Its safety still sold me on it. I do care about my own safety, and bang for yer buck, including things like the technology, safety, comfort, ride quality, full time AWD, etc, I just didn't find better. I admit my heart really wanted a toyota tacoma, but seeing how much they lacked in numerous areas (ride comfort, lack of automatic 4wd in affordable models, things like that) while being even more expensive, I opted for the outback instead.