I know this may be a loaded question however, maybe if we suggest practical ideas we can influence design changes and or current model improvements. I did a search on this topic and did not see one listed I apologize in advance if I missed one.
There was thread regarding remote start and 1 change I thought worth mentioning might be a setting in the vehicle customization menu that lets you customize the remote start feature in the winter, maybe by adding the option to have the front and rear defrosters start and seat heater settings .
Or maybe the choice of turning off the engine shutoff when opening the door. Which may be nice when getting your ice scraper out of the car.
Ditch the programmed shift points in the CVT, or at least allow them to be toggled off.
Ditch those ridiculous and puny hooks in the cargo area, the ones intended to corral those stupid little plastic shopping bags which end up discarded by morons and then blowing around in the wind for a while before choking the life out of all kinds of wildlife, and install stronger ones higher up to accommodate the real shopping bags that anyone with an IQ bigger than their shoe size takes to the grocery store every time they go shopping.
Go ahead, ask me how I really feel. Found a dead redtail hawk just an hour ago all tangled up in plastic. Two weeks ago I went fly fishing and pulled 9, count 'em, 9 of those f*****g bags out of the river. We need a law to make the stores charge at least $10 for those **** things, since there are obviously so many people too stupid to behave themselves.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm pig-biting mad right now and needed to vent somewhere, anywhere, and this just happened to be the first open browser tab.
Apologies.
So the many should be punished for the irresponsible actions of the few? Are you serious? I happen to reuse those bags, responsibly. I certainly don't need to be judged as "stupid" for that choice.
For me the car is close to perfect as far as size. I would increase HP and TQ to 200(4 cyl) (280 six)with DI and maintain good MPG. Bigger sway bars and a slight increase in chassis stiffness. Bolster the front seats a little more. The big one- Hold the price at levels current levels
I was also going to mention being able to disable the fake shift points in CVT. It's only for the people that don't know why a CVT is better or are stuck in their ways. Lane keep assist that will hold a curve and the center of the lane better.
The good thing about both of these wants and some others that I can think of is they can be done with a software update. I doubt they will though.
My suggestion would be to live with your new Outback for at least a full year and learn how to get the most out of it before presuming to tell Subaru how to improve them.
A few of the "design changes" suggested on this forum and elsewhere are reasonable and well thought out, but most are not, and almost no one ever indicates how much extra he/she would be willing to pay for such changes.
Mainly what's already been said, with some extra bits:
1. Have the option to enable or disable the shift points on the CVT, and have the CVT be more responsive.
2. Increase HP and TQ for the 2.5i to (at least) 200hp & 200lb*ft, and in particular have more low-end torque. It's not often I need to push the car, but it's kinda sad how nobody's home until ~3500RPM. Doesn't matter if N/A or F/I, as long as there's that low-end twisty goodness. Direct Injection would be nice too.
3. More aggressive bolstering. I get that this isn't exactly a sports wagon, but given how much body roll there *can* be, it'd be nice to have the lateral support.
4. And my current (albeit minor) gripe, more language packs for the Infotainment system. It'd be nice to read the info of the playing song if it's in a foreign language.
That said, my OB fits meets and exceeds my needs in all other ways
I just watched a video from a 3.6R do a 0-60 run sporting a XRT tune...The driver did some brake torque to 2500 rpm or so and then let fly....They soon peg rpms at near red-line...and the CVT stays there...running at near red-line to finish out the 60 mph at near peak...
About a 7.8 sec from 0-60 as best dissected from the video progress bar.
Regarding window tint, it would obviously help with the sun however exterior dimming mirrors are a great value and very effective for night driving. I will say that the sun visor extending is a nice plus, but I personally have not used it yet.
I have to say that I have cut the plastic rings that held 6 cans together for fear that they may fall out of the garbage that I would put it in and harm an animal in the wild. I have to say I have both types of bags in my home and sometimes I forget to bring in my reusable bags and end up with those cheap plastic ones the author wrote about. After reading his post I thought to myself that I should try harder and bring my own bag into the store.
Now imagine if they passed a law that would require a store to credit the customer 5 cents for each reusable bag they used.
Even though we try to act responsibly s--t happens!
I'd add a complete overhaul of the HU though. While not in the automotive market, I do infotainment software for a living. If I put something out like what's on the HU, I'd lose my job. It's that bad. Every single thing about it is riddled with compromises or just plain bad design. Replacing it with something more functional is another exercise in compromises and an additional $750+ on top of the ~$30k price tag of the car.
Oh, and it'd be nice if the windows still worked after turning the car off. My wife's cheap Elantra keeps power to the windows after turning off until you open the door. Nice feature, and I find myself always forgetting to put up the windows and having to put the key back in and switching to ACC mode to put them back up.
Other than what's already said, a serious fix for the shortcomings with the head unit software. Like it's always resuming music when turning on the car, slow indexing of USB media, resuming music after phone call even if you didn't have it playing before, etc.
Should have also support for Android auto and Apple car play.
1) 300HP, sub 6 second 0-60
2) Android auto/Apple Car Play
3) Sonar distance sensors
4) More durable door handle grabs
5) Easier to keep clean tan interior
6) Cooled seats
7) A few firewall access points.
8) Military grade radar jamming (OK, now that one's probably not gonna happen.....)
9) Full size spare.