Eeew. I was considering the Outback wagon for all the reasons you mentioned. (It is AWD not 4WD) But not after this article.
It really has been a great car. I have put 70,000 miles on mine in the last three years and have not had a bit of trouble from it; it handles beautifully, with reflexes good enough to have saved my life on a couple of occasions; the engine is powerful and has very energetic acceleration; the gas mileage is excellent; the cargo capacity turns out to be greater than a Chevy Blazer or Ford Bronco. You cannot pull much with it. It has very high safety ratings. The ventilation system sucks. Lots of people who have Subarus drive them for a quarter of a million miles. And the competition--the Audi, Volvo, and Volkswagon wagons--cost in the low to mid thirties, about ten thousand dollars more. You have to decide whether it's worth ten thousand bucks to you to avoid having the neighbors suspect you're a secret liberal or lesbian.