Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

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  Be prepared to visit the dealership often!!!! - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Loves to drive - December 6 - 4:23 am

  I have to say I want to love this car but in less than 1 month of owning it we already had problems. The interior is comfortable and the drive is very nice. We bought this car for the safety ratings. Its our 1st time venturing away from Toyota. In week 1 the engine lights started going on when you turned the car on. Multiple lights were on showing different issues. My husband took the car back to the dealership and the sensors were replaced. We were told this was a known issue and the problem was fixed. Yesterday we received a letter from Subaru saying the CTV transmission was not filled with enough fluid. Guess we are going back to the dealership. This is a total disappointment! Be forewarned.

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  2016 Subaru Forester a Disappointment - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Vicki S. - July 24 - 4:47 am

  The new Subaru Forester is not an improvement over previous year models. I had this as a courtesy car for 3 days, so it went on my 45 mile each way work commute which takes me across small neighborhood roads as well as the majors and the turnpike, so all kinds of driving. I noticed right away that the interior has some line of sight problems. The side windows are junked up with fake little triangle windows near the front corners, so that the reflection of the interior is plainly visible in the window when you are trying to look at the side rear view mirrors. When trying to adjust the rear view mirror to see out the back and sides of the vehicle I accidently hit the on-star emergency button and was promptly given a call. These small 911 butons turned out to be right above where I put my hand to bring the RW mirror to my height, so rotating the mirror down brought my knuckles into contact witthe call buttons. Behind me, in the way of seeing to traffic, were the seat belt line from the back cargo area to the center back seat, and all 3 headrests also blocked my view. The back of the car supplies large corner blind spots so that there is no adjustment that lets you see cars coming from behind you right or left. I never achieved a position that alieviated the sight problems, and could not find the knob to adjust the outside view mirrors. The seats are made of a shiny cover material so I was unsteady and sliding off them, these are "cloth" seats, I think, that also had a heated feature with controls front and down on the center console. The seats are supposed to be buckets, but are so uncomfortable, stiff and slippery that it was more like a personal bench seat. The dials and knobs on the radio and heat are cheap shiny silver plastic that really feel and look rather low class. The dashboard is still the sticky soft fake leather that I had in my 2008 Outback and already sported a layer of fuzz and dust that I know from experience cannot be removed. The feel of the ride, compared to my old Outback that needs struts, was just as bouncy and all over the road as my 08, so maybe I dont need that strut job afterall. The Forester has LOTS of headroom, and a moonroof, but the front dash seemed all wrong, nothing was near enough for me to be able to use it easily or without stretching and craning. Acceleration was awful in that it jerked around, although I am willing to say that maybe that was me not being able to find a comfortable seating position. In slow and go traffic I had trouble keeping it completely straight on, and there was a little audio buzzer on the dash to tell me each time I strayed close to my lane line and yet nothing to tell me when other people were coming into my lane. Climate controls were hard to figure out -- remember this coming from an Outback owner. Maybe a larger person than myself would appreciate the shape of this car, but for someone 5 feet 5" this car was too big and uncomfortable. When it comes time to replace my 08 Outback I will be looking at something that does not put me in a 4 wheel skyscraper. I thought it was good on gas, maybe because it has a larger tank than my Outback. But it would also be too tall for me to load my kayak as I am used to doing.

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  Disappointed with Forester - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By John Barrer - March 16 - 4:13 am

  Stiff and awkward. poor visibility out back sides. small cargo area.

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  My New Little "Lurch" - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Susan - November 16 - 3:08 pm

  Weve always owned Honda...for the majority of our marriage. The Subaru was a new purchase, we dont lease, now that we are done with totting kids around and dont need the Mother van. Ive found most features disappointing or annoying on the 2016 Forester. The Accelerator pedal is so small, it makes my 52"frame tired after driving 45 minutes. The carpet is so cheap, the blonde hair in our family makes the black carpet look forever dirty. The "fuel release" lever is on the floor vs. the vertical floor board near the break pedal, so its always dirty. I hate the "LURCH in the accelerator. I hate the beeping of the seat belt warning @ 3 miles an hour, so you cant move your car from one spot in your garage to another with buckling up. I hate the change box, you cant plug in your phone with spilling the change. I hate theres no place for a womans purse...and if you throw it onto the passengers seat, you have to "buckle it in" because 3-5 pounds sets off the alarm to buckle. I regret NOT BUYING a HONDA even though I got the Subaru because I did not want all the silly bells and whistles the CR-V offered.

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  Burns oil - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Michele - October 19 - 11:40 am

  This 2015 Subaru Forester was my first new vehicle in 12 years. I did my research and test drove a lot of other vehicles before choosing it. Everything was fine until the oil light came on before the first scheduled service. I checked the oil and it was a quart down. I put a quart of oil in and mentioned it when I took the car in for service. The maintenance person I spoke to was completely mystified as to what could be wrong. I have had the car a little over a year and a half and have had to put oil in it three times. The dealership has had me coming back every 1200 miles to do oil consumption test "to see what could be wrong". Three weeks ago I got a settlement notice of a class action suit against Subaru for excessive oil consumption in the 2014 and 2015 Foresters. So, all along the service people must have known what was happening and I can only assume that they were told to lie about it. I like the car, its fun to drive, but I really resent being treated like an idiot by the dealership I will never buy another Subaru. In my opinion they are completely unreliable.

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  Remote start max 30 ft range - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Allen - July 23 - 10:30 pm

  If wanting remote start. Dont purchase a Touring model. Due to Keyless Access the remote start has a 30 ft range. Very old technology. The other non Keyless Access models have a 400 ft range. I have reached out to Subaru of America and they states receiving numerous complaints about remote start. But did not have a fix for the issue.

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  Sadly disappointing: CVT and rattling dash - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Sad Subaru Owner - June 3 - 11:17 pm

  Ive owned a 2015 Subaru CVT for one year and have put 10K miles on it around Denver, Colorado. I am extremely disappointed, and look forward to replacing it soon with a real car. I chose the Subaru Forester for very practical reasons: Great visibility, reliability, road clearance for the occasional offroading, and all-wheel traction in the winter. These elements, however, do not offset the downsides. 1. Most annoying has been the constant rattling of the vent and speaker grills on the dashboard. Turns out that this problem is well documented on the Internet, yet the dealer acted surprised when I brought it in for repair. Twice now they have failed to fix the noise, and I have an appointment to take it back a third time. 2. The CVT, in combination with the slow-to-warm-up Boxer engine, is so bad at accelerating that you must pro-actively plan your route to avoid the need for quick speed. For instance, until the engine is warm, I have to leave extremely large spaces when going from my residential area to merge onto a two-lane thoroughfare. And it takes the engine 10 minutes, or 2 miles to warm up (when the blue light goes off). So dont plan to jump on the freeway and hope to accelerate to match the speed of traffic - aint gonna happen. Worse, the CVT is quirky, and not in a good way. Sometimes a touch of the accelerator causes it to lerch forward. Other times, it wont move. I HATE HATE HATE the CVT. 3. In the center of the dash is an information screen that shows your average mpg. This number -- usually around 26 mpg -- is 2 and 3 miles greater than what Im actually getting (calculated by miles driven since last refueling). Im beginning to wonder if they have programmed the onboard computer to deliberately do this - ala Volkswagon misrepresenting diesel emissions. 4. The ride can be kidney-jarringly bad. There is a stretch of I-25 through south Denver where the combination of road surfacing, the cars short track, and traveling at normal freeway speeds will cause the car to continuously shudder in a very uncomfortable manner. (This happens with the factory installed tires inflated at proper psi). 5. The wheel-wells are unacceptably tight for an SUV designed for winter travel. Shortly after I bought the car in Winter 2015, I smelled burning rubber while driving on a snow covered road. I was the only car on the road, so I knew it was my Subaru. Upon pulling over and inspecting the car, I discovered that the snow accumulation of 2-3" in the back wheel-well was rubbing the back tires and causing the smell. Now when it snows, I have to be constantly vigilant that this doesnt happen. I can see how an engineer designed the very tight wheel-wells to reduce wind drag and improve gas mileage, but in so doing, they have seriously impaired the cars ability to travel safely in the snow. Before purchasing the Subaru Forester, I did extensive research via Edmunds and Consumer Reports. Both love the Subarus and failed to mention the problems Im experiencing. Not only am I disappointed with the Subaru, but I am also profoundly perplexed that after all my research, test drives, and talking to people, I made this expensive mistake.