When station wagons headed for the same retirement home as the vinyl roof and the opera window, Subaru looked at its sensible Legacy wagon and had a different idea. Raise it a few inches, wrap the lower body in plastic cladding, name it for the Australian bush, and suburban families would drive to soccer practice while imagining themselves fording streams and climbing sand dunes.

In giving birth to the Legacy Outback in 1995, Subaru more or less created the template for the modern, adventure-minded, off-road-themed crossover. By the 2000 model year, the Outback had graduated from trim level to standalone model, and it has been paying the bulk of Subaru's bills ever since.

Today, the 2026 Outback marks a new era in the model's history. The wagon silhouette that defined six generations has given way to a sharpened two-box shape that's much more at home parked next to an upright Forester or Ascent. Tall, square, and profusely SUV-like, the new edition won't win any beauty contests, but form follows function more than ever in the Outback.

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When Lucid introduced the Air electric sedan in late 2021, the first Air Dream Edition I tested packed over 1,100 hp (820 kW) and carried a $180,000-plus window sticker. It's easily the most powerful street car I've tested; the only vehicle I've driven with more power was a purebred race car with a third the mass, and it was on a proper track. Its combustion engine was also about 1,000 times louder than the Air, helping to remind us that "combustion" really does mean explosion after explosion.

For Lucid's second act, the company debuted the Gravity electric SUV last year, and I've just tested the 2026 Gravity Touring, which starts at about $82,000 in the US, including the required destination charge.

My test model carried a bevy of options, including a 22-speaker audio system, the Comfort and Convenience package, third-row seating, a Dynamic Handling package (combining rear-wheel steering and three-chamber air suspension), a luxury seating package (bundling Nappa leather and massaging and ventilated front seats), and special metallic paint.

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