Subaru Forester review

Category: Family SUV

A capable off-roader, but SUV rivals are bigger, cheaper and more fuel efficient

Subaru Forester 2022 front cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 rear cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior dashboard
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior rear seats
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior infotainment
  • Subaru Forester 2022 right tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 rear left tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front right tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior front seats
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior steering wheel detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 boot open
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 rear cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior dashboard
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior rear seats
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior infotainment
  • Subaru Forester 2022 right tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 rear left tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front cornering
  • Subaru Forester 2022 front right tracking
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior front seats
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior steering wheel detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 interior detail
  • Subaru Forester 2022 boot open

Introduction

What Car? says...

The slogan ‘Race on Sunday, sell on Monday’ used to work back in the day, but it turns out the latest Subaru Forester large SUV doesn’t need any on-the-track action to be the Japanese brand’s best-selling model worldwide.

You see, while Subaru's huge reputation in world rallying was undoubtedly helpful to sales (especially of the Impreza), it hasn't been involved in the sport for a decade, yet the Forester still sells in its thousands in America.

Its continued popularity in the US has no doubt been helped by the smart decision to transform it from a four-wheel-drive family estate car to a four-wheel-drive SUV. In fact, the switch seems to have gained it a legion of new buyers Stateside.

Unlike some other big SUVs, you can't have it with seven seats, and there isn't a range of tax-efficient engines to appeal to company car drivers. The Forester's 148bhp 2.0-litre petrol engine does have some hybrid technology to reduce running costs, though.

So, should you buy a Subaru Forester? Well, you'll want to consider the competition first. The obvious rival is the Ford Kuga – a car that's available in ultra-low CO2 plug-in hybrid form. For a bit more money, you could go for the Hyundai Santa Fe and bag yourself an extra two seats. The Peugeot 5008 and Skoda Kodiaq might also be on your possibles list.

Over the next few pages of this review we’ll look into how the Forester compares with those cars and others in terms of performance, practicality, running costs and other important factors. We'll also tell you which trim level we prefer.

Once you've decided on the best car model for your needs, make sure you get it for the lowest price by checking our free What Car? New Car Deals pages. They're a good place to find the best new large SUV deals.

Overview

Covers some of the basics well, with a comfortable ride, generous levels of interior space for five people and four-wheel-drive traction, but it falls short of most rivals in important areas such as efficiency, refinement and cost of ownership.

  • Good off-road ability
  • Comfortable ride
  • Excellent visibility
  • Noisier at speed than rivals
  • Cluttered dashboard
  • Expensive to run

Performance & drive

What it’s like to drive, and how quiet it is

The Subaru Forester's 148bhp 2.0 petrol engine is linked to a small electric motor, making this a hybrid car. In theory, the hybrid tech will help you get off the line more quickly, but it runs out of puff quite quickly, and the 0-62mph time is a ponderous 11.8sec. Your foot needs to be planted on the accelerator quite hard to get you up to motorway speeds.

On top of that, the only gearbox option is a CVT automatic that holds the engine at high revs for longer than is comfortable when accelerating. As a result, the engine makes quite a racket for an extended period of time. The Ford Kuga and Hyundai Santa Fe are much less taxing to get up to speed.

Subaru Forester image
Skip the showroom and find out more online

The hallmark of a Subaru is that you get four-wheel drive as standard, and the extra traction benefits that brings will pay dividends if you live in a remote area where the weather is harsh and the roads are infrequently gritted. The feeling of security is mirrored by the limited body lean in corners and decent levels of grip.

The Forester rides well too. It's more supple than the Kuga at low speeds to take the sting out of potholes, yet is controlled enough to avoid feeling wallowy when you go over a series of undulations at motorway speeds. It’s just a shame that at that speed, the steering feels very vague around the straight ahead. Although it builds in weight as you wind on more lock while cornering on a B-road, and seems accurate enough to place the car where you want it to go, it robs you of some confidence.

It’s also a shame that the Forester suffers from a certain amount of wind noise that you wouldn’t get in, for example, the Skoda Kodiaq. There’s a fair amount more road noise, too – even without the coarse-sounding engine.

Subaru Forester 2022 rear cornering

Interior

The interior layout, fit and finish

Getting comfortable in the Subaru Forester won’t take long thanks to plenty of adjustment from the driver’s seat and steering wheel. Helpfully, the driver’s seat is electrically adjustable and requires minimal effort, and while you can’t adjust the amount of lumbar support, there’s enough to make long journeys comfortable.

You sit high up with excellent visibility all round, which is also helped by the low dashboard top that gives you a good view ahead. It has large windows and door mirrors, plus thinner roof pillars than on the Ford Kuga and Hyundai Santa Fe so you have a good chance of spotting traffic from behind you.

The Forester comes with a rear-view camera as standard to help out with parking. There's also a passenger side camera mounted under the door mirror that projects a small image on to one of the dashboard screens to help you minimise wheel scrapes.

There are lots of buttons scattered around the dash, making the car feel quite old-fashioned. The large buttons on the steering wheel are easy to find by touch, but there are quite a lot of them, making the wheel seem quite busy. There’s a cluster of buttons by the driver’s right knee for the tailgate and other functions, along with a lane-departure warning button on the ceiling near the rear-view mirror.

The Forester comes with an 8in infotainment touchscreen as standard with built-in Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring. The menus are quite basic and it responds swiftly enough to inputs, but the graphics are well behind the times and it all looks a bit aftermarket. The stereo is punchy enough to drown out most of the road noise – which is good, as there’s no sound system upgrade available.

One gripe is that the USB ports for connecting your phone to the infotainment system are tucked quite far into the dash under the heater controls, making them hard to find.

Overall, the interior feels solid, and there’s a good variety of materials used on the dash that include stitching and fake leather. While it avoids looking spartan, the Skoda Kodiaq and Santa Fe both feel more plush overall.

Subaru Forester 2022 interior dashboard

Passenger & boot space

How it copes with people and clutter

Even if you’re well over six feet tall, you won't struggle for head or legroom in the front of a Subaru Forester. Its boxy shape yields loads more head room than you get in the Hyundai Santa Fe and gives the space in the front a pleasantly airy feel. Storage space is plentiful, with enough room for a large bottle in the door cubby area, two centrally mounted cupholders, a storage tray under the centre armrest and an area below the climate control big enough for a smartphone.

Back-seat passengers get plenty of leg room and space for their feet, with loads of space for a six-foot adult sitting behind someone the same height. They don't, though, get separate seats that slide and recline like those in the Peugeot 5008.

There's plenty of storage, with two sets of map pockets on the back of each front seat. The rear doors can each take a large bottle and plenty of smaller items, and there's a smaller cubby higher up that doubles as a handle and is big enough to accommodate a mobile phone. The rear doors open up to a near 90-degree angle to give you better access – when lifting in a baby in a car seat, for example.

The 509-litre boot is smaller than in some rival large SUVs. It managed to accommodate six carry-on suitcases, which is somewhat short of the nine we could stuff into the Skoda Kodiaq. The Forester’s boot is a uniform shape with no loading lip, though, and the floor remains flat when the 60/40 split rear seats are folded.

Unlike the Kodiaq, Santa Fe or 5008, there’s no seven-seat option, which is a bit disappointing in the large SUV class.

Subaru Forester 2022 interior rear seats

Buying & owning

Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is

The cheapest Subaru Forester costs more to buy than our preferred version of the Peugeot 5008 or the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Ford Kuga – even though the 5008 has seven seats and the Kuga is potentially far more efficient.

Our recommended trim is entry-level XE, which gets 17in alloy wheels, heated front seats, LED headlights, climate control and adaptive cruise control. Sport adds sat-nav and an electric tailgate, but also orange exterior and interior highlights that some might find a bit garish. Top-spec XE Premium adds diamond-cut 18in alloy wheels, leather seats, a sunroof, privacy glass and heated rear seats.

The Forester lags behind in terms of running costs. We struggled to see MPG figures any higher than the low 30s during our testing. That's disappointing considering the engine has some hybrid technology. The much bigger Hyundai Santa Fe can easily beat it for efficiency.

Company car drivers will be better off looking elsewhere, because all its rivals have cleaner engines with lower CO2 levels and smaller tax bills. All the rivals have stronger residual values, too, so private buyers won’t get as good finance deals purchasing a Forester (future values form an important part of the calculations).

The model did perform well enough to earn five stars out of five for safety when it was tested by Euro NCAP in 2019. A generous level of safety kit is included, with lane-keeping assist, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking (AEB), and blind-spot monitoring.

Any mechanical faults are covered for five years or 100,000 miles. That's comparable with most rivals, including the Mazda CX-5 and Skoda Kodiaq but trails behind the seven years' cover you get with the Kia Sorento.

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Subaru Forester 2022 interior infotainment

FAQs

  • Not overall, but it is taller. The Subaru Outback is more than 20cm longer than the Forester, with 50 litres more boot space, while the Forester has more headroom. In the real world, you won’t be wanting for space in either. Read more here

  • The Forester is not actually a huge seller in the UK compared with other large SUVs but it is very popular in the US. That's especially true in states with significant snowfall, where the traction benefits of permanent four-wheel drive are undeniable. Read more here

  • The Forester is rated to tow up to 1870kg – considerably more than the most popular hybrid large SUVs. Read more here

  • Yes, it's a fast sports SUV version, but it's never been officially imported to the UK. That doesn’t look to be changing any time soon with the latest generation of Forester, which comes in a choice of three trim levels: XE, Sport and XE Premium. Read more here