Hi,
I do have the normal Outback, the Wilderness is not available over here. To my experience in offroading (both job and leisure) the limiting factors are tires, angles and ground clearance, in this order. The other factors are the same for both vehicles, give or take.
You probably have a feeling for what tires you need, and it would be a rather inexpensive mod. The angles differ by only 1.5 degrees, which is not really much. For a „real“ offroader, 5 to 10 degrees more would be the norm. 2cm more ground clearance allows for traversing rocks sticking out of the ground - it would be you to determine how important this is where you want to go.
I think I would take the normal OB, install proper skid plates, and see how I get along. For more than 10k saved, you still can modify flaws that you encounter later on.

 

In January I sold my 2017 OB Limited and purchased a 2024 OB Wilderness in February. The '17 was close to 90K miles in very good condition but I knew that I would be spending a reasonable amount of money on it as it needed tires, plugs, etc. for the mileage. I was in the position to afford a new car enhanced by the finance offer on new OBs. With that, I had decided that I would be buying either an Onyx XT or a Wilderness as this time I wanted the turbo as we live in a valley with mountains either direction.

My wife wanted the Magnetite Grey, which then limited availability. I am not a fan of the front clip on the '23-'24 OB and prefer the updated Wilderness front for '24, and I assume 2025 as well. Another plus for the Wilderness was the OE tires as many on here have complained about the Avid tires. The gear ratio on the Wilderness has the potential for using more fuel but I am not the type of driver that needs to be at the head of the pack.

As it turned out the dealer 1-1/2 hours drive away was the only one with a Magnetite Onyx XT. We test drove a Wilderness at our nearest dealer and decided that was what we wanted. An aside, my wife also preferred the color of stitching for the upholstery on the OBW versus the green used on the Onyx XT. My dealer choice happened to have two OBW in Grey with the options I wanted. When it was the Sales Manger's turn at the preferred dealer , I was upfront with him and just asked for his best OTD price - as I still had two more dealers to visit with Grey OBWs. Driving away from the dealership we did the calculations and found his price was 8-3/4% off MSRP. He also had a lower DOC fee. Just tax and plate transfer fee. Sold!!!

After almost two months of ownership, I am very happy with my choice. The different gear ratio seems very suited to the small city I live in and highway speed is fine. But for you that is a very large disparity in price in Canada! I would consider the lower priced OB and then add upgrades/make changes as needed. Good luck with your choice!

 

Being in US, I don't know the difference between CAD and US models. That said, US has models with and without the 2.4 Turbo. You mentioned fuel economy, so do you plan to get the Turbo engine or not? That alone may exclude the Wilderness. You also mentioned North Cascades so the turbo is a big help at high elevation.

As @tramfan mentioned, the Wilderness has a lower gear ratio and thus worse fuel milage but better acceleration and torque. So better off-road, low speed climbing situations, and towing. Don't need that? Get a turbo Outback, skip the Wilderness. I do some light towing occasionally. I'd get the Wilderness for the lower gear ratio for that reason. I appreciate the other features that come with the Wilderness, except the roof rack. (Rather have the convenient roof rails attached all the time)

It sounds like you have city covered with your EV. The turbo (either one) seems to not get good milage in the city. Getting the Outback Wilderness would definitely cover your long distance driving and logging roads easily. Each car with its specialty. Could be a win in that regard too.

 

I think if you test drive a Wilderness, you will be sold, even if you test drive the non-lifted model too. I am a soft-roader (Forrest Service and logging roads in Pacific Northwest U.S.), and the Wilderness handles them effortlessly. Heavier suspension SYSTEM than the non-Wilderness, so even with a lift on a non-Wilderness, the shocks and other underpinnings have more to them on the Wilderness. Front clearance would never come near a Jeep or others made more for off-road, but again, I don't run into those deep crevice situations on the routes I take. AVERAGE milage for my Wilderness between freeway and city has be 24mpg. All freeway would be higher, naturally. This is my only car, and I like it for commuting, camping, hauling, and soft-roading. For me, I wouldn't go with any other Outback.

 

While there are many who throw in a "cheap lift" it's not always a good result. On principle, nobody likes spending more money than they need to, but if you can comfortably afford the Wilderness I do think it will give you a better experience. The Convenience doesn't have the turbo motor so that's one reason why it's so much less expensive and gets better fuel economy, however for really long drives it seems that Wilderness owners are getting better fuel economy than 26. It's the city fuel economy that really suffers with the turbo.

You said

Here, in this part of BC, the road are occasionally like driving up dried up creekbeds with occasional giant dips causing your diagonal ends of the car to be 3ft different in elevation.

In that kind of off-roading, I do think the Wilderness will be superior - the lower gearing will really help, along with the slight extra ground clearance and more x-modes for different conditions. Even though it makes sense to choose based on the 95% of use, aside from fuel economy, it's not as if the Wilderness will give you a worse on-road experience than the convenience. The turbo motor is attached to a stronger transmission as well, and the car's acceleration up steep inclines fully loaded at elevation is effortless.

The Convenience is ideal for city driving, but for long distances and the occasional off-road, I would choose the Wilderness.

 

From what I could see on your link, the Canadian Convenience trim reads more like the US base trim than the US Premium. In the US the regular OB trims are Base, Premium, Onyx, Limited, Touring with a Turbo options available on the Onyx, Limited, and Touring. The Wilderness also has Turbo and lower final drive ratio plus other more rugged features.

I have a Premium, and it has more features than the Canadian Convenience, which sounds similar to our Base. Your description of a creekbed sounds like a task for the Wilderness. I have had my Premium on Eastern logging roads and no problems, but you description of creekbeds would definitely give me pause.

The section of "creekbeds with occasional giant dips causing your diagonal ends of the car to be 3ft different in elevation" would give even my Ford pickup 4x4 with a true 4WD-hi / 4WD-Lo transfer case, and a big high torque V6, a bit of a challenge and I would definitely do it in 4WD Lo and also do a lot of getting out and pre-walking that big of elevation differences and dips.

But admittedly, I am not a person who considers scrapes, dings, and getting stuck, among other possible damage as giving the vehicle "character", so maybe I am just cautious.

 

OP here.

On the dried up creek bed road (White Boar Lake, in southeast BC), we did use the 2012 OB with 305,000+ km on it. It made it, but definitely felt at it's limit the whole time. Mostly, I was concerned that the suspension would break on some of the bigger rocks and dips. But, that could simply be a byproduct of likely running the same suspension it started with 12 years ago. It lacked power too, but that is true even on flat road.

For sure the Wilderness would have handled it better. Just hard to justify $12k for occasional nicer performance. Really hard to know and we haven't traveled too many of the FS roads here yet.

I do have a skid plate, which was removed from our 2014 OB after the accident. I suspect it won't fit on the 2024 OB without significant mods (cuts, welds, bends)

 

If you don't get the Wilderness then there is the Bilstein kit that will become available in December 2024

BILSTEIN B8 TerraSport Shock now available for more vehicles and the Correct way to Install Video

The Correct way to lift and install a CUV using the B8 TerraSport on a Subaru CrossTrek

www.ovrmag.com

 

If upgrading to the Bilstein kit, would this be equal (or roughly equal) suspension performance as the stock Wilderness?

 

 

I would hope that it's even better than the Wilderness suspension, but you won't have the Wilderness gearing or Wilderness exclusive X-mode functions.