Best Tires for Subaru Outback

Those Nokian's are one reason I went and purchased a Subaru in 2013.

Friend has the Hakkapeliitta's on his Outback.

On the year it snowed heavily, had an emergency call out. I wasn't going anywhere.

He called and said "I'll take you" and my reply was "in what? A snowmobile?" His reply " no, Outback". I was like yeah..sure

Half hour, I hear his horn outside. He takes us to a lot not plowed and said get in and drive.

I was like, OK I'm close to home, I can walk back.

I put it in drive, sep on the gas and HOLY SHIT! It was amazing!

He took me on the parkway, people sliding, going off into grass or worse. Us? Cruising like it was spring.

Found he had the Nokian Hakkapeliitta's on. Damn things are so good, you could climb a tree

On the way back, we pulled out countless cars, SUV's and trucks from snowbanks, woods etc.

That sold me on both Subaru and those Hakkapeliitta's!

Ended up with General ALTIMAX 365 AW. Wife wanted a solid ice/snow tire. Best rated tire for snow/ice . Fairly good for Ride quality and noise. Dry/wet driving is not rated as good as other two tires on this list.

I have Michelin Cross Climate 2’s on my 2019. They are a great tire.

I just replaced the Firestone weathergrips on my 13 OB. They lasted a good 50k, and were great on the snow and ice and wet roads.

These tires do appear stop well and provide better driving across wet roadways. I don’t get a chance to really drive them on snow where I live. But plenty of chances for Rain. Which is why I bought them.

Overall the Outback performed better than I expected with 4 occupants and a trailer, however I wouldn’t want to tow any more then 1500 pounds for the distance I traveled. Acceleration was obviously impacted but not as much as I feared, the 2.5i does have enough power for the load I was putting it under. At really high elevations and fairly steep grades I did have to decrease my speed to keep my RPM’s down

Yokohama Geolander G015s are a good choice, and I'm about to fit a set of Continental CrossContact AX6s to my Outback.

I've also replaced the worn original tires with Pirellis that I keep fully inflated, much smoother quieter ride than It got with the original tires and maybe getting a little better with the new tires.

I've driven about 200 miles on my new Weatherpeaks on my stock Subaru Outback. I was shocked with how good the tires performed in the downpour. On very wet roads with massive puddles, the Weatherpeaks felt like my old tires did on completely dry roads. Grip was fantastic. No slipping at all. Even when I hit really large puddles at speed I didn't hydroplane. The tires do feel slightly "softer" in the turns when its dry than the stock tires but they still feel great...and are a much smoother and quieter ride overall. Even on dry roads I feel like the car has better control.

2021 Outback XT and my Yokohama tires drive on snow like it's concrete.