2025 Subaru Forester Review: When Boring Is Exactly What You Need

I grew up watching Top Gear and the Fast & Furious movies, romanticizing the idea of driving hardcore sports cars and supercars. But, for most of us, the car we drive every day needs to be something … boring. The new-for-2025 Subaru Forester is exactly that—necessarily boring and I mean that in the best way possible. 

If you enjoy driving, a peep at the Forester’s spec sheet will make you yawn. It has a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with one fewer pony than a Miata—while carrying around 1,200 more pounds—and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). It has a 0-60 time that’s slower than some bicycles. From the sounds of it, you’d probably rather take the bus. And I felt that way, too. Until I spent a few days driving it.

There isn’t anything especially new or groundbreaking about the 2025 Forester, as it maintains the familiar Forester formula. However, its new look and improved interior make that formula more appealing to Subaru newcomers, while giving existing customers even more reason to return.

The Basics

Instead of radically changing the formula, Subaru set out to make the 2025 Forester more comfortable, quieter inside, more premium feeling, and even a little bit more fun. And I can now confirm that the redesigned Forester is indeed decently quiet, comfortable, and more fun to drive than I expected it to be.

I imagine that during this car’s design process, Subaru’s designers threw out every tool that wasn’t a ruler. Gone are the round wheel arches and swoopy body lines of the 2024 model and replacing them are boxy wheel arches, sharp lines, and hard edges. This new Forester seemingly wants to attract a younger audience with its more aggressive design, and my guess is that it’ll work. The new Forester looks less like your grandma’s car than before. Granted, it’s still a pretty vanilla-looking SUV but now made a little more handsome.

Ironically, while the exterior became more youthful, Subaru went in the opposite direction inside. The new Forester’s cabin is quite grown-up looking, with a flat dashboard made of soft-touch material, a big portrait-style touchscreen, and sensible gauges. Most materials feel good, higher quality than in any other Subie I’ve driven, and cabin ergonomics are great. 

The seats are a bit flat but I spent many hours and several hundreds of miles in them and never felt sore or uncomfortable. Highway wind noise can be a bit annoying but the inside of the Forester is mostly quiet. Back seat space is good and my family of four was more than happy during several long trips. 

Driving the Subaru Forester

In the powertrain department, Subaru is zigging while others are zagging. I can basically copy and paste “2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder” into every modern car’s spec sheet and be right 75% of the time. But rather than a turbocharged inline-four, Subaru is stubbornly sticking with its 2.5-liter naturally aspirated flat-four. 

Without a turbocharger, its 180 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque feel mostly flat, especially when peak torque comes in at 3,700 rpm. While the CVT tries to make the most of that power by holding the rpms high during hard acceleration, it ends up just making the Forester feel coarse and growly without much actual speed. It’s refreshing to see something other than a 2.0-liter turbo-four in a modern crossover but this powertrain is disappointing and the car’s weakest link.

This is a shame because the rest of the new Forester is a genuinely pleasant car for daily life. There isn’t anything mind-blowing about it but it comes together to create a well-rounded crossover that’s good for the school run, long road trips, and even some light off-roading. 

Subaru gave the new Forester a version of the WRX’s dual-pinion electric power steering rack, which is said to create a more “direct feel.” While there’s zero actual feel coming through Forester’s steering wheel, and it’s overly light, it is precise enough to not feel frustrating. It’s certainly more enjoyable to pilot than the new Hyundai Santa Fe. 

Where the Forester earns top marks is in its ride quality. It isn’t the softest crossover, nor is it the most composed. But it’s comfortable and it provides an unusual sense of invincibility, like you could ride over any terrain and survive. I took the Forester to my local off-roading spot and drove it down some mild trails. Not only is it capable of handling some rut and bump-filled dirt roads but it can tackle them quickly.

That vague on-road steering also begins to make a lot more sense when you’re navigating rough terrain, as more communicative steering would transmit all of the surface changes to your hands. When you actually see and feel what the Forester is capable of off-road, its on-road dynamics become more understandable. 

The day after I took it off-road, I took my family on a road trip, where we spent several hours in the car, both in big long stints and short around-town driving. It was used as a long-distance cruiser, crawled on a sandy beach, and was even a mobile changing station for a toddler. And the damn thing never blinked. There wasn’t a single situation in which I felt the Forester was compromised or that it failed to handle the task at hand. Competence might be boring, but when it’s the thing you have to live with every day, that competence is golden.

Subaru Forester Features, Options, and Competition

The Forester is an oddly equipped car from the jump. With the base model, customers get nice driving-related features like all-wheel drive, Subaru’s Eyesight advanced safety tech, and steering-responsive LED headlights. However, they won’t get the big touchscreen (two smaller ones instead) or blind-spot monitors. But for just over $30,000 out the door, the base Forester has most of what customers will want. 

My tester was a loaded Touring model, the top trim level, wearing a sticker price of $41,390. For that money, you get heated and ventilated leather seats, a heated leather steering wheel, a sunroof, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a surround-view camera, and an decent 11-speaker Harmon Kardon sound system. 

Fuel Economy

Subaru’s choice to stick with a theoretically less efficient, naturally aspirated engine for the Forester is an interesting one but, fortunately, it doesn’t actually make that much of an efficiency difference. The EPA rates the new Forester at 26 mpg city, 33 mpg highway, and 29 mpg combined. That’s right in line with most of its competitors like the gas Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, and even better than the turbocharged Hyundai Santa Fe.

I saw an average of just over 27 mpg with a heavier right foot than the typical customer, so that rating is pretty accurate. The Forester also has a bigger gas tank than most rivals, so it has a whopping 481 miles of EPA-rated range, which is something I noticed and appreciated. I distinctly remember turning to my wife and mentioning how surprised I was at the amount of gas we had left despite driving hundreds of miles.

Value and Verdict

Small crossovers are some of the most popular cars in North America, making this a viciously competitive segment. And with sales giants like the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V as rivals, I can see why the Forester lags behind on the sales sheet—Subaru sold just over 143,000 Foresters through Q3 2024, while Toyota sold over 350,000 RAV4s.

It just seems to prioritize different things from the rest of its competitors, like standard active safety features, better suspension, and off-road ability, rather than stylish designs or snazzy cabin tech. The 2025 Subaru Forester is an acquired taste, for those that appreciate the Subaru way, and I can see where they’re coming from. 

While it wouldn’t be my personal choice in the segment—I’d prefer something like the Volkswagen Tiguan or Mazda CX-50—I get why the Forester is one of Subaru’s most popular cars. There’s something sensible and smart about it. Driving my family around in it made me feel like an intelligent, practical grown-up but one who likes a bit of fun, too. It does everything it needs to and does it well, just without the pomp or flash you might find in some of its competitors.

I wasn’t convinced by the Forester at first my first few drives but after living with it for a week, I get it now. I understand its ways. It’s boring in the best way possible. 

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