2019 Subaru Forester: FULL REVIEW + DRIVE | Functional and Family Friendly!

What's. Going on YouTube. Subaru. Has been making crossovers. Long before, they were the in thing and it, has built a very loyal following of people, now. Fast forward to 2019. And we're standing here with the fifth generation, which, has all the modern upgrades, that people demand, but, without reinventing the wheel. Of. Course we do want to specially thank our friends, at Quantrell, Subaru for providing us with this fully loaded forest or touring and if. You're in the market for any new Subaru, be sure to stop by their dealership or visit, them via their website which we provided a link to in the video description. So. With that said let's go ahead and see if this new forester, has further expanded, its appeal. So. Getting started with the exterior. It is a clear evolution, from the outgoing model, the. Grille for instance is almost exactly the same shape but, the chrome and the inside texture, are slightly, different, the. More substantial. Difference is in the lower grille where, all the black has been expanded. Upwards, to make it look more rugged than before. Now. This year also sees the introduction, of a new sport trim which, changes several things from the other trims, like the blacked out grille and orange, accents, all around the vehicle. Turning. To the headlights, they also look practically, identical to, the last gen except. That these LEDs, are now standard, on all models instead, of just being on the Touring and. Finally. On the bottom you'll find fog, lights on the top three trims as well, as an excellent 8.7. Inches of ground clearance, on all the trims. Going. Around to the rest of the vehicle again most of the changes are very conservative, but, you will probably notice the biggest styling update which are the new tail lights they've. Got an interesting boomerang, design to them now and some, of the lights within the housing, are LED. Dropping. Down this bumper area is fully black on most models however. The sport would have an orange accent, and this Touring gets the silver surrounds. So. Overall Subaru, didn't mess with success much, when it comes to the exterior, styling, but. The changes they did make were for the better now. As. Far as the wheels are concerned they have changed, thoroughly, from the outgoing model. Every. Trim gets their own design, so. On the top three trims you have 18 inch alloys in three, different styles then. Dropping down to the premium, gets you 17, inch alloys and the, base model of 17, inches Pheo wheels. Heading. On up to the mirrors you'll find body colouring and heating on all but the base model, and auto, dimming is available, via popular, package, three, additionally. The limited, in up includes standard, blind spot detection with. Rear cross-traffic alert. And. On. The topic of safety, the foresters excellent, eyesight safety. Package has gotten even better for 2019, since, it's now standard, across the board that. Means. Even the base model, will have pre-collision, braking lane-keeping, assist and, adaptive. Cruise control. Additionally. High-beam, assist is included, on the sport and up and this, touring also comes with rear automatic, braking. Those. Taken, together with its top safety pick+, rating, makes the Forester certainly one of the safest options, in the class. Finally. All but the base model will come with roof rails and every. Forester has a 16 point six gallon fuel tank. That's. Good for 481. Miles of range on regular, unleaded fuel. But, anyways that's it for all the exterior, changes so, now let's go ahead and get inside and see the all-new cabin. So. On the Forester, you do have Subaru smart entry system, on, the Sport, trim and, up or, it is optional on the premium, trip you. Can also remote start via the starlet. And then of course to get inside all you do is grab the handle because there is a sensor behind it. All righty so checking out the cabin, of the all, new, Subaru, Forester, as you, can see it shares a lot of the same styling, characteristics. As many of the other Subaru. Models, now. There's going to be quite a few different ways you can equip this interior so. On your base through, your sport trim the seats are going to be cloth and then, on the limited, and touring you're gonna get real leather, and.

Then As far as your color options, there's a lot of different ones so, your Basin premium you're gonna have black or gray cloth only, the. Sport though is gonna go with a grey cloth with, special, orange accents. Going. Out to a lot of Tikas you black or gray leather and then, on the Touring like this one you've got the option of black like we have or an exclusive, brown color. That's. Hurting over here is good torch, it, is very nicely appointed, as, you can see you've got a leather material, that goes all the way down through here with a nice stitching detail through it and then it additionally goes all the way up to the very top for, you to rest your elbow on. Would. You also have kind of a faux. Carbon, fiber trim right through here. Now. Your front two windows are one touch automatic and. You will find two person memory seating on the touring, trim only. Coming. Down to the seats you will find these 10-way, power adjusting. Seats on all but the base trim with manual seats and. Then. Like I was saying we do have the real leather feels. Very nice and it does have a really attractive, stitching. And perforation. Design. So, like I said the actual styling, of the cabin, is pretty much in line with all the other Subaru models and the. Materials, are also in line with those models as well. So. Across the upper - we do have a soft touch plastic, with a nice stitching detail through it and then. Here on the Touring at least we've got this textured. Leather as well, as the extra leather Rhett patch right here. Additionally. We do have some more leather trim that comes all the way down through here for your knee to rest against and everything in here fits together really, really well and really solidly. On. A, sport and up just, press the button to start. When, you do you will see this 8 inch display fire up on most, of the models however, on your basic trims you do have a 6 inch display instead. Now. Checking out your gauges here they do have the typical, Subaru design so, you've got analog gauges and then a 4.2. Inch multifunction, display in the middle. This. Does contain some basic, information, however. You'll find that most of the information is actually located over, here at this six point three inch, display, that. Comes on the sport, and up. For. This you'll just use the info button on the steering wheel and you can cycle through different things like your safety system some off-road modes just, tons, of different things even the weather.

And, You'll also notice another. Little thing here that black, sensor, across the top now that is on the touring only, and that's, the new driver focus, system so basically that's actually monitoring. Your face so. If you look, away from the road or get distracted for, more than three seconds, it, the system will remind you to pay attention and, if you become unresponsive it, can actually stop the car completely. Now. Moving back to the steering wheel itself of course you do have electric power assisted steering and, you will nicely find, a leather-wrapped wheel on all but the very base model. You. Have your standard fare buttons up here for. Your phone audio and voice commands, then over here you got your buttons for your adaptive cruise control as wise, your drive modes. Here. On the terrain from the steering wheel is also heated. And. The wheel itself will always be manual, tilt and telescoping. Now. One of the Foresters signature, characteristics. Has always been having, more interior, space than you'd expect from the outside, and that, does carry over for the 2009. Team on you so. Turning over here to your console. Open. It up and. You do have a little removable piece right here but. Then underneath the edge you can see it is very deep, and you do have a felt lining down at the bottom as well initially. There is a 12-volt, outlet inside. Been. Affirm that you've got a little shelf here which would be good for setting your phone to, cupholders and then, another giant bin up here in the front which. Does contain another, 12-volt, outlet two charging USB ports as well as an aux jack it's. Overall as you can see there is a lot of storage. Now, Subaru was able to do that without going, to an electronic, shifter that some of the rivals have gone to except. For this it's very simple you just pull back for Drive of course and then you can't bump over here to the left of shift manually, through. These seven simulated, gears right. Here or, via. These paddle, shifters. When. You go into reverse you'll. Find a standard, backup camera, across all models. There. Is no 360-degree, option but as you can see this is a very clear, system. You do have the active trajectory, as well and then. At least here on the upper trims the, mirror actually tilts down to show, you the parking, lines better. And. Then back behind the shifter you do have an electronic, parking brake as well, as a brake, hold feature. Over. Here next to it you will notice this knob labeled. X mode this. Of course is, a. System, at liking all other Subarus, it basically just optimizes. The, powertrain, throttle, response all-wheel, drive system all, types of different things just for whatever circumstance, you may find yourself in mud dirt or, just a normal mode. And. Then over here we do have the two-stage, heated seats that comes on the sport, and up, however, there is no ventilation option. On any trim. Now moving on up the next stop here is the climate control now. For, this all new forester you go to a automatic. Climate control setup, no matter what trim however. It is single zone on the lower trims and dual, zone on the limited and touring so. As you can see on this one you, can just adjust both sides independently. And, when you make those adjustments it, will show up up here on this secondary, display.

But. I do like how simple it is because everything is located nice, and easily right there. And. Now that brings us up here to the audio, system, now. The forester just comes with three different setups, you've got four six or nine speakers, so. The base model is four speakers the, most of the tones come with the six speaker system, however, on this touring, only, we, have the standard, nine speaker, five hundred seventy-six watt Harman, Kardon audio system, so, let's go ahead and take a sample of that. I. Have. To say sound quality of this system is excellent. But. Anyways that now brings us up here to the Subaru Starling system so let's go ahead and take a quick look, so. Like I said here on the limited trim you do have an 8 inch display, and then, you've also got some physical controls, underneath, to help you control it, so. You press the home button to take you to this page which is filled with all of your applications. Going. To, your apps this is where you'll find a lot of different things but. Most importantly, you'll find Android, auto and apple carplay. Now. These do come on both the 8 inch display and the six and a half inch displays, on the lower two trims, the. More or less covers all the highlights of the Subaru StarLink system, but. Of course we do have a detailed, in-depth, tutorial, available for those of you who want to find out more a link. To that video is provided in, the description. Moving. On up you will find an frameless, auto dimming mirror with homelink universal, remotes built in and this is actually an option across, all of the trims. However. One, really impressive, thing that is standard, on almost all of the trims is. This panoramic, moonroof. This. Is like I said standard on all the food base model, as you can see it is, giant and almost, the entire thing opens up so I'm really impressed by this feature to be included, on almost, every, model even the basic, affordable. Models. And, overall I'm really impressed by the Foresters, cabin, as a whole, Subaru. Continues. To mail all. The important, aspects, bergen omics, and functionality. And now, it's even taken a big step up in luxury as well. Now, I'll go ahead and hand it off to Mason, who will finish up the rest of the cabin. Coming. Around to the rear seat of the 2019, forester you're gonna find a really large amount of space for its class you'll. Find thirty-nine point four inches of rear legroom and thirty, nine point six inches of rear headroom which, does actually make it larger than the Subaru Outback as well, as most of the competitors. Now. Turning over here to the door trim on the touring model it is finished, super nicely so, you do have a leather wrap armrest, with, stitching, details going through the bottom and even. Here on the top portion it is leather wrapped and you have more stitching going through here as well, as some side waist entry, now. Did it additionally, your window is power here in the back and you do have door storage down in the bottom. Now, the seat itself can also recline, on this model and it does have the same perforation, as the front seat with some more stitching. Now. Here in the center the Forester is really well equipped so, all but the very base model will come standard with these rear vents and you, will also find plenty of features so on the Sport trim and higher you will have these two charging, USB ports, and on, the Touring trim you will also find two stage heated rear seats. Subaru. Does also give you an armrest it does fold down and it, even has same black piano trim around. Top. You have a dome light as, well as a really nice headliner, and an.

Assister I, do. Also want to point out that the panoramic, moonroof really does help air out the cabin back here it makes you feel like you have a lot more Headroom than you actually do. And. As far as rear space is concerned like I said this is bigger than most of the rivals and even the outback so, behind drew seating position, I probably have six, to eight inches of rear legroom and, my feet can easily, sign up onto the seat. So. Overall I'm extremely, impressed by the all-new foresters, receipt it, really checks all the boxes office, in terms of features and it does have plenty of space in addition to them. Now, the Foresters, receipts do also folk 6040 split so, I have to do is locate this little tab and pull up. Now, coming around to the tailgate of the Forester, it is power on the sport rims and up and you can't option it onto the premium so, just push this button under the lid and it will open right up. And once, inside the trunk of the forest you're gonna find a really large amount of space once, again so, you'll find 35, cubic feet behind the second row seats and that expands to 76, cubic feet with them folded now. Like I said that is larger than most of the rivals so this is a really big offering for the class now. Subaru does also finish it really nicely back here so you have a cargo cover and in. Addition, to that you, also have some hooks here on the side to hang stuff as well, as a 12-volt power outlet. Now. You will also notice that on the Touring model you do have these rear buttons and these, electronically. Fold the rear seat and like, I said this is exclusive, to the Touring trip. Now. Under the floor you do also have some more storage just. Locate this little strap. And under, the floor you have plenty more storage. Now. Coming over here to the passenger see is that same lovely design and, it is also 8 way power adjusting. Here on the Tori. Now. In front of the passenger we do have a nice stitching detail going through here and, you do also have a little leather rare area here and. Down below that you have a glove box that is decently sized it. Does not felt lying though. Up. Top you do have a Sun Visor does have a mirror. And light and it. Can also detach, and it, has an extension here at the end. Well. Guys that sums up all the rear areas of the all-new Forester so now let's go ahead and take it out on the road and see how the powertrain performs. All, righty so let's go ahead and talk about the powertrain, and fuel economy. Now. Interestingly. The, only Forester, actually, simplified, the powertrain, line up from the outgoing model so you no longer have the turbo engine or the X lead the XT trim level anymore. All. The models now are equipped with the 2.5, liter boxer, four-cylinder. That. Makes a hundred and eighty-two horsepower, and a hundred and seventy-six pound-feet of torque which is of 12 horsepower over. The last generation. All. Models are also equipped, with the Lineartronic. CVT which. Has seven simulated, gear changes, and, of. Course that is also paired with the standard, xtronic. All-wheel-drive system. All. That together makes for very impressive, fuel economy so, you're looking at 26 City 33. Highway, 29, combined, which. Is one of your most efficient, products in the class but it's definitely your most efficient, all-wheel drive model, since of course like I said all models do comes standard with all-wheel-drive. But. Anyways now let's go ahead and take it for a quick test drive. Now, one of the things that's interesting about this Forester, this, is actually the first Subaru, with an auto start/stop, system. So. Of. Course there's that's, been out for a while but this is the first Subaru. To have it so let's see if it's a they've taken that extra time to really smooth it out oh. Yeah. That's very good. So. First taking off in. 2019. Forster. Power. Feels pretty good right off the line. This. Is instead. Of like a really small. Turbocharged. Engine of course this is a decently. Sized naturally, aspirated four-cylinder, and that. Does you, know it feels a more. Responsive, than a lot of those really small turbos though shouldn't suffer from lag. I want, to commend Subaru. For their steering, going around that corner there. They've. Done an excellent job it definitely has, more feel than the average thing in the class. It's. Also more progressive. So. You don't have so, much numbness, and stuff like you find and some of the. Competitors. They don't even feel like they're connected you know. And. That beeping there was your lane departure warning also, another helpful system, when. You cross the double yellow of course I. Don't. Know if you can see on camera but the this, road is pretty dilapidated. And. Very. Impressive ride quality, though there's.

Really No harsh intrusions, or anything it's very isolated. Yeah. It's very quiet inside, this cabin. Like. You said this is a very, very very rough road lots. Of road noise and a normal vehicle and, the. Subaru does take it very very well it almost feels like a luxury car at most yeah it's very, well dampened, definitely. Your focus here is gonna be on luxury, smoothness, and comfort in this car. I think. The engine feels plenty powerful enough. And. This. Does have a CVT of course. But. It you. Don't feel any type of CVT, lag they've done a good job of tuning that out. Yeah. I mean none no, car in this class is really going to feel that powerful, maybe the. Cx-5. Turbo, is pro it's definitely the most powerful one in the class but. This. Is right in line with all the competitors and, like, drew said the CVT is not. Bad at all so I think that most people in this class they're not really all that concerned about the driving dynamics and, wanted to be comfortable I really, don't think the average consumer. Is really going to notice the difference here. Now, we should have seven. Simulated, gear changes, I think, that occurs in your sport mode so. Go ahead and activate the. Sharp. Driving. Is super. It likes to call it I will. See if we get the simulation. Going here. Definitely. In this mode your throttle is going to be a lot touch here, and. That does remind me of something I do want to mention and that it is how much better the throttle response is compared to the outgoing generation, because one of the things I noticed and the old model, was how. Sensitive, the throttle was all the time is very hard to modulate, a smooth, takeoff, from a stop and they've definitely, fixed, that if. You want the feeling that's closer to the outgoing model then you can go into the sport mode it's definitely a little bit of touch here. And also, writing along here it is worth noting, that the, Forester, has absolutely. Excellent, visibility, that's. One of the first things that we noticed in this car when we got in it, honestly. Like it feels like you're sitting wasted. Described as a greenhouse because there is so much glass around you you. Can really see absolutely, everything I mean even these quarter panels here I mean if there's glass everywhere so, you can see absolutely. Everywhere at this car and. That's a really nice feature to have yes it is amazing. In. Comparison, you know now everything, has to be more more stylish, and more horse Whoopie. It's. Refreshing that Subaru they, put economics. First in this car. Now, I imagine most of you can't be doing that but. The. Subarus include a manual mode and paddle shifters for good measure so if, that's, your jam then go. Ahead and do it. Overall. I like the package, that Subaru has created, here. Like, I said this is, kind. Of like the king of practicality, in a sense it's very spacious very, family-friendly. Very, ergonomically. Friendly. But. At the same time they also didn't make the driving experience like. A penalty box or anything it's a very pleasant very. Comfortable. To. Cruise around in, and. Also very fuel-efficient, as we already mentioned to. Be most efficient, all-wheel drive crossover. In the class. So. As. A fan as a family vehicle which is what this is intended to be a Subaru. Is really nailed it. So. As far as the pricing, is concerned for the Forester, you are going to find it right in line with most of the rivals if a little bit cheaper than some of the newer offerings, like the rav4 and stuff like that now. You will find the, starting price for the 2.5, I base, model, at twenty four thousand two hundred ninety five dollars which, is about two, thousand dollars more than last year so that's worth noting, now. If you want to move up the trims to the premium that's gonna run you twenty six thousand, six hundred and ninety five dollars the. Sports gonna run you twenty eight thousand, seven hundred ninety five the. Limited, is thirty thousand, seven hundred ninety five and finally. You have this model which is the fully loaded touring, and that, comes in at thirty four thousand, two hundred ninety five dollars, and.

As All of you know that, you. Have of course standard all-wheel drive which pretty, much all the rivals make you pay extra for yes, now as far as this particular forester, is equipped there aren't really any option. Packages or anything to add to the touring but we do have the popular, package, which, throws then a few commonly, wanted, accessories, like the auto, dimming mirror with homelink garage door openers, and. LED upgraded, lighting and stuff like that and that is nine hundred and forty seven dollars, we. Also have crossbars. On the roof and that's two hundred one dollars as well. As a rear seatback protector, for ninety-three, dollars and, then. When you add in the destination, charge of nine hundred and seventy five dollars, this, particular, model has equipped as thirty six thousand, five hundred and eleven and. That, does come in quite a bit cheaper than some of the newer rivals, which like, the rav4 you can really top forty thousand in, that. Model so this is. A little bit cheaper than some of those models. So. If that's what you're looking for the Forester, might be a good option for you. Well. Guys we've enjoyed watching this in depth of review of the 2019. Subaru, Forester, touring please. Hit those like and subscribe buttons if you haven't already and we'll, catch you next time. For more of the latest automotive delicacies.

2019-03-17 00:15

Other news