Coming from a subaru "family," dad has a couple outbacks, 2003 and 2015. I've got a 2016 and 2nd manual car was a 1999 outback. Prior to my 2016 was a 2011 forester. All these were N/A, no turbos. Not a single major issue on any of them (the 99 just needed tires/breaks/suspension before it was totaled around 180,000 and the '03 is pushing 200,000 having only the same routine things, also a transaxle or two). To be expected, SIA of Indiana is the plant outbacks roll off from, and foresters all come from Japan.
Folks with head gasket failures, were they using full synthetic at 16 and imho it was needed all along. The h4 engines run HOT and are "known" to consume. Well try a better oil!
My 2011 forester and 2016 have used zero oil, never a drop. I checked the dipstick faithfully expecting to see it low at some point given the reputation of these 2.5L h4s. Granted, I use full synthetic like any owner should, perhaps that's why.
When it comes to their CVTs, as others have pointed out they are solid. BUT, big but here, they didn't get the CVT power delivery right until the 2015 in the outbacks. It was introduced in the Outback in 2011 and was dog slow, 2013 saw a big improvement. It wasn't until 2015 outbacks that they got power delivery right off a stop. Take that for what it's worth. The 2011 had the old 4 speed auto that felt more like a 2 speed... my 1992 honda civic 5peed was quicker @102 horses.
To anyone buying a subaru here's what I suggest: get the H6. They are more rare, but you'll find them and they're smoother and bullet proof. They didn't use CVTs until later with the H6 (due to power being higher) as well so you'll find lots of 3.6L H6s w/ a 5 spd auto until around 2014-ish. The older 3.0 H6 was also solid. And no matter what subaru you buy or have, run full synthetic 0w30 (or even 0w40 esp. with the turbos).