2005 Outback stopping distance and side impact crash test results

I think it doesn't matter that much. I've driven about 600k miles in my 35 years of driving experience. In all that time, I've never had an incident where 1 car length of stopping distance would have made any difference in any situation. Now I freely admit to *not* tailgating and trying to maintain a good situational awareness to keep me out of trouble. My freeway Vne (speed never to exceed in any circumstances in airplane talk) is 80 mph.

After all, you're not taking the car to the track. If you want to avoid an accident, drive at conservative speeds, don't tailgate, and keep your eyes open. Do that and the brakes on any car built in the last 20 years should be sufficient.

So Scott, what are you really trying to say here?

I curious what others think. I'm a big fan of Subaru (I owned a '98 Outback and sold it only to get the 2000 OB, and I've been drooling over the new '05s.). But as a car company which is promoting safety, I'm a bit taken aback by these two issues. I just wondering if anybody has any interesting thoughts on these things.

(The side impact issue is a big deal for me. I live in a suburban area that is overrun with the big, stupid SUVs and more and more they're being driven by teenagers and not soccer moms. One of those hitting your side would really ruin your day. Short of joining the mindless masses and buying a big, stupid SUV myself (not *ever* an option in my mind ;-), I'd like to find a car that does very well in the side-impact tests, as well as frontal impacts. The Forester is too small for us. The OB is just about perfectly sized.)

Finally, I'm looking for hope that the stopping distance thing might be "fixable." I'd really love to know how much the tires affect this--I really don't have a clue.

-Scott

While you make a perfectly valid point, there are still times when all that won't help you (like some idiot cutting you off, or a deer jumping out in front of you). True, better handling and good reflexes will probably be of more use in such situations, but I guess I still want to know what gives here?

Maybe I'm just too picky. There's lots to love about the new Legacy/Outback, but rather than talk about the sweet stuff, I wanted to see what others think about these "weak spots."

-Scott

You must be a beter driver than me. I've been within a car length of wacking someone in the rear more than a couple times. :)

I drove an 05 OB base model and Legacy LTD (not GT) back to back & was very dissapointed with the OB brakes compared to the Legacy LTD. From what I can tell the Legacy LTD has 1" larger brakes that the OB or the base Legacy. The inch seems to have made a big difference.

Scott, I too was disappointed in the IIHS results, especially since we bought an 05 OBW Ltd in July. However, it is worth noting that they tested the sedan which had a recall on the side curtain airbags not properly deploying; SOA told me that they weren't folded right at the source, and it has been corrected. Take a look at the NHTSA results for the OB Wagon at this link

I also was disappointed with the IIHS results, and have read a lot of discussion about it, as well as looked carefully at the data.

A couple of thoughts:

The IIHS side impact test was raised to a height closer to SUV height, and IIHS uses a 5th %tile female for their dummy. So it is a pretty tough test which was changed within the past few years. The NHTSB test is quite a bit less stringent (easier to get 5 stars).

If you look at the IIHS data, the Legacy had I believe the least intrusion into the passenger compartment, meaning that the chassis was the stiffest of the cars tested. The stiffer chassis may mean that the accelerations on the dummy were actually larger than a softer chassis might have been.

It seems possible that the seat airbag did not do a great job in this particular test for cushioning the torso / pelvis from the impact. The seat airbag is quite small, and a mismatch between dummy size and impact height / location could probably quickly increase the accelerations.

The wagon and outback have not been tested by IIHS. The raised height of the outback might make it perform significantly better in this particular test. A number of people also feel that the the wagon is likely to do better than the sedan.

I don't know about the outback tires, but a lot of people are convinced that on the legacy gt, the brakes are fine and the stock tires are poor. Lots of people are replacing the stock tires and reporting better performance.

A good additional source for discussion is the forums at legacygt.com

Honestly, I find the government crash tests to be much less useful. The mere fact that they rate the car as 5-stars w/ or w/o side airbags only goes to show that they're 5-star rating is too easily given. (Although since the OB in the US comes with the side air bags standard, I'm guessing that this it's the AUS ratings that are particularly questionable here.)

In general, I find the IIHS ratings to be more instructive, simply because they're a more difficult test and fewer cars get top marks. What the govt's tests show is that most cars today are significantly safer than they were 20 years ago. What the IIHS tests show (in my mind) are which of today's cars are *safer* than the average car. The NHTSA tests are useful up to a point, but a 5-star side impact rating doesn't mean as much to me as "Good" rating from IIHS.

Maybe I'm just too picky, but the Outback and Legacy has always gotten top marks from the IIHS until the new side impact tests. That's a bummer.

-Scott

That's good to know. I'll have to make sure to test drive the Legacy as well. In a way, I'd rather have a Legacy GT anyway, except my wife likes the looks of the OB a lot better (and I do tend to agree).

-Scott

I agree. The NHTSA tests really aren't as informative as IIHS's tests.

Interesting. I hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense. Maybe a plus for the OB.

The Legacy GT has larger brakes, right? I wonder if it's possible to put the GT's brakes on the OB XT. Probably an expensive thing to do (and probably would void the warranty).

Thanks, I'll check it out.

-Scott