2025 SUBARU FORESTER TESTED: REFRESHED BUT NOT REVITALIZED
The Subaru Forester is now 27 years old. All grown up. Or at least no longer living in Fuji Heavy Industries' basement, where it served as a steppingstone for wannabe Outback buyers. In that role, the frumpy but friendly Forester should have withered. Instead, Subaru sold 2.7 million of them. It's tough to alter a product whose value hovers near Grand Cayman's. Especially if your buyers' median age is 62. An all-new Forester every few years? Unnecessary.
Except that it was. The compact-SUV category is now the largest and most competitive in the United States. In Car and Driver comparison tests in 2013 and 2020, the Forester finished last. No Forester was included in our recent eight-SUV comparo because the model's refurbishment came a few months late.
It wouldn't have won anyway.
Every exterior body panel is new—check out those squared-off wheel wells—so the car looks borderline modern. And yet the shape is somehow more generic, more forgettable, with two onlookers guessing it was "maybe an Explorer?" Dimensions are barely changed compared with the prior non-Wilderness versions—0.5 inch wider and 0.6 inch greater overall length. The claimed curb weight ranges from 3510 to 3664 pounds depending on trim. So at least it's among the lightest in the class.
All-new seats too, with more aggressive thigh and shoulder bolsters, not that the existing lateral grip demands them. Inside are ritzier materials and a couple of imaginative flares, notably dash padding that seems to burst open as it meets the side vent. Also a sensuous leather steering wheel maybe lifted from Maserati.
A substantial bundle of sound deadening, three times more structural adhesive, and a thicker windshield have done wonders to quell engine racket, tread roar, and wind buffeting. Through all this effort, the 2.5-liter flat-four's puppy-ish growl hasn't been muted. At idle, wide-open throttle, and 70-mph cruising, the all-new Forester is noisier than a 2019 Sport. The boxer-four might as well be an inline-four—meaning it even sounds generic. Structural rigidity is up marginally, noticeable during acceleration on corrugated gravel roads, with fewer subassemblies creaking.
The electronically assisted steering is adapted from the WRX, which sounds delightful but isn't. Less kickback, sure, but the feel is artificial and transmits little about road textures or surface grip. On-center tracking is fine, however, and the steering feels truer and more connected if you opt for the Sport model, the only version with a pretense of handling. Its struts' compression and rebound are 3 percent firmer, and you earn 19-inch 50-series Bridgestones. Small tweaks, yet you feel them in the first 50 feet of driving. If you glean anything from this review, let it be this: Buy the Sport.
Cargo capacity remains generous: 28 cubic feet with seats erect or 30 cubes in the base model (formerly 27 and 29 cubic feet, respectively), 69 and 74 cubic feet when flat, and 43.3 inches between the rear wheel arches. What's more, the squarish liftgate opens almost into the car's side flanks, and the rear passenger doors open nearly perpendicularly.
Unchanged is the Forester's most alluring trait: daylight. Acres of upright greenhouse, those traditional corner-front windows, and a panoramic sunroof that extends until just above the rear passengers' knees. Sightlines are 360-degree superb. The backup camera even awakens if you've loaded lamps and dogs that obscure the sylvan scene astern.
Naturally, there's the de rigueur 11.6-inch infotainment screen staring back like an angry cyclops. At least the touch-sensitive selections are large and legible, and there are redundant toggles for tuning, volume, temp, and defrost. You must consult the touchscreen, however, to select drive modes for dirt and snow. There ought to be manual switchgear for this located alongside the shifter.
What's changed least is the engine. Still the familiar 2.5-liter flat-four, now producing 180 hp instead of 182, the least in this class. No talk of a turbo. To be fair, peak torque (178 lb-ft, up from 176) now manifests at 3700 rpm instead of 5400, a boon in city traffic. Step-off is as smooth as pudding. Vanilla, most likely.
The nowhere-adored continuously variable automatic now offers eight steps instead of seven (only the Wilderness had eight simulated ratios in the previous generation) and doesn't drone as eagerly. Under wide-open throttle, it mimics shifts at 5900 rpm, such that most buyers will assume there are gears whizzing around. The automatic engine stop-start can be switched off but defaults back to active with every reboot. On our 75-mph highway loop, the Forester achieved 31 mpg, one short of its EPA rating.
At 8.3 seconds, 60-mph sprints are still dreary Conestoga treks, among the most long-winded in this class. We'd prefer a six-speed manual—Subaru used to be so good at those—although the existing paddle shifters supply a modicum of driver control. Brake feel is okay, and 172 feet from 70 mph would've been midpack in the last comparison; on low-friction surfaces, you can hold the brakes at the threshold of lockup with ease.
Prices extend from $31,090 to $41,390. Our preferred Sport remains attainable at $35,890, which is $11K below today's average new-car price. The recent Forester Wilderness remains in showrooms but only in last year's guise, no updates. And no explanation.
For thousands of buyers, merely the word "Subaru" suffices. It bespeaks all-weather prowess, 8.7 inches of ground clearance, and a résumé that sags with safety plaudits. C/D celebrated the original Subarus partly because they were quirky, crusty, and eccentric, like Saabs and Volvos of the day. No more. This latest Subaru is as offbeat as a Big Mac.
The Forester has long begged for more driver interaction, anything to differentiate it. Its innate funkiness, meanwhile, has been discarded in a Japanese ditch. Sure, it's bumper-to-bumper practical. But if that's all you're after, go hug your dishwasher. This refurbishment feels half-hearted, when what the Forester really wanted was a whole new heart.
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