Considering Subaru holds its value as much, if not better, than Honda and Toyota these days, yeah, you made a great choice.
Oh sorry, yes, of course I meant hatch and not hood - can you tell Iām not very car-savy 
Hey thanks for the tip with holding the hatch button down for it to open and close - that was exactly what I was hoping it would do! Tried it and it works
What I meant by needing the key to open the door and start the car is that I still have to physically dig out the actual key in order to use the remote buttons on it. And of course the key has to go into the ignition thing. With my Mazda, I donāt need to do any of this - it can be somewhere in my bag and Iāll still be able to open the door and I just press a start button. I really like that feature and am disappointed that Subaru doesnāt have it!
And thatās one of the things that makes car buying and ownership at least partially subjective. Both of my cars (2014 Mustang and 2014 Honda CRV) use keys in their ignitions. The few times Iāve (rented, borrowing my wifeās 2015 CRV, or had loaner cars) had cars with keyless ignitionā¦Iāve detested that feature.
Really, why?
The keyless ignition just feels āwrongā to me on starting the car; conversely, my wife loves the keyless feature of her 2015 CRV. Perhaps, at the doddering age of 46, Iām turning into a curmudgeon. Sheās also a lot more internet and tech-savvy than I am.
Thereās a thread somewhere on this page, where some of theā¦older posters talk about how cars were started in the 30ās, 40ās and 50s.
I just looked at their web site, which says that the Limited and Touring trims have this feature, so you shouldnāt make it sound like Subaru doesnāt offer it.
You know what, you are right and I am a little in shock right now - I was convinced we had the Touring trim!! Turns out we donāt - itās just a Premiumā¦wow. Well itās too late now, the deed is done - I have to run this by the hubby bc I think we both thought we had the middle model!!
Our '16 Limited does have the keyless ignition and magic door unlock/lock feature, so it has been around for a while. I think the Premium would be more-or-less considered the āmiddleā model, or at least it was in 2016; Touring was above the Limited as I recall. Premiums did get more standard features than the base model then, not sure about '19 models. On the other hand, you have fewer gizmos to go wrong as the years go by.
Ironically, in the that era, push-button start was common! Of course you had to insert and turn a key first.
Youāre totally right, I just looked it all up on the Subaru website. You can probably tell that we didnāt do a lot of research before purchasing this car! Our other car was totalled and we needed a replacement - we were all set to get the Mazda CX-5 (after getting the CX-3 back in 2016 and really liking it!) but revisited the idea of getting a Subaru (after dismissing it in 2016); hubby has been wanting one for a long time, and so on a whim, we went to a place where there are Subaru und mazda dealerships side-by-side. Went to Subaru first and fell for the Outback. Ended up buying that same day - all a bit overwhelming!
of course I can live with having to use a key, I donāt want to sound like a totally spoiled brat But I am ust a little disappointed that Subaru doesnāt have this as a standard feature, whereas MAzda (supposedly an inferior make!) doesā¦Mazda also has a much better sound system, thatās also a bit disappointing in the Subaru. But whatever, itās a great car and I hope weāll enjoy it for a looong long time!!
Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for the help/advice. I will probably be back with more questions!
Kat
Give me few days and I will update. I am going to reach out to SOA about it.
For the record, the manual DOES mention replacing CVT fluid under severe condition (which is very easy to reach to) and I am at that point but due to my 100K warranty, the dealerships donāt want to touch it. I tried a few around me. So I am truly fed up and going to reach out to SOA to see what they want to say.
I am also going to reach out to Consumer Reports for their talking cars segment if SOA gives me a runaround.
Either way, I will be replacing the fluid at 50K with or without the dealership.
But for OPās outback, the transmission is fixed so he/she doesnāt need to worry.
The āTouringā model is the top line, followed by the āLimitedā.
The āPremiumā is just one step above the strippo base model.
Yep, I realize that now - I guess I thought that because we have the one big option package (I forget what all it includes but itās bunch of stuff and like $2.5k or something) and the sun roof and some other packageā¦
I must be thinking of a different manufactureās pair of engines, where the 4 is preferred to the 6, apologize if I caused confusion to the OP.
Glad it worked. A couple of other quirks we have discovered: (1) If you use the button on the hatch door to open it (underneath, by the license plate lights), donāt hold that one down - it requires a fairly quick press-and-release for the hatch to open consistently, and (2) for the '16ās at least, if you have the battery disconnected for any reason, you have to āre-teachā the auto-up and auto-down of the driverās and passengerās windows. You have to look up in the manual how to do this.