Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

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  Nice car but I couldnt buy it - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Robyn - December 21 - 9:47 pm

  I was ready to buy a 2016. But, when I saw that it didnt lay flat in the back, I had to look for something else. The 2013 Forester was the newest one that did. I will now be able to camp in the back and load things in with ease. I hope by the time I have to get my next one, this will be corrected.

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  Can you adapt to a Subaru - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Dee M - September 9 - 1:14 pm

  If you have long legs, the drivers seat will stay back a lot. An Adult might not be comfortable sitting behind you. There is a downward dip when you get into the car, so when you go to get out you have to remind yourself to lift up your leg or youll trip when getting out. Sometimes the Bluetooth wont work like it should, the steering wheel will stick a little after making a hard turn and it has a limit to how high it will tilt up. I am still adapting to all the different controls. Only the drivers window will go all the way up at the touch of the button. You have to hold the button for the other 3 windows to make them go all the way up or down. The usb port and a second car adapter plug in site are hidden in the storage box located between the front seats. I had to downsize my cargo holder. Banks still love the resale value of a Subaru, so getting a loan was a little easier. Since I am still adapting to this Subaru, I honestly cant rate everything about it yet. I will say the Subaru service center is Great! Since I brought the Subaru from a Ford dealership, they did an inspection to look for any issues that would need to be addressed.

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  Sharp and nimble - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Douglas Swinford - July 23 - 4:30 pm

  I have a lot of experience with driving cars, trucks, commercial vehicles. This is a find piece of machinery. In comparing with the competitors I liked the Mazda CX-5 and its snappy little motor. The Skyactive engine they have has a little more snap than the normally aspirated Touring, but I love the flat four and the balance and proven reliability of this set up. If you live in a climate where you have snow and bad roads and want all wheel drive they seem to have an edge on the comp too. Plus, when pricing its as if you dont pay extra for it (AWD) like you do on other vehicles. We liked the Hyundai Tuscon as its really sharp but I didnt want a turbo motor and all the ones we liked had their new 1.6 Turbo. I think Hondas are great but the front seats were lacking and did not have the wonderful seating position and view out of the windshield that the Forester does. Forester manages to have a nice back window you can see out of and still be nicely styled. My wife and I are both shorter drivers (under 510") and we had the best visibility out of the Forester. Now to particulars... I like the Eyesight system it works well but can be quirky occasionally and kick itself off. Its not annoying though when it mildly scolds you for getting out of your lane. Given that this is a high end model I would have thought I would have more gauges, i.e. temp / oil pressure / volts. But you get a blue light to tell you when the motor is cold, duh, and thats it. It does not have quite the ride that my 2003 Dodge Caravan does, but of course that has a longer wheelbase and it is a two wheel drive and cant handle much off the pavement. Ive only had this car off the road for a short distance once on some un even ground and she was like "lets go!" My wife really likes the tight turning radius compared to our van and she can get the power seat set so she doesnt need a pillow like with most cars. She loves to sit up hight and see out. So far the gas mileage has been very very good. My worst tank early on averaged 26 and the current one is at 30 for 100 miles. It will probably level out 27 or so. If there is road construction and you are held down in speed the mileage keeps shooting up. Driving 70-75 steady will put you at about 26 which is still good. Ive only got 1600 miles on it. Thats all I can think of for now. Im the kind of person who spends hours and hours studying and reading consumers reviews which I think is one of the best measures of a car. If you are coming down in size it will take a little adjusting but its still comfy for couple of hour trips. Happy shopping

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  Great car for the money. - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Terri Rude - April 4 - 7:55 pm

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  Great SUV overall, but why no automatic locking??? - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Jun Zhou - September 24 - 9:15 pm

  I purchased this car after having read all the reviews at Edmunds.com on compact to midsize SUVs and test driven quite a few of them (including Hondas and Toyotas). I have to agree with what most of the reviews have to say about Subaru Forester: its a nicely rounded family SUV with a huge attention paid on the practicality aspects. I enjoy the great outward visibility and the generous size of the sunroof. I like the ease-of-use electronics which offers easy Bluetooth connection with my iPhone, so I can have hands-free calls and enjoy mp3 music effortlessly. I love the gas mileage - my first 500+ miles during the frigid winter yielded 28 mpg, which perhaps is the best among this family of cars with AWD), and I do like all the features that the Limited trim level has to offer - However (!!!), to my big surprise, with the sophistication in technologies at this trim level, the car would NOT lock itself when you drive, you will have to remember to press the lock button yourself each time... in past 20 some years, I have driven tens of different cars with power locks, none of them require the drive to remember locking the doors before driving! One day on a highway my son, a very active 8-year-old boy, easily opened the back door when playing with the handle out of boredom/curiosity - thank God he immediately closed it after being yelled at :-) - but it buffles me why Subaru, a company touted safety for their products, would leave this manual which shouldnt be hard to get engineered as automatic. One of my friends told me that his Legacy and Outback dont have automatic lock either... why, Subaru??? Another thing I think is minor, which is the wind noise while driving, which definitely can be reduced a bit...

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  Too interactive - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Jimbo - August 8 - 7:04 am

  I love this vehicle, but I worry about the distraction of the touch screen. Yes it can be voice controlled, but I need a training program to figure out all the voice commands. I have only had the vehicle a few weeks but have had a couple occasions where I varied from my lane while trying to do something on the touch screen. To me that was scary. I love the camera screen on the 16. I traded a like 15 and that one was hard to see especially in sun light. This one is nice. I would like to be able to turn it on while moving to monitor a trailer. That would be nice. Overall, except for blind spot alerts, I love this car. My fourth Subaru.

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  one week anniversary - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By al arias - June 10 - 9:25 am

  good but not exciting

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  Itll do - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Jeff from OK - March 30 - 3:30 pm

  Smooth ride, tho sluggish acceleration. Dealership bragged about mileage- will have to rake their word for it. Handling OK, no need to switch between 2-4 wheel drive - full time "alert" through the cars computer. Interior OK - could be higher end with a touch here or there.

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  Great car except for smart phone integration! - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Lawrence Cohen - January 13 - 7:32 pm

  Used to own a Honda Element but wanted to a more comfortable car with better gas mileage and up to date technology. And I should mention manual transmission. The Forester is the only choice for manual so I went with it. The 2016 Forester delivered on 3 out 4 on my wish list. I really like driving the car and have been averaging close 28 mpg overall with the manual. Love the way it momentarily breaks the car on uphill stops so it makes shifting a total breeze! Now for the major disappoint and Subaru needs to be called out on it! I was looking forward to using the Mirrorlink feature that would allow integration of cell phone apps (like a gps app on the phone) to display and be controlled by the headset displays and controls. BUT the version of Mirrorlink in the car is an old version (1.0) and is incompatible with the versions on smart phones (Mirrorlink 1.1) and you cant downgrade the phones. Subaru customer support has said it would be fixed but its been close to year and now customer support is clueless on it. In the meantime other options are becoming more accepted ... like Android Auto. So its very disappointing the Subaru has done nothing to fix a problem with there software and its looking doubtful they ever will.

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  Overall impressed - 2016 Subaru Forester
  By Forester Loaner - October 13 - 7:22 am

  I own a Highlander (08 & driven 13 my g/f owns) and also currently driving the 16 Forester to get my 13 WRX serviced. Its the first time Ive driven a Forester and after Subaru really designed these cars including the Outback to be a crossover than the old wagon. I was pleasantly surprised at the visibility of the Forester as soon as I got in. The sunroof is HUGE! Its almost too bright (not a bad thing) without any sort of tinted window but felt both very naked but comfortable as I felt as though blind spots were almost non-existent. While its narrower than the Highlander I was surprised the ride height felt very similar; maybe couple inches or so lower but also didnt feel like the Forester was an enormous car having to be extra careful when parking. Highlander sometimes can be tricky in that sense. I buckled my daughters car seat & a booster and it was very easy to install. They both sit nice and flat on the seat so the adjustment was easy to do. The cargo space was also great hauling a cart of groceries without any issue. The height of the trunk was also perfect as it doesnt sit as high as most SUVs. I do feel for a family of four this would be the perfect vehicle. If packing extra load for camping Im sure you can get a cargo carrier and strap them on top. Considering the price of the Forester I didnt expect a ton of technology built in but also was surprised. Bluetooth pairing was I hate to admit x10 easier than my WRX. The touch screen and all the bells & whistles thats built in are far better than whats in my g/fs 13 Highlander. While I dont care too much for the Nanny devices like the lane drifting alert and EyeSight, if youre looking for added safety features its not a bad thing to have. It has the emergency SOS (Starlink) button which I do feel is a good feature in case of an emergency and need assistance. While I wasnt impressed with the overall control and design of the interior, I guess for the price you would pay its not horrible. The dial knobs for the temp controls felt stiff and very generic. Back up camera is a very nice touch with the great display for the fuel economy. And speaking of which this car has been getting 28 mpg with mix of city & highway driving. Ive yet to see the gas gauge (all digital) go down by a mark. Not a bad thing as my WRX with a turbo get a gas mileage that of a Highlander. Now onto the driving experience, I have a mixed review. Its not race car or V6 power and does have decent power band for the most part. If you have the car packed and need to get out quick, the Forest may not be the fastest car to pull out. Its not terrible either but I felt like it could use a little bit of boost. The ride overall is very comfortable. Its not too noisy and can still have normal conversation. I felt that the Highlander did better in terms of lower frequency noise like the road noise itself. Suspension isnt stiff nor too plush. Cornering and braking was predictable. The brakes are awesome in this car by the way. I almost nose dived not being used to driving this vehicle on the first day. One thing I thought it was odd is the Forester Im renting after backing out in reverse then shifting back to Drive, theres a weird 2-3 second delay before the drive engages to move forward. And then there was this odd pocket where if you dont have gas going in, the car seems to almost stall like it was a manual car. I had to sort of punch it to get the car going again. It may have been a fluke but considering this vehicle at the time of rental only has 3,400 miles total it may just be the way this car is perhaps. So theres a little bit of lag on the power/drivetrain front but the car excels at the overall ride comfort, visibility, excellent fuel economy and what it offers. Of course if you want more power, I would get either the turbo version or a different model with a 6-cylinder (which I havent driven like the Outback 3.6R). Headlight is halogen and the high beam was very bright. I felt it was brighter than my 13 WRX. Sitting up higher may have helped also. Overall I would recommend this car; for a small family but not for a family of 5+ (Outback then?). I would love to try this car in the snow but know with Subarus AWD you cant go wrong (as long as youre not trying to push through heavy unplowed snow.