2025 Subaru Forester Review and Test Drive

Consistently competent, the redesigned 2025 Forester offers comfort and practicality.

Liz Kim & Christian Wardlaw | 

Feb 19, 2025 | 7 min read

Christian Wardlaw

The 2025 Subaru Forester comes in Base, Premium, Sport, Limited, and Touring trim levels. Prices range from around $32,000 to about $42,000, including the destination charge to ship the SUV from the Ota, Gunma, Japan, assembly plant that builds it to your local dealership. Its three most popular competitors are the Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, and Toyota RAV4, according to sales data from Automotive News.

For this review, Liz Kim and Christian Wardlaw, automotive journalists who are married with children, evaluated the 2025 Forester Sport. It had an option package equipping the SUV with a Harman Kardon premium sound system, a power liftgate, Subaru's Reverse Automatic Braking system, and an SI-Drive Sport Sharp driving mode, bringing the manufacturer's suggested retail price to $37,590, including the $1,395 destination charge. Subaru provided the vehicle for this Forester review.

Christian Wardlaw

Is the 2025 Subaru Forester a Good SUV?

Chris Says: With a few exceptions, the 2025 Forester is an excellent compact crossover SUV. Observed fuel economy falls short of expectations, and in some driving situations, the vehicle could use more power, but the upcoming Forester Hybrid will likely improve in both areas. In addition, the infotainment system is unrewarding to use, but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto help resolve some dissatisfaction there. Otherwise, if you like the looks, you'll probably like the SUV.

Liz Says: As was true of earlier models, the redesigned 2025 Forester is neither attractive nor engaging to drive. But it's abundantly reliable, safe, and capable in suboptimal driving conditions. So, while this Subaru may lack charisma, stoic competence has its charms, as proven by the Forester's popularity.

Christian Wardlaw

Form Continues to Follow Function in the 2025 Forester

Liz Says: Gone are the days of endearingly weird Subaru designs. While some may grieve for the stylistic idiosyncrasies of previous Foresters, I find the redesigned 2025 model to be blandly handsome, blending in with other compact SUVs.

Inside, the Sport trim level's two-tone gray seats and bronze accents are appealing. While hard plastics are the norm, Subaru lays everything out in an intuitive manner, the controls are well marked, and the kids loved watching the sky through the giant moonroof.

Regarding comfort, I found an ideal driving position offering an elevated stance and good outward visibility. Our test vehicle also had a height-adjustment option for the front passenger seat, which is key to our family's road-trip happiness. There's plenty of rear-seat space for three passengers and enough footwell room to accommodate the louche shoes of slouchy teenagers.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris Says: At Subaru, form follows function, so stylistic beauty takes a back seat to practical charm. In keeping with that tradition, the redesigned 2025 Forester isn't conventionally attractive. Instead, it is a simple, comfortable, and utilitarian device promising safety, reliability, and the ability to get you home when the weather turns sour.

With Sport trim, bronze detailing adds some personality both inside and out. The cabin is much nicer than the previous-generation Forester, I found, exhibiting genuine examples of thoughtful design. The Sport is the only 2025 Forester equipped with StarTex artificial leather, a water-resistant material that's great for active lifestyle types but miserable on a hot and muggy summer day.

Interior storage space is decent, but I expected to find more nooks and crannies given this SUV's emphasis on practicality. In Foresters with a moonroof, cargo capacity expands from 27.5 to 69.1 cubic-feet, less than some competitors in the compact SUV class.

Christian Wardlaw

Subaru Needs to Tweak the 2025 Forester's Tech

Subaru equips the Forester Sport with a Starlink infotainment system featuring an 11.6-inch, portrait-mounted touchscreen display. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, smartphone charging, and a complimentary three-year subscription to a Starlink Safety Plus connected services plan are all standard features.

The automaker's EyeSight collection of driver-assistance systems is also standard, and the redesigned 2025 Forester earned a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2024.

Chris Says: Subaru's 11.6-inch Starlink infotainment system needs a reboot. I like the features, volume and tuning knobs, temperature buttons, and quick access to the hazard flashers and defrosters. I dislike the graphics, vertical orientation, and muddled organization. The test car lacked a navigation system, limiting voice recognition testing to radio tuning and climate functions, which proved successful. The available Harman Kardon premium audio system is impressive.

EyeSight is effective, suffering only one glitch during the evaluation drive. In particular, the new Emergency Stop Assist system is comforting, springing to action if the driver falls asleep or suffers a medical emergency while using the adaptive cruise control and lane-centering assistance. However, it is unfortunate that blind-spot monitoring is unavailable with the Base trim and is an option with the Premium trim. It should be standard equipment on all Foresters.

Christian Wardlaw

Liz Says: Like most modern carmakers, Subaru integrates too many functions into its vehicles' touchscreens. Also, when I pushed the volume knob to mute the stereo, the display went dark, rendering the climate controls inaccessible. With that said, at least Subaru retains traditional volume and tuning knobs in the Forester, and it's easy to adjust the temperature.

Most of the Forester's EyeSight safety features are easy to use and helpful in preventing an accident. However, I must take issue with the available Reverse Automatic Braking (RAB) system. While backing out of our gently sloped driveway, RAB mistook the street for an object and slammed on the brakes on three different occasions, startling me each time. You can turn RAB off, but then, what's the point of it?

Christian Wardlaw

Softer and Smoother but Still a Subaru

Subaru equips the 2025 Forester with a 2.5-liter boxer-type four-cylinder engine, a continuously variable transmission (CVT), and a standard all-wheel-drive system. The engine makes 180 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, and the Forester Sport is EPA-rated to get 25/32/28 mpg in city/highway/combined driving. The test vehicle averaged 22 mpg on the evaluation loop.

Liz Says: Wow, our average fuel economy was disappointing! I must admit that I often engaged the Sport Sharp SI-Drive mode because it delivered a more attuned response; otherwise, the powertrain felt lackadaisical. The engine note from the boxer engine is unusual, and our picky teenager asked why the car sounded so weird during the morning drive to school.

The Forester Sport was nimble on city streets and felt secure on highways, while its tidy size was an asset when navigating crowded parking lots. It's not one of those cars that inspires you to take the long and winding route home, however, as the steering is too light and lacks feedback.

Though I didn't get a chance to test the Forester's off-roading capabilities, its aptitude is well known. And the 8.7 inches of ground clearance allows for treks down gnarlier trails than other vehicles in the class I've tested can pass.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris Says: Liz, I know we use different driving routes to evaluate test vehicles, but I thought I could detect hints of WRX handling in the new Forester before I learned that its steering rack is a modified version of what Subaru uses in its legendary sports sedan. For me, the steering response and feel was a highlight of the Forester's on-road driving dynamics.

Another surprise: The Sport's CVT is terrific. Also, with peak torque arriving at 3,700 rpm, the Forester didn't feel sluggish to me regardless of the SI-Drive mode. With this redesign, I hoped Subaru would retain the boxer engine note and communicative ride, and while both are toned down, they remain evident. That ensures the Forester sounds and feels different from every other compact crossover on sale today.

A brief off-road jaunt showed the Forester Sport soaks up ruts and bumps with greater ease than before, and it's still fun to play rally racer on gravel roads. I'm also glad the signature fishbowl-style outward visibility remains intact, one of my favorite things about the Forester.

Christian Wardlaw

Liz Kim and Christian Wardlaw met when they worked together at a major automotive media outlet. Together for more than 20 years, they are parents to children and pets and have collectively test-driven and reviewed thousands of cars, trucks, minivans, and SUVs since the 1990s.

Liz Kim

Liz Kim has been writing about cars, SUVs, and trucks since 1999. She started her career in news, features, and car reviews, and has crafted automotive marketing copy for several agencies. But what she enjoys most is ferrying her family to explore the nooks and crannies of Southern California, where she lives. She calls a 2020 Acura MDX Sport Hybrid her daily driver.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris says his first word was "car." For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. He is a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but is most passionate about the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. He began his career as the editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com in the 1990s, and for more than 30 years has created automotive content for CarGurus, J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, the New York Daily News, and others. Chris owns Speedy Daddy Media, has been contributing to Capital One Auto Navigator since 2019, and lives in California with his wife, kids, dog, and 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata.