2025 Subaru Forester Touring First Test: Great Interior and Package … With a Catch

Subaru added the Forester compact crossover to the U.S. lineup in 1997, and it has been a stalwart for the brand since. The last major refresh was for the 2022 model year, followed by some minor updates for 2024, and now for 2025 Subaru is introducing a sleek new sixth-generation Forester with a choice of five trim levels. Designers worked overtime to create a more stylish look both inside and out for the traditionally dowdy SUV, while the engineers are finally adding a hybrid to the powertrain options for North American buyers who’d lost patience and turned to the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 hybrids for better fuel economy (though they’ll have to wait until spring 2025 for it to arrive).

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Why It’s Important

The Subaru Forester compact crossover is a bread-and-butter vehicle for the automaker. The 2024 Forester is ranked fifth in the competitive compact SUV segment in the MotorTrend Buyer’s Guide Ultimate Car Rankings, up against heavyweights such as the RAV4 and CR-V. Subaru knows its audience well and does not change the recipe too much, because its loyal consumer base doesn’t seek or reward big changes. Here Subaru has updated the onboard technology, and it’s created a quieter and more comfortable interior.

We tested a 2025 Subaru Forester Touring with a 2.5-liter horizontally opposed (Boxer) four-cylinder engine that generates 180 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque. It’s paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) and is EPA-rated at 25/32/28 mpg city/highway/combined, which is slightly worse than the outgoing model, likely because the carryover powertrain propels a slightly heavier vehicle.

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Pros: What We Like

The interior is the big upgrade. We applaud the material choices, with a creative mix of textures and colors to make it feel upscale and stylish. We especially like the geometric pattern on the dashboard in front of the passenger and topographic map detail on the doors, which doubles as an accessory door protector ($178). The cabin is comfortable and spacious with more legroom in both rows than most in the segment, but it means less cargo room when the second-row seats are upright. Overall cargo room with the seats folded is competitive, though, offering lots of storage space—and now there’s a foot-activated, hands-free power rear gate. The outward visibility is incredible with the Forester’s low dash and thin A-pillars. Tall testers appreciated the position of the rearview mirror, which is high enough to be out of the forward view.

Subaru is upfront about its vehicles being designed to look like hiking boots, which may underscore the adventurous lifestyle the brand caters to—but there are few hiking boots on fashion runways. Still, the 2025 Forester enjoys a sleeker look, and in Horizon Blue Pearl paint with 19-inch alloy wheels, it’s a nice improvement that won’t turn off traditionalists and might rope in those who had to squint to see the beauty in the past. 

Ride quality is quite good up until you hit a large hump or dip, which gives you a big vertical bounce. It’s great over cracks, potholes, and expansion joints, but something needs to be done about the excessive rebound on those large-amplitude events. As before, the Forester feels ready to tackle terrain other car-based compact SUVs might quiver at, so the ride trade-off seems geared toward light-duty off-roading at the expense of some on-road refinement.

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Cons: What We Don’t Like

It has become a common refrain at MotorTrend when it comes to Subaru: More power, please. Driving a Forester is perfectly adequate, but there’s no turbo for greater performance, and we continue to be underwhelmed by the standard 2.5-liter boxer engine. The sad part is there were turbocharged engines for past Foresters, but this generation carries over the slightly anemic naturally aspirated flat-four. Hopefully the hybrid will feel sprightlier off the line. This 2.5-liter took 8.6 seconds to get from 0 to 60 mph in our testing and 16.7 seconds for the quarter mile. That’s slightly slower than the outgoing model and can’t match the 2024 Toyota RAV4 XLE AWD’s 8.0-second time to 60 mph and 16.2 second quarter-mile time. Consolation prize: The 2023 CR-V AWD is slower at 8.7 seconds and 16.7 seconds for the quarter mile, but it also gives up a full liter of engine displacement to the Subie (even if it adds a turbo).

Our testers described the Forester as gutless under 4,000 rpm and breathless above that. The SUV may not need to be much quicker to 60 mph, but it does need more low-end torque to make it tolerable in city and suburban traffic and not feel sluggish. In terms of lateral acceleration, the 0.81 g and 28.1 seconds at 0.61 g are almost identical to the RAV4, albeit slower than the Toyota’s 27.6 seconds.

We applaud the Forester’s safety record and standard EyeSight driver assist technology. While updated, the constant beeping warning of traffic movements around the vehicle can still be annoying and the lane keeping is aggressive in its mission to keep the SUV between the lines.

Our tester had the upgraded 11.6-inch touchscreen, but Subaru still lags the competition with its infotainment system, which is slow in operation and not particularly sexy to look at. We asked the car for directions three minutes into a drive, and it said the navigation system wasn’t ready—no modern system should take this long to load.

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The Bottom Line

Subaru fans will embrace the new Forester and its improved looks, especially the interior that’s quiet and more attractive, but they should not expect better performance from a powertrain with a history of being underpowered. If they’ve owned past Foresters—non-turbo ones, at least—this won’t be much of a surprise, but to outsiders wooed by the new sheetmetal, disappointment lurks.