2019 Subaru Forester vs 2020

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 Subaru Forester Hybrid S is a great family car - even without the hybrid engine, you get a quality vehicle. If you’re looking for something that gives a nod to a hybrid but going electric still scares you, this could be right up your alley. Personally I would like to see more of the electric motor in use but at least Subaru's headed in the right direction. 

It has a good amount of interior space, boot space and the driving acumen we’ve come to expect from Subaru. It has great safety and the technology is good for 2020.

I gave it a family rating of 7.6 out of 10, taking points off because I think you can do more with a hybrid. My children gave it an 8.0. Show them a blue car and they love it. 

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.

It’s hard to tell the regular Forester S from the Hybrid S, save for a badge on the back suggesting it's a hybrid.

So, they look as a Forester does... solid. A station wagon with the height of an SUV.

Subaru is one of the only companies to champion this shape and it works well, carving a point of difference in the crowded mid-size SUV market. 

Inside is quite stylish. Being the top-of-the-range model there are leather seats that are also heated and power adjustable. There’s a leather steering wheel that feels lovely under the hands and a sunroof to let light through the car. 

The centre console looks good, but is a little fussy with an overzealous use of buttons and a split screen situation which is confusing at first, but it's  not a deal breaker.

The addition of metal inserts on the foot pedals really lift the whole design of the car. 

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.

Those in the Forester's front seats have plenty of leg and headroom; enough for even the taller members of my family. There is no cramped feeling, with enough room between the front seats to rule out the rubbing of  shoulders. 

My two children, aged six and eight, were comfortable in the back seat. They had a good amount of space between them, and you will be able to fit a third child seat back there.

It’s tight but it does fit. I did it with two boosters and a baby capsule. We’d always suggest checking with your seats first as they are all different. 

At 509 litres the boot is a good size for a family of four and I was able to fit the bulky CarsGuide pram in with room around it for school bags or groceries. If you’re beyond pram stage, there's plenty of room for sporting equipment and other big kids stuff. 

The Subaru Forester Hybrid S comes in at $45,990 before on-road costs.

It's covered by Subaru's five year/unlimited km warranty. There is also an eight year/160,000 high voltage battery warranty.

Servicing is required every 12 months/15,000 km and there is a five year capped servicing program. 

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.

The Forester Hybrid S drives well and it takes out all those things you’ve heard about electric cars and may not be fond of.

For example, it coasts along without your foot having to be on the accelerator, and they’ve added in some noise so pedestrians can hear the car on approach rather than it creeping along silently at low speeds. 

It gets up hills quickly, there’s no issue with power as it has a 2.0-litre petrol engine along with the electric motor which gives instant acceleration, so it doesn't have a lag.

The steering is slightly stiff to turn but you get used to that the more you drive it and by the end of the week it felt normal to me. 

I think the electric motor added agility and made the Forester feel more nimble than usual, so if anything it’s a benefit because of that.

But how and when does the hybrid kick in? The electric motor can work on its own at speeds under 24km/h. It works together with the petrol engine at medium speeds, and then at higher speeds, the petrol engine takes over completely.

Subaru says the electric motor also takes over if you’re coasting along without the accelerator, for example downhill, and the petrol engine will kick in when you hit the accelerator. 

The system is designed to save fuel in urban, high traffic areas. But when you compare the claimed fuel consumption of a regular Subaru Forester (7.4L/100km) to this 'e-Boxer' Hybrid S (6.7L/100km), there isn’t that much difference.

And when you compare it to other hybrid cars like the Toyota RAV4, the fuel saving is minimal. This week, the average fuel consumption I got was 12.3L/100km, but I did do a lot of stop/start driving mainly in the city, so it’s not the best representation of what it can do. 

It’s a fairly standard car to park. Even though the Forester is long I was able to squeeze into a number of tight parking spaces on a few rainy school runs this week where the competition is fierce.

It has a clear reversing camera with a bonus 360-degree view, as well as a front side view on the top split screen. I did find this confusing but I’m sure if I drove the car for a bit longer I’d get used to it. 

The Forester scored a maximum five ANCAP stars when it was assessed in 2019., and safety is covered with rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring , lane keep assist, and auto emergency braking with pedestrian detection.

There’s also what Subaru calls 'Eye Sight', which works by capturing 3D images via a pair of cameras at the top of the front windscreen.

If the system sees anything that might pose a danger, it warns you audibly, urging you to take action and brake. It may automatically apply the brakes if you don’t.

There are also airbags to cover the driver and front passenger and side curtain airbags that extend to the back row. You’ll also find two ISOFIX points and three top tether points across the back seat to fit kids car seats in safely.