Subi up hill tests

Smooth terrain, just elevated, all 4 wheels having contact the entire travel. I've never encountered that scenario when off-road. That's a contrived experiment unless off-road to you means taking on huge sand dunes in the desert.

Got another video that isn't 10 years old?

3 years 4 months old, so better than your first video showing something relevant today.

The video I remember had a extremely tough trail to test all-terrain vehicles. In a couple places, every tested vehicle has to manage on just 3 wheels. Due to wear and rain, the mounds were scalloped and rutted making it impossible to all 4 wheels to be on the ground when trying to cope with the trail. The Subaru didn't make it. I think a Toyota Tundra did. The trail would be far more typical of what you encounter in the woods or off-road than navigating up a smooth hill. To make it a fair test, the same driver should be testing every vehicle. Skill level varies a LOT with different drivers having more impact on results than the difference in vehicles.

My recollection also did NOT have the Subau in special drive modes. Those failed. The Subie did best in normal mode in erose terrain. I haven't tested all Subies in all modes, but have you ever felt it mattered? If going up steep sand dunes is your cup of tea, I have to wonder why the vehicles are using all-terrain tires instead of those knobby enough to handle loose sand. We also didn't see mention which tires were on which vehicles. Because the videos are comparing street SUVs against each other instead of real off-roaders.

From what I've seen of these so-called road tests, they're setup to fail for the unfavored by the author versus what they want to promote.

A bunch of commuter cars claiming the SUV moniker, but all failing miserably.

So, how many drivers are going to have an educated guide standing atop a hill telling just how to manipulate the vehicle. This is like gauging how well a car can backup a boat trailer with a helper outside telling the driver where and when to turn.

Is it really important for comparison of what the vehicles can do versus just what the drivers can do? I used to practice 90, 180, 270, and 360 turns/spins and how to drift and when understeer turned into oversteer, but most car owners are not sacrificing their tires to practice those moves, and changing tires to see which have the best grip at different temperatures.

Yeah, you could customize your Subie probably even more than this guy. Why do I feel the Subie guy has cold beer in ice in his top-side carrier, like in "The Eiger Sanction" when they climb to the top? The problem with off-roading, and climbing, that going down is harder than going up.