Today I test drove the Subaru Uncharted.
TL;DR: It’s fine.
First impressions:
The very first thing I noticed was that there’s no rear windshield wiper. That’s a major strike against it. If it had a halfway-decently-engineered coefficient of drag, that might have given them a half-point recovery, but the vehicle doesn’t and it’s a stupid oversight.
The normal, mechanical door handles are good. They just work. The placement of the rear door handle (near the top of the door and recessed) is okay, but it’s not clear why you would design a rear door handle that’s too high for a kid to reach.
The steering wheel is very small but also felt oversized for the cabin space. It was weird. It also does not interfere with my view of the instrument cluster, so that was good. The adjustment of the steering wheel is fully mechanical: Pull a friction lever, set the wheel where you want, press the lever, and you’re done. This is far, far superior to having to hunt and peck on a screen and then clickity-click scroll your way to where you want the wheel. This is how our Mustang’s wheel is adjusted.
The mirror controls are what and where they should be: mechanical buttons and d-pads on the door.
The HVAC is mostly touch-screen, but the vents are mechanical.
The shifter has a nice mechanism to avoid accidental rotation: you push down on the dial before you can turn it. I appreciate when a vehicle has a gate or requires a positive action to make something happen. Both of our Fords have a dial shifter (I replaced the lever shifter in the Lightning with a dial), and they both have the shifter down on the console by the right hand. That’s where the Uncharted’s shifter is as well. The location is not my favorite; I’d prefer to have more storage there and to have the shifter on a stalk or somewhere else.
There’s a push-to-start button and it works perfectly well. It wasn’t even particularly difficult to discover its location .
When I shifted into reverse, the cameras came on, but they were not as instant as the R1S or Gravity. They are also not as high quality: neither in resolution nor in lens quality. This is a sub-$40k vehicle, but it’s still a little disappointing that the quality isn’t as high as it could be.
On the Road:
It took me a bit to figure out the regen settings. They’re paddle shifters and I was vainly hunting through the menus trying to find the right location. The Uncharted does not seem to have a true One Pedal Drive option. Regen will slow you to about 3-4 mph, but, as far as I know, it will not stop the vehicle. And if you put it into “gear” without holding the brake, it will start rolling. I believe there’s a setting you can engage to “hold” once you’ve brought the vehicle to a full stop with the brake pedal. I don’t let my foot off the brake while stopped at a light even when using 1-PD, so I don’t much care about the creeping forward behavior. But it was different from the Mustang, so I noted it.
The Uncharted has reasonable acceleration: I could easily get up to full speed before the end of the on-ramp to the freeway. But it’s not stupid and unnecessarily quick.
I took the Uncharted onto a gravel road with washboards and it handles the washboards much better than the Mustang does. You could tell the washboards are there, but the rear view mirror isn’t rattling around and your fillings don’t fall out of your teeth.
The adaptive cruise control is fine. It’s in a different spot from the Mustang so it took me a second to figure it out. But there was nothing problematic with it.
It handles like a Crosstrek, which we’ve owned. For its size and power, it’s nimble, but not especially-so. It’s a little slower to respond to steering input and accelerator input, though the acceleration and deceleration are still infinitely quicker than a gas vehicle. I had no worries about flooring it and getting “instant” response. It just isn’t an R1S or a Gravity. Nor even a Mustang. It’s a small cross-over SUV, not pretending to be something it’s not. What you see is what you get. I can appreciate that.
Other Features:
It feels like the size car it is, which is medium/small. There is no frunk. The rear cargo area is small. I would not fit into the rear seats.
It has Android Auto and CarPlay.
The interface on the screen is neither quick nor slow. It’s fine. The organization of details, etc is not entirely obvious, but I’m sure after time I’d learn where things are buried.
I didn’t have a chance to play with the maps application. The sales dude rode with me so I couldn’t do a full hour test drive.
I did not notice if the roof was simple or if it had a sunroof. Either way, it wasn’t distracting.
I couldn’t tell, but it seemed like the chi chargers are the preferred way to charge your phones. I prefer wired connection, and it seems like one would have to route the charging cables around the side of the console, possibly sending wires into the driver footwell. I don’t like that. But I also didn’t have the time to fully investigate if there’s some other way to route the charging cables.
Overall:
It’s a fine vehicle. If what you’re looking for is a simple vehicle for around town and for “down to the valley and back in a day” trips, this is fine. It’s not comfortable enough for me to consider it a road-tripping car. It does have the range for a longer road trip, but I don’t think I’d feel great sitting in the seats for 2-3 hour legs for several legs in a day. It’s a little more expensive than I would want to pay for what it is; the model I tested is sub $40k. I think it should be an entry-cost BEV at $30-$35k.
TL;DR: It’s fine.
First impressions:
The very first thing I noticed was that there’s no rear windshield wiper. That’s a major strike against it. If it had a halfway-decently-engineered coefficient of drag, that might have given them a half-point recovery, but the vehicle doesn’t and it’s a stupid oversight.
The normal, mechanical door handles are good. They just work. The placement of the rear door handle (near the top of the door and recessed) is okay, but it’s not clear why you would design a rear door handle that’s too high for a kid to reach.
The steering wheel is very small but also felt oversized for the cabin space. It was weird. It also does not interfere with my view of the instrument cluster, so that was good. The adjustment of the steering wheel is fully mechanical: Pull a friction lever, set the wheel where you want, press the lever, and you’re done. This is far, far superior to having to hunt and peck on a screen and then clickity-click scroll your way to where you want the wheel. This is how our Mustang’s wheel is adjusted.
The mirror controls are what and where they should be: mechanical buttons and d-pads on the door.
The HVAC is mostly touch-screen, but the vents are mechanical.
The shifter has a nice mechanism to avoid accidental rotation: you push down on the dial before you can turn it. I appreciate when a vehicle has a gate or requires a positive action to make something happen. Both of our Fords have a dial shifter (I replaced the lever shifter in the Lightning with a dial), and they both have the shifter down on the console by the right hand. That’s where the Uncharted’s shifter is as well. The location is not my favorite; I’d prefer to have more storage there and to have the shifter on a stalk or somewhere else.
There’s a push-to-start button and it works perfectly well. It wasn’t even particularly difficult to discover its location .
When I shifted into reverse, the cameras came on, but they were not as instant as the R1S or Gravity. They are also not as high quality: neither in resolution nor in lens quality. This is a sub-$40k vehicle, but it’s still a little disappointing that the quality isn’t as high as it could be.
On the Road:
It took me a bit to figure out the regen settings. They’re paddle shifters and I was vainly hunting through the menus trying to find the right location. The Uncharted does not seem to have a true One Pedal Drive option. Regen will slow you to about 3-4 mph, but, as far as I know, it will not stop the vehicle. And if you put it into “gear” without holding the brake, it will start rolling. I believe there’s a setting you can engage to “hold” once you’ve brought the vehicle to a full stop with the brake pedal. I don’t let my foot off the brake while stopped at a light even when using 1-PD, so I don’t much care about the creeping forward behavior. But it was different from the Mustang, so I noted it.
The Uncharted has reasonable acceleration: I could easily get up to full speed before the end of the on-ramp to the freeway. But it’s not stupid and unnecessarily quick.
I took the Uncharted onto a gravel road with washboards and it handles the washboards much better than the Mustang does. You could tell the washboards are there, but the rear view mirror isn’t rattling around and your fillings don’t fall out of your teeth.
The adaptive cruise control is fine. It’s in a different spot from the Mustang so it took me a second to figure it out. But there was nothing problematic with it.
It handles like a Crosstrek, which we’ve owned. For its size and power, it’s nimble, but not especially-so. It’s a little slower to respond to steering input and accelerator input, though the acceleration and deceleration are still infinitely quicker than a gas vehicle. I had no worries about flooring it and getting “instant” response. It just isn’t an R1S or a Gravity. Nor even a Mustang. It’s a small cross-over SUV, not pretending to be something it’s not. What you see is what you get. I can appreciate that.
Other Features:
It feels like the size car it is, which is medium/small. There is no frunk. The rear cargo area is small. I would not fit into the rear seats.
It has Android Auto and CarPlay.
The interface on the screen is neither quick nor slow. It’s fine. The organization of details, etc is not entirely obvious, but I’m sure after time I’d learn where things are buried.
I didn’t have a chance to play with the maps application. The sales dude rode with me so I couldn’t do a full hour test drive.
I did not notice if the roof was simple or if it had a sunroof. Either way, it wasn’t distracting.
I couldn’t tell, but it seemed like the chi chargers are the preferred way to charge your phones. I prefer wired connection, and it seems like one would have to route the charging cables around the side of the console, possibly sending wires into the driver footwell. I don’t like that. But I also didn’t have the time to fully investigate if there’s some other way to route the charging cables.
Overall:
It’s a fine vehicle. If what you’re looking for is a simple vehicle for around town and for “down to the valley and back in a day” trips, this is fine. It’s not comfortable enough for me to consider it a road-tripping car. It does have the range for a longer road trip, but I don’t think I’d feel great sitting in the seats for 2-3 hour legs for several legs in a day. It’s a little more expensive than I would want to pay for what it is; the model I tested is sub $40k. I think it should be an entry-cost BEV at $30-$35k.
