2019 Subaru Forester vs Ford Escape

What's the difference?

The Forester is nice to drive, rather easy to live with and it’s not hard on the eyes. Subarus are reliably sound, which is why you see a lot of them around, on city streets, in suburbia and on plenty of gravel tracks on the way to campsites. Bonus: there are plenty of outdoors-friendly accessories available, such as kayak or bike carriers, cargo barriers and luggage pods.

While not the most exciting SUV around, the comfortable and capable Forester is supremely well-built for purpose, if your purpose is to tackle light-duty off-roading, mostly on well-maintained gravel and dirt roads.

The Escape ST-Line is the second of its name I've driven and again after the Focus, I've come away liking it. While there's no full-fat ST to help make sense of the brand, it's nice to have a mid-size SUV that isn't German come to the party with a bit of driver appeal (okay, technically it is German...).

I think the Escape is a bit underrated and it's sadly inevitable that the ST-Line will suffer the same fate. But, that's the warzone that is Australia's SUV market.

The Forester has the same ol' dependable look as before (as it’s always had); it's not an eye-catching vehicle but it is certainly pleasant and inoffensive enough.

The Escape exited the womb as Kuga but was renamed in line with Ford's expanding SUV range. They start with E, you see - Everest, EcoSport etc. In fact, I had an Escape a while back that still had Kuga sill plates such was the speed of the change.

The Escape is a reasonably familiar sight on our roads but it's not exactly selling the way, say, the Mazda CX-5 does.

The Escape is readily identifiable as a Ford, echoing the about-to-be-replaced Focus and Fiesta. The original trout pout of the Kuga was superseded by something a little more 'expansive'. 

To this base, the ST-Line adds a set of dark finish 19-inch alloys, blacked out grille, fog-lamp surrounds, roof rails and rear valance. It's fairly mild. The lower ride height does help, though. It could look a bit meaner, but that's not really the point of the ST-Line brand.

Inside you have the same seats as the rest of the range along with red stitching on the shifter and steering wheel. A set of alloy-face pedals, stainless steel kick plates and ST-Line floor mats complete the changes.

The interior is otherwise unchanged, and that's no bad thing, except we have to talk about the touchscreen. It works really well and is a good size but the awkward angle of the surrounds make it hard to hit the targets. It's a bit of an own-goal because otherwise it's very good.

It’s a well designed interior with a neat fit and finish.

This is the top-shelf Forester so there’s leather everywhere, but there are more durable surfaces and material elsewhere and so it feels like an interior a family can easily do long road trips in.

There are plenty of storage spots, cup holders (up front, and in the centre arm-rest for second-row passengers), and door pockets to satisfy the driver and passengers.

There’s also plenty of real-time info depicted on the main 8.0-inch touchscreen (radio or nav etc) and the smaller screen mounted above it, which shows time, temp and aircon, as well as which vehicle-safety systems (i.e. EyeSight, lane-departure warning etc) are active.

For those with devices, there are USB charge ports up front (one) and two for second-row passengers.

The dual-zone climate control includes rear vents.

The Escape is one of the roomier mid-size SUVs, although it doesn't quite match the interior flexibility of the VW Tiguan. Rear seat space is generous, with good head and legroom and plenty of foot room.

The tailgate opens high and wide, which is handy for loading up. The boot will take between 406 litres (rear seats up) and 1603 litres (rear seats down). There are four cupholders - two up front and two in the rear armrest, with bottle holders in each door. The central armrest bin is deep and accommodating, and there are a few good spaces for stashing loose bits and pieces.

The ST-Line weighs in at $39,990 (plus on-road costs), an easy $5000 below the top-of-the-range Titanium. Standard are 19-inch gunmetal alloys, a nine-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, front and rear fog lights, sat nav, auto headlights and wipers, partial leather trim, heated and folding power mirrors and a space-saver spare tyre.

Our car had the absurdly good value 'Technology Pack'. For $800 it's a no-brainer because you score upgraded forward AEB for high speeds, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, driver attention detection, auto high beam, active cruise and tyre pressure sensors. Just a pity it's not standard, really. Also on board was the useful but debatable hands-free tailgate for $950.

This Forester has a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine – producing 136kW at 5800rpm and 239Nm at 4400rpm – with a seven-speed CVT auto and Subaru's symmetrical all-wheel-drive system with two-mode X-Mode, which I had the opportunity to test out on chopped-up sections of gravel road – but more on that later.

The Escape's 2.0-litre turbo four produces 178kW/345Nm to help propel this 1.7-tonne machine along. Power reaches all four wheels via a six-speed automatic.

Towing capacity is rated at 750kg unbraked and 1600kg braked.

This Forester has a claimed fuel consumption of 7.4L/100km (combined). We recorded 8.39L/100km during our time with it and that included 40km of gravel-road driving. 

Ford reckons you'll use 8.6L/100km on the combined cycle. In the real world, including a roughly 200km round trip run from Sydney up to the Blue Mountains we recorded 10.2L/100km. 

The only drama is that it runs only on 95 RON premium unleaded. Having said that, it's obvious rivals do too if they have anything like the available power of the Ford engine.

Perfectly adequate in all respects. It’s a solidly effective, if uninspiring, drive. 

Driver visibility is fine.

Steering is accurate without being pinpoint-precision sharp. 

Off the mark, in traffic and overtaking on the open road, the Forester does okay but it doesn’t establish any sort of new gold-star standards.

The Boxer engine and CVT work well together, but manual is still the preferred mode for Forester driving. Paddle shifters on the steering wheel are handy if you want to get lively with your driving.

Ride is nice and smooth, but its quite-tight suspension borders on too firm, although it feels more at home on bumpy gravel tracks. Road-suited Bridgestone Duelers help its bitumen cause. 

Its EyeSight Driver Assist technology is a bit annoying – it started bleeping at me soon after I first started driving the Forester – but I can see the value of it, especially if you're a driver with wandering eyes, which apparently I am.

The Forester’s auto stop-start is slow to re-start from standstill, so I switched it off most of the time.

The interior is comfortable – with power-adjustable seats up front – and, as mentioned, it’s a really family-friendly space.

There’s ample legroom all-round, and the roofline is not tapered downwards towards the back end as sharply as it is in some Forester rivals, so there's plenty of headroom in the second row.

Disc brakes at every corner pull the Forester up sharply enough.

Like the Focus ST-Line I drove a little while ago, the Escape has no more power than any other car in the range. A hot SUV it isn't. The changes are restricted to the bits that make the car handle and grip, and even then, it's not a lot.

The ST-Line rides 10mm lower and has stiffer anti-roll bars to further rein in any body roll in the corners. Critically, the gunmetal 19-inch alloys are wrapped in Continental Sport Contact tyres, which is not the sort of rubber you expect on a mid-size SUV. This is a good thing.

One of the key changes to the ST-Line is the steering. The last time I drove an Escape I was struck by the inert steering. Things are much improved in the ST-Line, with a much more involving set up letting you know what's going on underneath.

As a day-to-day proposition, it's a very comfortable machine. I feared for the squishy feeling of the front seats but this was unfounded - a long day at the wheel yielded none of the fidgetiness soft seats can cause. 

The lower ride height also makes it quite easy to get in and out of and it's an easy car to manoeuvre apart from a big-ish turning circle.

That engine is as good as ever - strong, torquey and well matched to the six-speed automatic. The all-wheel drive system is also very happy to play ball, as it is in the Titanium with the same engine.

The ST-Line comes loaded with seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, lower-speed AEB, reverse cross traffic alert, blind spot sensor, reversing camera, rollover stability and forward collision warning.

The $800 Technology Pack adds high speed AEB, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, driver attention detection, auto high beam, active cruise and tyre pressure sensors.