Subaru knows its customer demographics and which way the wind is blowing when it comes to technology, and so the new Subaru Forester is another wheel forward down the trail. The 2025 Subaru Forester arrives with a new body and interior but, more importantly, with a smoother and faster-reacting version of Subaru’s EyeSight safety system, a stiffer chassis to improve comfort, handling, and noise levels, and a revised engine.
The 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine is familiar, but it’s been revised for the new model year; Subaru claims the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) it’s paired to is smoother and quieter, too. As you would expect from Subaru, its symmetrical all-wheel-drive (AWD) system is standard, along with Active Torque Vectoring and SI-Drive for when things get slippery under the tires.
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Subaru took us to Montana to spend the day mainly on trails up in the snow with the new Forester, but we also spent some time on the highway to get a full impression of how the crossover fares out in the real world.
Style and Comfort: Distinctively Subaru
We’ve known what the new Forester looks like since its reveal at the end of 2023, but now we’ve seen and experienced a few different trims first hand. The Base and Premium models come standard with 17-inch alloy wheels, the Limited gets 18-inch items, and the Sport and Touring upgrade to 19-inch units. LED headlights are standard on the base model, while Premium trims get LED foglamps too, and a power panoramic moonroof.
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Inside, thought has gone into the little things, like the heating and cooling focusing on occupied seats rather than being wasted on the whole cabin. The new seats are more bolstered for the lower back and slimmer at the top, and the recipe is a good one: these are some of the best seats we’ve experienced at this price point. After a couple of hours bumping through trails, we emerged fresh, even though we had started out aching after our day of air travel. The front seats gain heating and ventilation at the top of the range, with heating for back-seat passengers added too.
Technology: Safety and Convenience
Standard on the Base model are dual seven-inch touchscreens with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration plus SiriusXM and HD Radio. The upgrade is an 11.6-inch screen that includes integration for wireless Auto and CarPlay and adds wireless charging.
On the larger screen, heat and cooling controls are permanently shown at the bottom. The system is easy to use and intuitive to navigate, but it’s nothing special when put up against the competition regarding speed and user interface. The wireless charger isn’t particularly good at holding a phone in place to keep it charging, although it’s fair to say that’s an issue not many automakers have solved, so it’s not a gripe unique to Subaru.
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The Forester’s latest safety tech is based around the EyeSight Driver Assist suite that features a redesigned camera with a much broader field of view and an additional monocular camera. Top trims also get a standard 360-degree surround view monitor, but all models come with:
- Advanced adaptive cruise control with lane centering
- Pre-collision braking and throttle management
- Lane departure and sway warning
- Lead vehicle start alert
- Lane departure prevention
Powertrain and Drive Modes: AWD Goodness
Subaru’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine powers the new Forester, making 180 horsepower with 178 lb-ft of torque. It’s a proven unit, but lacks any kind of urgency on the road – it’s best not to try and dive into that small traffic gap from a standstill. It’s fine for general day-to-day use if you’re not a driver who’s always hurrying, and the CVT does its job well enough. That lack of power doesn’t hamper the Forester – or any Subaru – off-road, though. Unless you’re driving a heavy truck-based vehicle, less power is generally needed off-road than most seem to think.
All-wheel-drive is standard, and there’s a selection of modes suited for different terrains. Sport mode helps hurry the Forester up with better throttle response and a change in attitude from the CVT, but it’s hardly a game changer. The off-road modes are a game changer, though, as we discovered during our drive.
First Drive events provide our initial impressions of a vehicle in a restricted environment under certain time constraints. Keep an eye on CarBuzz for our comprehensive Test Drive review which will follow soon.
Driving Impressions: Mild Mannered, Extreme Competence
On the road, two things struck us straight away. First, and as with the previous generation, the Forester’s engine isn’t peppy and has to exert itself to get up to a hustling freeway speed. Second, the redesigned suspension is, as the manufacturer claims, much improved – it now offers some of the smoothest ride qualities in the segment. Before handing over the keys, Subaru impressed on us that interior noise levels have been improved, and that is definitely the case in the real word – at least in terms of road noise from the tires. Wind noise is still apparent, but it’s not overbearing.
The 2025 Subaru Forester is a pleasantly easy car to drive in general, but those who take a business-like approach to driving will need a heavy foot and will have to deal with the engine noise that comes with that. The new steering system, pulled from the WRX sedan, feels great and reacts exactly how you want it to. The CVT deals with the lack of power well and does the best it can with it.
2025 Subaru Forester
- Engine
-
2.5L Flat 4 Gas
- Horsepower
-
180 hp
- Torque
-
178 lb-ft
- Transmission
-
CVT
- Drivetrain
-
AWD
- Fuel Economy
-
26/33/29 mpg
- Cargo Space
-
29.6 – 74.4 ft³
- Length
-
183.3 inches
- Wheelbase
-
105.1 inches
- Width
-
72 inches
- Height
-
68.1 inches
- Curb Weight
-
3,510 lbs
Moving off the pavement and onto dirt roads, the new suspension starts to shine even more. Bumps that would normally crash through the chassis are damped down well. For cars that will spend time off-road, the 18-inch wheels are the sweet spot for all-terrain tire availability, but we didn’t notice a big difference in ride quality between the 18- and 19-inch wheels. All models have 8.7 inches of ground clearance.
Subaru’s all-wheel-drive system is already the best in the business when it comes to light off-road adventuring, and on our long afternoon exploring Montana back roads, we ventured from dry dirt through rocky paths and into wet, muddy trails before finding ourselves navigating through snow, both lightly traveled and heavily rutted. On the road, the engine feels underpowered, but off the road, there’s plenty of torque to get through the rougher stuff smoothly.
The Forester just ate it all up, seemingly without even trying. We were most wary of the slippery, slushy ruts through snow-covered ground, but it was just a case of adhering to the “slow as possible, fast as necessary” off-roading rule, committing, then letting the X-Drive mode handle the distribution of power between the four wheels and letting the ruts guide steering inputs.
Ian Wright
Senior Road Tester
Despite not being on aggressive all-terrain tires, it was some of the most fuss-free tackling of that sort of ground we’ve experienced outside of an off-road package equipped truck with knobbly tires. The Subaru Forester is genuinely impressive in seriously slippery conditions.
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Conclusion: A Great First Drive Impression
For all Subaru’s talk of technology and wanting to attract a younger crowd, it has missed a trick by not making wireless charging and wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto standard. Given that Subaru is incredibly good at retaining customers, making sure the base trims of a 2025 model make use of the tech everyone has in their pocket seems like a no-brainer – get those first or second-time buyers into your car.
Common tech missing aside, the 2025 Subaru Forester is a prideful move forward for the model. The ride is better, the general comfort is better, the steering is better, and retains good fuel economy and excellent off-the-beaten-track ability. We wouldn’t rush to upgrade from a previous generation Forester. Still, it looks like a sure thing for those with high-mileage Subarus or people looking to get into that Subaru lifestyle. We look forward to spending quality time with it once production models appear to see what it’s like to live with.