, because we've already driven this as a DSG a couple of years ago, so we know exactly what to expect. So what do people care most about in this off-roady wagon class? Practicality is probably the most important thing. However, we're going to start with the second most important thing, which is the looks. Side view. These definitely look pretty rugged from the side. At least the Subaru Outback looks a little bit more rugged to me. So the Outback has a bunch more plastic on the roof, on the side, everywhere. Yeah, when you look at the front bumper and the rear bumper on the Volkswagen, you can see it's just down at the bottom and on the Subaru, it sneaks all the way up halfway through the bumper. And it even says Outback on the side skirt and it's got a pretty crazy shape to it. It looks really nice. Yeah, and on the Golf, you've got an okay looking side skirt. It's definitely not as rugged. And if we look at the wheels, I think the Alltrack has a much nicer looking wheels. Oh yeah, for sure. They just have a little bit more style. And what is the Continental recommended tire for these two wagons? It's actually the Viking Contact 7, which the Golf already has on and that is also recommended for the Outback. What a great choice. But next I want to talk about the body lines. The Golf has such a nice crisp body line. What do you think of this Subaru? Yeah, the Subaru kind of has nothing going on. It's mostly the plastic cladding, which I kind of like. It's just like that Forester where like the side profile kind of just blends into nothingness. You're right, but I think the Outback looks way better than the Forester. Yeah, and if we look at the roof racks as well between these two, you've got really low profile roof racks in the Golf and in this Alltrack, we've got even more plastic. And one of them looks a lot higher than the other one too. Which one would that be, Jacob? That would be the Outback with an extra five centimeters of ground clearance. So people would probably appreciate an extra five centimeters. And we usually complain about the wheel gap, but in this class, it's exactly what you need. Yeah, the more wheel gap, the better, basically. Okay, so how about the front ends? Which one looks better? I personally like the Alltrack because it just looks like a Golf. That Legacy, oh, I'm sorry, I mean Outback, that Outback just looks like a Legacy and it's just boring. Yeah, Golf has a little bit more style to the front end and definitely cooler headlights. Yeah, the headlights make a really big difference. And then how about the back ends? I like parts of both. I definitely like that the Golf has real exhaust that you can see and it is dual. Yeah, and on the Golf, the bottom diffuser area looks weird. Looks like it's ready for a cutout for a trailer hitch. But then I actually really like the taillights on the Outback. The ones on the Golf are a little bit boring. I think overall looks wise, the Subaru is more rugged looking and the Golf is just more sporty, right? Yeah, you're right. I personally pick the Alltrack as the better looking one, but I think people in this class will probably appreciate the ruggedness of the Subaru. The appearance of ruggedness. Yeah, that's exactly it. Not the actual ruggedness. Nobody cares about that. And to be honest, I'm kind of split down the middle because I do like the sportiness and the ruggedness, so I can't really make up my mind. So let's get to the actual most important stuff that people care about in this class, the practicality, starting with the trunk. Okay, so both of these have back seats that will drop down from the trunk and from the back row of seats. There's a ton of room back there. You could probably fit a bicycle without any issue. You could fit your carry-ons and there's also a bunch of grocery bag hangers. But the most important thing that it should be able to fit is boxes. Box test. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 could be your name on this box at patreon.com slash the straight pipes. Not too surprisingly, the Outback fit a little bit more, but it does look bigger from the outside as well. Yeah, not only is it taller than the Alltrack, but it's just generally bigger inside. So then how about seat room and comfort? I think the Alltrack has more comfortable seats. However, the Outback ones are very comfortable themselves, but I drove in it for an hour and then my butt kind of hurt after that, so I'm not really sure what's going on with that driver's seat. And I didn't have any issues with it. I drove in it just the exact same amount of time. But how about the backseat room in both of these? There's a ton more overall leg room and headroom in the Outback compared to the Alltrack. The Alltrack is kind of lacking. It's kind of just a golf in the backseat. Yeah, and if you're 5'8.5", it's fine. If you're 6'1.5", not as good. So the next part of practicality is actually driving these things. Which one's faster? I know it's the Golf, but let's try it. Ready? Yeah, it's definitely the Golf. This CVT, everything the way it works, is pretty slow. It really doesn't go anywhere, but I don't think people buy this car to be fast. No, they definitely don't. But if you want the one that's slightly faster, a little bit more fun, it's definitely going to be the Golf. But if you want the one that's more comfortable, I'm 100% giving it to the Outback. Yeah, because it does have a lot of stuff like lane keep as well. But let's quickly talk about the manual transmission in the Golf. Okay, so I downshifted there with my hand, which was the most pleasurable thing ever, and boom, gone. I love this manual transmission. It's not as notchy, but you know exactly what gear you're in, and it's so easy to use. Yeah, it's like buttery smooth. It's very adult-y. It is very adult-y. It doesn't feel as notchy as like a Civic Type R or even like a GTI. But I had a lot of issues with heel-toe downshifting because the brake pedal is pretty small, and like the firewall or whatever it is, is very close to your heel. Yeah, I agree with that. If you're going to try some heel-toe downshifting in this, make sure your heel kind of fits in the area because mine personally does not. And then in this CVT, I can downshift with my paddles, and it responds quickly, and then, you know, fake second gear's got fake second gear amount of power. It's pretty much something you'll never use. And the fake gears do shift pretty quickly in that Outback. But this does not have an S or an I mode. It's just drive, unlike that Forester we drove earlier. And generally handling-wise, the Outback tends to understeer a lot more, and it's got a ton more body roll. The Golf just feels kind of like a Golf that's been lifted, which is exactly what it is, which is very good for driving dynamics. Yeah, it's a lot tighter in that. This thing, like on the highway, you give it like a little bit of a wiggle. It feels like the front end and the back end aren't connected. It's like a truck and a trailer moving around. I feel like the type of person that buys the Outback doesn't want to party until they get to the cottage. And the type of person that buys the Alltrack wants to party on the way to the cottage and when they get there. Yeah. So on the Outback, you can't actually turn off the traction and stability all the way. You can only turn off the traction through the infotainment now, which we'll talk about later. I got really triggered. Yeah, and the Golf's the same. You have to turn it off through the infotainment, and it's never fully off. Yeah. And I could barely get this Subaru to slide in the winter, but we have driven the Alltrack on an icy lake, and it was pretty fun for sliding with the manual e-brake. It was a little bit difficult to drift as well, but yeah, you can get it to drift. And it was a lot more fun than the Golf R, surprisingly enough. Yeah, because we kind of had to force it to make it drift, which was a fun challenge in itself. And we should definitely mention that these are both all-wheel drive. I think the Subaru system is pretty legendary. However, we have not fully tested it on a frozen lake like we've tested the 4Motion system. Yeah. For normal daily driving, they'll get you out of all the situations you need. And speaking of getting out of situations, you have X-Mode. Yeah, but now it's buried in the infotainment. We don't have a hard button. And it pretty much just helps you get out of like deep snow, deep dirt, or slippery surfaces. And in the Golf, we've got Eco, Normal, Sport, Custom, and Off-Road. I've been leaving it in Sport. I haven't really noticed that much of a difference other than the steering. But there's no adaptive suspension or anything like that. And then as for lane keep, you don't really have much lane keep in the Golf Alltrack. Like it's kind of got lane departure assist, but it's pretty good. And it does have adaptive cruise, so it does work pretty decently. But the system in the Subaru is much better. Yeah. It's really good for stop-and-go traffic. It's got a camera that watches your eyes and everything. But when you get up to like higher speeds, around 100 kilometers an hour, it is a little like wobbly. And we'll get to that camera that watches your eyes in a bit because I got a bit of a rant for that. But what's also very cool about the Subaru that no one else does, you've got your screen in the gauges that shows how far ahead all the cars are and if your lane keep is on. But when the system automatically hits the brakes, the brakes also light up on the screen on the car. How cool is that? That's pretty cool. It's a nice little touch. So as much as I'm enjoying this turbo and manual transmission, I think we've got to switch it up and I got to experience some CBT. I want you to experience this infotainment because I have so much to talk about and I want you to be frustrated while driving it. You're a lot higher up than I am in this Golf. Oh yeah. I feel like I'm in an SUV, not a wagon. And then you've got a lot more visibility from the little windows you have in front of your mirrors too. Yeah. Sitting in here does not feel that much different than the Forester. So let's start with general interiors. The Outback actually looks more luxurious than the Golf. Yeah, it really does. Especially with this Napa brown leather. I love how this looks. Yeah. They have a great mix of textures, but you've got some piano black on your shifter and stuff, which I know you hate. Yeah. There is a bunch of gloss black down there and the entire screen, which is massive, also has a bunch of gloss black around it. And then in this Golf, we've got our normal lowered infotainment that hasn't been updated to the Passat style yet, which is higher up. And then the materials on the dashboard in the Golf are really nice. We've got a cool carbon fiber looking pattern, which is really good too. Yeah. And the Subaru's got some gloss black. It's got a little shelf though, which is pretty cool. And I have heated and vented seats in the Outback, which is pretty nice. And we both have a good amount of adjustable lumbar support. And the Outback, we have a very confusing steering wheel as we do in every Subaru because there's so many buttons. Yeah. It takes a while to get used to, but you've got a huge button for a heated steering wheel, which the Golf does not have. Yeah. And the steering wheel button is actually brighter in this than it was in the Forester. So Subaru's doing some weird stuff between their cars. But overall, button to button on the steering wheels, I feel like it's better long-term to have the buttons in the Subaru. Oh, I definitely prefer the steering wheel in the Golf minus the gloss black, but I can deal. The next important part, the visor test. Let's find out. Three, two, one. Yes! Both pass. Okay. And then the next thing, the small cup of coffee. The Volkswagen fits it just fine. How about your Subaru? The Subaru does not fit on the right side, but it does fit on the left side. Because the left side has a little thing you can pull out and put it out. Look, take a look at it. It's got like a little donut. A little hockey puck. Both pass. Yo, a hockey puck doesn't have a hole. And then you guys know how I'm obsessed with my elbows touching the armrest while having my hand on the steering wheel. The Subaru is a little too far back, but the Golf has a nice armrest that does slide forward, which is great. And for my elbows, I find the Outback to be way more comfortable because it's just softer. So with all the general interior stuff out of the way, now it's time to get into the most controversial part, the infotainments, mostly in the Subaru. It's pretty much only the Subaru. So let's start with the way they look. The one on the Volkswagen is a normal size, which has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And the Outback has a large vertical screen, which also has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but there's something weird about it, and it's the size of it. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is tiny, especially compared to the Forester. We just got out of that, and it was a nice normal screen. When I put out my Apple CarPlay, the icons on the left are so small that a baby would have trouble hitting that with its finger. Baby driver? Yeah, baby driver and Subaru. Subaru reference, get it? I get it. It's good. It was a really good reference. However, the nice part about Android Auto is that I can pinch to zoom, and you can't with Apple CarPlay. Well, I can't pinch to zoom no matter what, but I can't even use my fingers to slide the map around in CarPlay. Then in the Golf, we've got no hard buttons around the outside, but there are specific buttons that we can touch to go to our radio, our app, all that stuff. And we have a volume knob and a tuning knob. And in the Outback, I also have a volume and tuning knob, but they screwed up the tuning knob compared to the Forester. This one scrolls much slower. They screwed up a lot compared to the Forester because in the Forester video, I said, Subaru has the best head unit game this year. And they completely tossed it out by introducing this, which is actually the worst because they got rid of all of the hard buttons as well. You have none of that. No, the only buttons it has is red and blue. All your actual climate stuff, your heated seats, everything is buried in the infotainment. So now let's get to this eyesight system that tracks your eyes because it's got an eyesight on the outside and it's got an eye tracking on the inside. So when I picked this car up, the heated seats were on. I was looking at how to turn them off. I found it. Meanwhile, this thing is yelling at me to keep my eyes on the road. So Subaru's own system has admitted that it's too distracting to use while driving, which is insane. Yeah. So on the Forester, we had that little eye watching bar that was up near the top. They removed that top screen, built it all into the big vertical system, and it always catches you looking away while you're trying to use the infotainment. So Subaru even had a promotional video on their YouTube saying how the big vertical screen is so easy to see anything, you never have to take your eyes off the road. But the system catches you taking your eyes off the road to use it constantly. This thing functions just like a smartphone or a tablet. The buttons are big. They're right there for you to see. So you don't have to take your eyes off the road to change radio stations or take a look at the map. So Subaru's own engineers have determined that their own infotainment system is not safe for the road because it keeps telling you that your eyes have been taken off the road for too long. You know how much I love Rewinding Satellite Radio. We don't have it in the Volkswagen, but we've got the notifications if an artist is playing. So I've set a bunch of those to nickel back and share. As you should, naturally. But we've got Rewinding Satellite Radio stations and TuneMix in the Subaru. It worked absolutely fantastic in the Forester, and they completely butchered it in this version. I thought it was bad, but it's even worse than I thought. They actually got rid of Rewinding, only live Rewinding. So Rewinding Satellite Radio is obviously your thing, so tell me what they screwed up here. When you've got the Android Auto or Apple CarPlay at the top, at the bottom it'll show your Sirius Radio, but you can't do Rewinding there. And going through stations, it doesn't even show your presets. It's just like more extra steps. Then when you go to replay mode, if you actually change the stations on your steering wheel, it gets rid of the replay setting. It just disappears. So you need to click replay every single time you change a station. If I cared about Satellite Radio Rewinding as much as you do, I'd be really upset with this system. What you need to care about is designers who add six extra button clicks when they don't need to, and then they add an eyesight system to yell at you when you're pushing the extra buttons that they should have known not to engineer into it. There's just a lot going on with this infotainment system, and they should have just reverted to the one that's in the Forester. Yeah, that one is 100% perfect, but what's not perfect is the quality of the reverse camera in the Subaru. Yeah, they still didn't update that, so they updated the rest of the system, but not the actual camera. But you do have a camera view button on the Subaru, which lets you see out of the front camera as well. And the Golf has a really good reverse camera because it's hidden in the Volkswagen logo, so it's always clean. And it's so big because they actually used a normal size screen, you can see everything so clearly. So there's another weird thing I want to mention about the Subaru eyesight system. If you run the windshield wipers for more than like two seconds, it blocks the eyesight system and turns it off on you. It's closer to five seconds, but yeah, I did notice that. However, it's nice to be able to clean your system because you can't do that in any other car because it's always at the front. So I think it's time to get to the price. Hit me with it. The Subaru Outback is $40,995. Canadian. And the Golf Alltrack, as it's spec'd out with the manual transmission, is $37,020. And if we add $1,400 for the DSG, that brings the total to $38,420. So they're pretty much right at the same price with each other. Yeah, exactly. So if you did get that with the DSG, they're very comparable. So if we had to pick one car and they both had automatic transmissions, which one would you pick and why? I would have to go with the Alltrack because I like how it drives way more. I like the powertrain. If we did have the DSG, I like how fast it shifts compared to this terrible non-shifting CVT. So overall, 100% Alltrack for me. And because Subaru got rid of normal rewinding and now they only have live rewinding, I'm team Golf because the rest of the car doesn't make up for them getting rid of all the good features, even the nice lane keep. And the Golf Alltrack is even cheaper, so that's another reason I'm going for it. So let us know in the comments which one of these two you'd pick. And if you're interested in watching a video on a more expensive off-road wagon, check out this Volvo V90 cross-country video.