For those eagerly waiting for the arrival of the all-new seventh-generation Subaru Outback, well, your wait just got a bit longer. Though the U.S. market has had the OG crossover for quite a while now (earning some awards in the process), Japan and by extension, the Philippines’s source is still making do with the current sixth-generation model.

In fact, it doesn’t look it but the Japanese carmaker actually gave it another running change to cap off the year. Now, before you try to poke and zoom through the photos to see what’s new; you won’t actually be able to see it.

Why?


Well, for this update, Subaru has simply added one new feature in the Outback: a real-time fuel consumption readout. Previously, the carmaker provided a bar graph telling drivers if they’re conservative or aggressive with the throttle, but that’s it. Now, drivers can actually see a numerical read out that accompanies the said bar graph to see how much fuel their 2.5-liter flat-4 is sipping (or sucking).

In Japan, the Outback has one sole engine left and that’s the aforementioned FB25 engine making 175 horsepower and 235 Nm of torque; the Philippine spec 3.6-liter Flat-6 has finally bitten the dust, and is also the reason why distributor Motor Image has officially removed the Outback from the line-up, albeit temporarily.

Production of the all-new Outback is not expected to commence until the latter part of 2020 in Japan. With that, expect its introduction there to happen in early 2021, making mid to late-2021 the window for a possible regional launch in Asia.