TOUGH CHOICE! //2026 Subaru Outback vs 2026 Honda Passport//

Now this is a tough choice. Do you buy the new Passport or the new Outback? I'll include a link to the Nate Wade Subaru's website in the description down below and then the Ken Garfonda's website in the description down below as well. They're providing us with both of these vehicles for the comparison. Let's get right into it. The Passport is powered by a 3.5 liter V6 naturally aspirated that goes through a 10 speed. Fuel economy is 19 around town, 25 on the highway with power outputs being 285 horsepower and then 262 pound feet of torque. The Subaru is powered by a 2.5 liter flat four cylinder that goes through a CVT. Fuel economy is 25 around town, 31 on the highway with power outputs being 180 horsepower and then 178 pound feet of torque. There is a turbo version that has more power. I'll compare that to the Passport at a later date. If you're able to, I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe. Now this new Passport is all about boxiness. I mean, look at the front end, the headlights with this. Now this particular one doesn't actually have fog lights. It does have parking sensors though. The new Outback is actually also very boxy but it has a split light design and at a slightly lower price point than the Passport, it actually has fog lights and so that's a little bit of an upgrade. Something you probably noticed from the thumbnails, the Outback is shorter. Ground clearance is actually pretty similar. It's just the cabin is kind of taller with the Passport. 225 by 60 by 18 is the tiring wheel set up with the Outback. You got big chunky fender flares and again, a very boxy SUV like side profile. They're still keeping some of the station wagon elements and I think that's why it sits a little bit, not sits, but it is a little bit shorter than the Passport. Tiring wheel set up with the Passport is 265 by 60 by 18. You've got kind of like a metallic gray for the wheel coloration on this one. The Passport's more full on boxiness with the design and big SUV with the design too. Kind of looks like a Defender in a way. Passport has a little 12 volt here in the back and an insane amount of cargo space. The seats fold down flat so you definitely could sleep back here as long as you're not too terribly tall. And then there is, actually I think I've got to clip a little bit of spare tire underneath. I guess it does click and interesting with the flooring. But either way, the Passport's extremely spacious and then it is power with the hatch. The seats in the back of the Outback do also fold down pretty flat. So again, it's another thing you can sleep in the back. And I do like to have these latches in the back to turn on the seats. That kind of helps out quite a bit. I couldn't find a spare tire underneath the floor in this one. I'm not sure if I'm not looking in the right place. But yeah, looking at the back here visually, you can tell that the Passport has more vertical space whereas they both have about the same amount of horizontal space roughly. And then close that up. Now the Passport has just traditional taillights and I think it looks really good. I mean, look at the overall back end of this. That's just, it's clean. The Outback on the other hand is taken to the light bar trend, which I hope this is just a trend because you know, it's not the worst thing ever. I mean, look at them next to each other. It's just a regular taillights. It just looks cleaner versus the light bar. I don't know, it's kind of busy. Now in the back of the Passport, I got great room. I like the hip placement. It's relatively in line. Got a little storage pocket there. Vents, USB ports, and these nice seats. Easy to clean. There's no perforations or anything like that. It's also nice trim in the door panel. And yeah, you just notice there's tons and tons of headroom in this. In a Subaru, good legroom, good knee position and everything in the back. We've got vents here in the rear, heated seats, got some USB ports, a little bit more features. Seats are perforated. So yeah, you can take in a little bit more for the money with the Outback so far. I like the door panel trim. It's got good headroom, it's just not quite as tall as what you have in the Passport. Blind spot monitoring with the Passport, just regular glass at this price point. We do have memory seats with this. You got all of your window controls, more nice trim on the door panel. And then you can see the front seats, power adjustable, it does have lumbar support as well. Subaru's got blind spot monitoring. It also has memory seats. You can see all the window controls and everything, automatic, and then more of that nice trim. Perforated with the front seats, power adjustable with lumbar support. By the way, both of them have power adjustable passenger seats, just no lumbar for the passengers. Now a quick overview of the Honda interior. You've got nice trim on the steering wheel, paddles on the back, adaptive cruise control with lane centering. We've got a digital gauge cluster in the Honda. Good resolution means you can customize the info that's displayed. Just a regular backup camera, but pretty good resolution. Honda's new infotainment system, it's one of the quickest on the market in terms of the response time. So I'd say really good system there. There's storage just above the glove box. We've got all of our climate controls. This does have a tri-zone climate system. You also have heated seats with this particular package. Got some USB ports down below. Phone charging pad. Our cup holder's right here, and then we have our transmission select. You've got your parking brake and auto hold, drive modes, hill descent control, auto stop start. Big, big center console. Nice trim there. No center for this particular one, but good headroom, like I said. On the Subaru, I like the trim around me. Steering a little bit more rugged rather than soft touch, like super smooth, I should say, in the Honda. Big heat steering wheel. You've got your adaptive cruise control with your lane centering. We've got a digital gauge cluster here in the Subaru, just like the Honda. Backup camera. Bit of a bigger view than what you have in the Honda, and the infotainment system overall is just bigger. It's not quite as quick to respond, but it's still a pretty solid system. Just dual-zone climate with this. We do have heated seats, a phone charging pad. Shifter here with the Honda. We've got some cup holders, and then your auto stop start, auto hold. You've got your stability, parking brake. This does have X modes, by the way, just right there, X mode rather. Anyways, center console's got good storage. There's nice trim on the top, and then you do have a center up top, and there's good headroom. It's not quite as tall as the Honda. Now, the Honda sticker's for about $46,000. The Subaru sticker's for about $44,000, so if we had the turbo version of that Subaru, it would be about the same price as the Honda, so you still would get more features for the same amount of money as the Honda, but anyways, let's compare them with the driving. New Outback. Also, it indicates we have pretty much a full tank and 160 miles of range, and I don't know if that's because this doesn't have mileage on it and hasn't been broken and everything, but hopefully that's not the actual range of the new Outback. I doubt it. Now, this still feels like a Subaru, and it still feels like an Outback, even though it looks a lot different. It's more SUV-like. I mean, you sit pretty darn high in this thing. Still has that spacious, cozy feel that you associate with an Outback. Now, obviously, it doesn't have a crazy amount of power, but the power delivery's very smooth. Very, very smooth, and the ride quality's fantastic. The acoustic glass helps out with the noise from the outside, and this is the big appeal to Subaru and to the Outback. It's comfortable, spacious, and if you get the higher trims with the glass, double-pane windows, quiet, and even the regular Outback's pretty insulated. It's one of those cars that you just, you kind of forget about driving as you're going down the road because of how comfortable it is. I mean, even coming over this bump, just beautiful with how it handles it. Subaru does a really good job with their suspension, and a big part of their, you know, I think their goal with their suspension is, you know, they kind of think people are gonna be taking some of these Subarus off-road or on dirt trails and everything, and they don't want the car to be shaking and shuddering and go all over the place. They want it to be stable, comfortable, and you can tell that's a big focus with the suspension compared to a lot of other unibody independent suspension vehicles. Continuing along in the Outback. Again, it's not the most powerful thing on the planet, but man, is it smooth. And here, I'll get into it a bit. So yeah, it, I mean, that was like pretty deep into the throttle. It got up, and the thing, though, is with the CVT and the flat four-cylinder, you can rev this thing all the way to redline, and it doesn't feel choppy. It doesn't, like, and because it doesn't have a crazy amount of power, it doesn't throw you back in your seat, so it's not jarring at all. The acceleration is, like, one of the smoothest that you'll experience on the planet, but it's also, again, just not quick. It's not quick. But I don't think that, I don't think super people really care about that too much. And if you really want more power, right, you can get the turbo version, the XT. It's gonna set you back a bit more money, but if you want more power, you gotta spend a little bit more. So I'm impressed with how this drives. I think it'll take a little bit of time for the looks to grow on me. That's, every single new car's like that. And some new cars never grow on me, you know, when it comes to looks. Some new cars, I'm like, yeah, that is just never, never gonna work. But this, I think eventually I'll probably get used to the Outback not having the traditional station wagon look. It is a little bit sad that they've departed from that, but also, I think that, I think that Outback owners are gonna get used to it. I think they're gonna eventually like it. They're gonna like the higher seating position, and it still has the space, and it's got good ground clearance, and it's got better visibility than the old one. I think that's a big thing that's an improvement, is the visibility. The big boxy windows help out quite substantially. So Passport back to back with the Outback. See how this goes. I will say right off the bat, as weird as it sounds, the Outback feels cozier than the Passport. Now, I think a big part of that is acoustic glass, right? It makes the car more insulated, right? The double pane windows. So I think that's part of it. I think part of it's also the seats. The seats in the Outback are a bit more comfortable. These are a bit firmer, and I think narrower too. I think a little bit narrower. It's still very comfortable. It's quiet. Yeah, I think I, you can tell like the suspension, everything in the Outback, everything looks super smooth. This feels more rugged. It's not uncomfortable. And it doesn't have that same smooth, kind of just gliding down the road feel that you get in the Outback. But I will say, the engine is very, very smooth. Tons of torque. And the Outback engine is smooth too. The whole powertrain, smooth. But this, this is on a whole nother level in a way. Because it actually has like quite a bit of torque right off the bat. So I don't have to go up to very high RPMs. And the 10 speeds just boom, boom, gear to gear. No problem. No questions asked. Yeah, that Outback is a bit quieter with that double pane setup up front. You can get it in the Passport, but you have to go up to, I think you get it in the Elite. Remember, right? And that's gonna be mid fifties. So, gotta pay a pretty penny. Gotta pay a pretty penny. So I do like the torque in this, but I like that, I like that flat four cylinder. Just how, even though it has like way less power than this thing. It's quite nice how that performs. The turbo flat four cylinder is obviously a different story. That one's kind of more peaky with the power delivery. You get power, but then you get peaky power. Not Pikachu power, peaky power. The difference. This is good when it revs up. It's not quite, again, it's quicker, that's for sure. That's, there's no, there's no arguing that. But it doesn't have that same smooth rev up that you get with the Subaru's. So, I guess I'll just, yeah, I'll just wait for this light to come through. In conclusion, the pricing's pretty similar. When you do like to like packages, they're just, I don't know how much the Wilderness is going to be. I think that's not going to come out until 2027 or something like that, or for the 27 model year rather. Maybe there'll be a late 2026. I don't know. When it's on the dealership lot, it'll exist. But with the current pricing, I mean, I imagine that new Wilderness is going to be like 50, right? At least, maybe more. So, there really is a lot of price overlap between the two cars. Spacing's pretty similar. The Honda, like I said, taller, ground clearance is pretty similar. They both have advanced traction control, sportable drive systems, whatever you want to call it. Well, I mean, the Subaru's symmetrical, it will drive this, and it's all will drive as well. But basically both of them can do some fancy computer stuff to make it so they can get up obstacles off road. Which one do you go for? It's actually honestly a tough choice. I like things about both of them. I lean towards the Passport because it's like V6 torque converter automatic. Like that's what my brain tells me. That's what you want. V6 torque converter automatic. But man, that CVT drives is a lot better than you'd expect. So, let me know if you're going Passport or Outback.