: From what I've heard, people are getting pretty annoyed at Subaru
: for this idiotic design. Sure doesn't look as strong as past
: Subaru racks (or my Forester's.)

If I purchased this car (Did you know ACA members get BIG discounts on Subarus?) I would be very happy with the racks. I am positive they increase gas mileage significantly. Having our rack on the GTI is a 10% penalty in mileage, and that gets over 10 mpg more than the Outback. I'd rather spend my cash on kayak stuff and not burning up gas to get to the water.

If you do some digging, which I'm sorry I don't have time to do right now, Yakima did testing on the factory racks and said they were fine. They've also got their big "rack envy" demo machine touring the country built up on a new Outback.

m