DRIVEN + VIDEO: Looking For One Of The MOST Underrated, Overlooked Cars? Look NO Further...

Stop the video at 25 seconds and look at the upholstery fit and finish on the passenger seat back. Get beyond the clunky out of date styling of most Subarus and one is still faced with quality issues that jump out at you. Not to mention noise and other issues. Subarus are overlooked for good reason.

It's all about priorities. Some people care about the AWD system's capability. Some care about safety and Subaru's extensive crash testing. Others care about fit and finish on the passenger seat back.

I have a Subaru and a Stingray right now and sure enough the Subaru cuts corners in the weirdest places. Like, a piece of cloth obscuring wiring in the steering column. Or the sorriest rear interior light I've ever seen. But that's what keeps the price low without compromising what I think is more important in a daily driver, which is how well you can rely on it to get you from point A to point B. (If it's fun to drive that's a great bonus, and some Subis like my FXT are totally fun to drive.)

The higher-end seats on Subarus are alright. But if you get base cloth ones and think they're kind of crummy, then just install some nice seat covers and call it a day. I had to do that anyway since our dog would scratch up the seats like crazy otherwise.

I wouldn't call that a quality issue, per se.

Any seat that uses the "zippers approach" on the back will have that same quality. You'll find it on Hondas, Mazdas, Toyotas, etc.

The only way to avoid that is to have a fully upholstered seat sans zippers.

@Sciros nails it on the head!

Look at the headline of the post. "Most underrated". Sciros and OOR are correct in that the markets are segmented by what people want to drive. Subarus appeal to a definite sub-segment. Whether they can expand it beyond that is a real question. If you are underrated, appearance and fit and finish really matter as that is the first impression given to a potential buyer. If one likes basic transportation, Honda still does it better.

Well, Subaru is taking the "safety and capability" angle with marketing rather than the interior opulence, which is more the track that Kia/Hyundai are on. Mazda is taking the "fun to drive" angle. Each is having success, although it does seem that Subaru's sales are growing nearly beyond its capacity to fulfill them, for what it's worth.

I think the only place Subarus are really and truly underrated by the general public (at least those that don't already drive Subarus) is in the area of safety. But I think that's more to do with people just not prioritizing safety, period, and then subsequently not doing the research to see how much work Subaru puts into making sure the occupants of its cars are as safe as possible. Subaru didn't need to do anything to pass the new small overlap test, because they are already doing their own, more extensive testing. Mazda, as an example, needed to modify their CX-5 to pass that test (and to their credit, they did, which is more than I can say for much of the rest).

As far as basic transportation, Honda is a fine choice in much of the country for most of the population. Totally. Sure, if I'm being smashed by a pickup truck I'd rather be in a Forester than a CR-V 100% of the time, but besides that the Honda will be just fine and perhaps more reliable over 200,000 miles.

But if you live in New England, or places where the lake effect can really get you, or maybe North of that (Canada), then there will be days when a Subaru will be superior to the Honda. Not many, sure. But those few days can make the difference if you're doing important work. And last winter was particularly terrible, snowfall wise. In my case, admittedly anecdotal, we go to Canada (2 hrs past Toronto) in Winter every year, to a place where I only really feel good going with snow tires on my Forester. Last year EVERY SUV got stuck there, and I did a lot of digging :)

Not criticizing Scious or OOR's choice. You guys like Subi's as do the folks who used to buy Volvo 240s. I'll take my "New England Best Winter Car" winner 4 years running, Jeep Grand Cherokee 4X4 any day. Live in New England.

That an award from Chrysler? kidding :-P My neighbors are a Jeep family and have a new Grand Cherokee among their fleet. I test-drove one before I settled on the FXT -- liked everything except the high price! Good car, wouldn't be afraid to take it into treacherous terrain. Then again that trip up to Canada resulted in even a 4Runner Limited (has the Land Cruiser's AWD and is generally an off-road beast) getting stuck, but that was due to a kind of miscalculation that would have incapacitated just about anything.

30 years ago "Subaru" buyers drove AMC Eagles.

Dude I loved those when I was little. You're a bit younger still, do you even remember seeing them around? Or are you just trying to trololol today