I’ve been enjoying this bit wherein I try to convince my family to trade our old Forester for a Ford Maverick or a Chrysler Pacifica or, even, an Acura Integra. I’ve yet to be successful and so, completely seriously, a friend suggested I try to convince them to get a new Subaru Forester. That’s an absurd idea, I thought, but I might as well try. I want to trade our Forester for something.
It’s not that I don’t like my Subaru Forester. I feel about my Forester the way I feel about Tuesdays, decaf coffee, and the State of Connecticut. They’re all things I sometimes experience and often enjoy, but I find hard-pressed to enthusiastically endorse.
Cars are expensive and I’ll only get to own a certain number in my lifetime, so the idea of buying the same people-mover twice is odd to me. Sure, I’ll probably own another Volvo 240 and, maybe, another E39, but two new Foresters? It’s more my natural inclination to upgrade to an Outback or downsize to Crosstrek for the sheer novelty of it.
The only way I could see myself getting a new Forester is if I get a different trim and, thankfully, Subaru now offers the more off-roady Wilderness package. This is a Premium trim Forester, like my 2016, but with an extra 0.5 inches of ground clearance, 17-inch alloy wheels with big Yokohama Geolander A/T tires, some distinct suspension tuning, and a bevy of visual upgrades. The Wilderness trim’s MSRP is $34,320, which is not bad when you consider a Premium trim car now starts at $29,695.
So, how to convince the family (and myself) this is a worthwhile upgrade?
Argument One: We Already Like The Forester And This Is A Better Forester
The most likely Forester I would buy is a 2003 XT with the five-speed manual that somehow had 210 horsepower and could knock off a 0-60 mph time in about 5.3 seconds according to Car And Driver. Otherwise, I think the Forester represents a Toyota-like approach to gradually improving a product.
It’s so gradual, in fact (maybe glacial) that it allowed our buddy Kevin McCauley to make a joke that never stops being funny:
You know what’s nice about the new Subaru Forester? Although it’s improved in almost every way over our car, it looks and feels and acts a lot like the car we already use. Does familiarity really breed contempt? Nah, more like it breeds contentment. This is, first and foremost, a way to get my family to school, and Girl Scouts meetings, and camping.
This new Forester fixes almost all the problems I had with my current Forester. Specifically, and I say this a lot, it’s annoying to not have Apple CarPlay. Just this morning I was up at 5 am in my swimsuit heading out to get some laps in, and it was cold outside so I blasted the heat, as one does. I’m from Texas. I don’t like being cold. Because my phone was on a vent-based holder, I had the heat up high enough that it sent my iPhone into an emergency shut down mode. This was bad, because I’d never been to this particular pool (my YMCA is undergoing emergency repairs) and so I had to drive around a town I’m not familiar with at 5:30 in the damn morning trying to find a well-hidden Y while my phone cooled off.
Ergonomically, though, it’s mostly my same car.
From a drivetrain perspective, the 2.5-liter flat-four in my Forester produces a completely adequate 170 horsepower and 174 lb-ft of torque on regular unleaded gas. If there’s one annoyance, it’s that my Forester can only tow 1,500 pounds. The new Forester isn’t that much more powerful, offering a 2.5-liter flat four with 182 horsepower and just 176 lb-ft of torque.
The Wilderness package, though, upgrades the towing capability to 3,000 pounds, which means campers are now a real possibility. I like campers. My family likes campers. Campers are cool. Is it worth the the slightly worse fuel economy (25 city/28 vs 24/32 for our car)? Maybe…
Another enhancement is the inclusion of paddle shifters. I know, I know, it’s a CVT. Paddle shifters on a vehicle that doesn’t conventionally shift between the gears is slightly absurd, sure. I don’t care.
The CVT is the weakest part of my current Forester. No matter how hard I mash the throttle, the car just sort of lurches forward when it decides it wants to. I’ve driven plenty of CVT-equipped vehicles and Subarus are often the most annoyingly tuned, with a bad habit of slightly juttering at low speeds. This new Forester isn’t any better, but having the ability to use the paddle shifter to tell the car to just hold the damn “gear” is a huge improvement, especially in the snow.
Overall, it’s our car, just slightly better in most ways.
How well did this argument do? 6/10
Argument Two: It’s A Fun Toy!
Just look at this thing. It looks like freakin’ Jack Nicholson from “The Shining.”
Could I take my own Forester, put bigger A/T tires on it, and go traipse around in the snow? Sure. Could I also add my own fog lights, off-roady wheels, longer coil springs and shock absorbers, a front skid plate, and larger wheel arches? People do it! I even have a box somewhere with fog lights I need to install.
I probably won’t, though, because I’m putting all of my spare energy into my older BMW. For less than $5,000 over a Forester comparable to mine, I can get a car that’s admittedly much cooler.
Being from Texas, as previously mentioned, I don’t understand snow. I have never skied. I want to give my daughter all the things in life I did not have so we recently took her up to Vermont for ski lessons and I, just to try it, also took a lesson. I did not hurt myself, which is apparently good for a first time skiing?
Besides learning how to ski and seeing some of our dear friends, I was looking forward to this trip because I knew it was snowy as hell and I love driving in the snow. It’s like mud, but slipperier! I definitely just drove around for an hour “to get beer” and instead found an abandoned construction site to go whamp on this thing.
It whamped. It wasn’t the biggest whamp of my life. I’d say 7/10 whampage. That’s still plenty of whamp. [Editor’s note: If you have no idea what Matt is saying, join the club. -DT]. The A/T tires are not ideal in the snow like a dedicated winter tire and the CVT gets confused if you’re not quick with the paddle shifters. But it spins and tosses snow up in the air and it doesn’t get stuck.
How well did this argument do? 2/10
Argument Three: We call our car “Subie” and we wouldn’t have to change that
Having a kid is just constant changes, man. One day you’re happily reading “Goodnight Moon” and the next your kid informs you “that book is for babies” and a little part of you gets locked away, maybe forever.
So, this is a silly one, but it’s a real one.
How well did this argument do? 2/10
Argument Four: It’s Easier To Clean
I am not Mr. Adventure-Haver. I will never be mistaken for an X-Games competitor. Tony Hawk, dead, will be more daring than I am alive. Still, once you get a Subaru there’s this sudden sense that, yeah, maybe you do want to camp. Maybe you could buy a kayak.
Having a child is already begging to have your car destroyed, and this is only exacerbated by my would-be Patagonia daddy lifestyle. I’m frequently wiping mud off the interior or vacuuming sand out of the back.
The Wilderness has some great tweaks for our lifestyle. The big, chunky all-weather mats are easy to clean (I hosed them off before I returned it). The water resistant StarTex cloth held up well to our wet post-snow clothes.
Both the bright light LED in the cargo area and the full-sized cargo tray in the back are huge upgrades for what we do (I’m currently using an old flattened cardboard box in the back of my car to absorb fluids). I also like that the roof rails are much stronger and can hold 800 pounds of whatever I want to toss on there.
This car is an REI Co-Op membership on wheels.
How well did this argument do? 8/10
In Conclusion
Will we upgrade to a Forester when our car’s time is up? Yeah, maybe. Just for the MPG penalty I’m not sure that the Wilderness will be the trim I’d get, but I do like it.
Honestly, all this is making me think is of all the upgrades I should make to my current Subaru.
- Every Argument I Made To Trade Our Crossover For A Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
- Every Argument I Made To Trade Our Crossover For A Ford Maverick
- Every Argument I Made To Trade Our Crossover For An Acura Integra
Photos: Author, Kevin McCauley.
Idk man.. I didn’t find that terribly convincing. I think just keep/fix what ya got or find something more interesting.
My ex had a 2015 Forester. Great little car horrible transmission with one caveat. They are good for highway cruising since they don’t downshift going up slight hills so passengers don’t lurch unexpectedly. But otherwise I hated driving a CVT and for now those are don’t buy, period.
EDAUDMAN is right about the layout of the forrester – we’ve got a 2017 and it’s insulting to monkeys to say that monkeys laid out the controls. Two different clocks 10 inches apart with two different ways to set them. The “set height” control for the tailgate/hatch is where the “open hatch” should be, and the reset sequence in the control manual only works 10% of the time. Buttons for the advanced features with odd pictograms or incomprehensible names. My wife loves this car because she sits up higher, but it its an exercise in frustration to try to use. the driver safety systems are so annoying, you have to turn them all off Needed new rear wheel bearings after 50K miles…. too much frustration for a car experience that is average at best.
We have a 2015 Premium with less than 75k miles on it. The windshield fluid light won’t go off and it’s got a ding or two. The phrase, “Practical, dependable but lacks refinement,” describes the car perfectly” In no way could the Forester be described as fun but, dependability and zero car payments bring me joy. I hope to get another couple of years out of it.
My take has always been that if I have to try to convince myself why I need a new thing, then the answer is no; I definitely don’t need it.
So…
+ Buy a new phone mount.
(New head unit if you’re really ambitious.)
+ Get your car professionally detailed inside and out.
+ Buy WeatherTech mats or similar (not cheap Amazon/ebay though, those never fit or hold up.)
? Think about other mods. Roof rack, A/T tires, lifted coilovers, whatever will make you happy.
Those three things, plus whatever else you decide, and your old car will feel like a new car, for far less money. And you get the feeling of personal accomplishment and ownership.
After that, if you still “need” a new car, you can still go that route.
Matt, you’re welcome to dash up the Taconic or the thruway to go around CT… said no one ever. It’s also why we keep trying to exploit all of you people using our roads just to get to better places. We are your gateway to fun. Just don’t plan on that fun being in CT.
You at least have some good race tracks. Stafford and Thompson are two of my favorite tracks to visit.
We had a 2018 Forester. My wife had wanted one for years. I hated it. The interior was one of the cheapest I’d ever seen in a new car, the controls were laid out by monkeys, the sound system sucked. No CarPlay. It was noisy and crude. When my son’s wife’s car was totaled, we sold it to him for a reasonable amount.
My wife still wanted a Forester, so we bought a 2020 Premium. It felt like different car. Although no one would call them high-end by any means, interior materials were much nicer, and the interior design was much better. The cloth seats in the Premium level are much more comfortable. They fired some of the monkeys, so the controls made better sense. It’s quieter and smoother feeling over all. Can easily fit two car seats or all 6’1” of me in the back comfortably. I actually like it (still prefer my SportWagen though).
As far as other things, CVTs are CVTs, they suck. And all cars have their bad or failure points. But if you can’t convince your wife into your other choices you could do much worse than a new Forester.
I checked out the Wilderness package Subaru… and the overhangs were just way too big. I just couldn’t go for it…
We have a 2014 and am with you on the Tuesdays/Decaf/”Constitution State”. We like our Subaru, it’s fine, just that CVT and the boxer make it fairly loud, even more so than a 1st gen Jeep Compass we used to have.
Roominess/visibility were the key things that sold us, decent mpg and awd was nice too. It’s perfectly cromulent car, just no particular aspect is really spectacular, ours predates power hatches so can’t even press a button and have that fanciness.
Honestly we’re eyeing a Wrangler 4xE next as the plug in boosts it’s mpg into acceptable range, and then it’s got the nice convertible dirt roading rugged looking stuff going for it. Basically like if a Forester had more power, bigger tires, removeable doors and roof, but still was all boxy and outdoorsy.
I too have an oldish Forrester (2017) and my plan is upgrade it whenever Ford or Hyundai (really, anyone) decides to release a PHEV version of their compact pickups.