New Subaru Outback Teased Ahead of New York Debut

With the 2014 New York Auto Show coming up in the next two weeks (April 18 to 27), we’re finally starting to see Japanese car teasers and previews trickle in one image at a time. Today’s newest teaser is for the 2015 Subaru Outback, which we’ve known for a while would be making its debut at New York’s international event.

Are you ready? Can you handle this amazing, incredibly informative teaser?

Alright… Here it is, our first image of the 2015 Subaru Outback:

Okay, so maybe we exaggerated the image’s educational value by the tiniest margin, but it still gives us some important information. For reference, this is the 2014 Subaru Outback:

As you can see, it looks like the front of Subaru’s flagship crossover has actually been toned down a bit. It looks more contemporary, and foregoes the cluttered, boxy look of the 2014 model. It’s sleeker, curvier and with a larger, more premium-feeling grille. At least, that’s what we get from the Photoshopped teaser image; the actual car could be come off less fluidly in-the-metal.

As another point of reference, the Subaru Outback is typically designed as a bigger brother to the Subaru Legacy, which we saw earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show. So, it’ll probably take a lot of styling cues from the sedan below:

In addition to sharing the Legacy’s design, we can also expect the 2015 Outback to share the Legacy’s powertrains. That means we’re looking at two different configurations: a 2.5L four-cylinder boxer with 175hp, or a 3.6L six-cylinder boxer with 256hp. That means there’s plenty of kick available for those who want it. You can expect both engines to come paired with a CVT that allows paddle-shift gear selection. We’re probably looking at AWD-only, although that’s not officially confirmed at this point.

Some may argue that the exterior changes to be Subaru Outback are minimal; however, inside you can expect the new crossover to get a major overhaul. If it’s anything like the Subaru legacy, it’ll get brand-new, luxurious materials and an updated dash design with the latest iteration of Subaru’s EyeSight technology suite – a compilation of features such as lane departure warning, brake monitoring, and “active” cruise control. We also know it’ll offer more cargo capacity than the outgoing model.

Subaru’s goal with the Outback has always been to pair car-like handling with SUV capability. From what we can tell so far, the upcoming Subaru Outback will do exactly that, and better than it ever has before. Although there is still a lot that we don’t know about the hipster Japanese automaker’s crossover, we’re certainly excited to see what secrets it holds at the 2014 New York Motor Show.

Oh, and if you’d like to keep tabs on the 2015 Subaru Outback for yourself, along with any other cars Subie may decide to unveil in New York, then be sure to bookmark their dedicated web page for the event at http://www.subaru-global.com/2014ny.html.

Until then, thanks for reading and stay tuned tomorrow for more Japanese car news!