Have you ever wondered why a brand like Subaru, already known for being a somewhat off-roady entry, would bother to concoct something like the 2026 Outback Wilderness? Did a company with standard all-wheel-drive and more flannel-shod clientele than the craft beer industry really need something even more off-roady to keep up with the Joneses? Well, perhaps it was the Jameses? You see, Subaru’s new approach isn’t necessarily targeted at 4×4 enthusiasts, but at younger, more-often male buyers.
Put another way: Wilderness is butch because Subaru has found that it appeals to young people and dudes. In general, car ownership in America is still somewhat skewed toward men, but family trucksters like the Outback can often go the other way. Buyers of the standard Outback tend to be women (in a 56/44 split). In its short lifespan, the Outback Wilderness done its part to drag that toward the middle. Nearly 50% of buyers for it are men.
Wilderness buyers don’t just skew more male, but younger too, and by a pretty significant margin. Across the Outback range, only about 10% of buyers are under the age of 40. But if you look at just the Wilderness model, that slice jumps to 25%. That means 1 in every 4 Wilderness buyers is millennial-aged or younger.
It may have happened while you weren’t looking, but Americans born between 1981 and 1996 represent the second-largest chunk of America’s spending power behind only Gen X—AKA the over-40 crowd already buying most of Subaru’s wagons. This means Subaru has its claws in both of America’s most prolific car-shopping demographics. We hear they’re popular with dogs too.
But while dogs may appreciate the new Outback’s larger rear cargo area, they’re not the ones picking out the all-terrain tires or the flashy exterior accents. That’s firmly on us (literally speaking; all but two members of The Drive‘s content team are millennials), and it appears Subaru knows us even better than we know ourselves.
Wait, is that why I enjoy driving the new WRX so much?
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