I had the opportunity to pilot the all-new 2025 Subaru Forester this week among the pines and over the sage prairies of Western Montana. While I can’t talk about the driving experience of Subaru’s stalwart mid-sized SUV just yet, I can share some details and a handful of photos to get the conversation going. I think it looks awfully sharp, and it will—in theory—carry two thousand cans worth of beans in the cargo hold.
What do you want to know about the new Subaru Forester?
A “wagon” no more, the Forester SUV still has a classically Subaru look to it.
When Subaru launched the first Forester in North America in 1997, there was a lot of head-scratching, as the six-starred brand already had two wagons in dealerships—the Legacy Outback and the Impreza Sport. However, the Forester’s squared-off rear profile and expansive greenhouse made for a unique silhouette, and it quickly gained a cult following. In subsequent generations, Subaru shoved a detuned version of the WRX STI’s turbocharged engine in some models along with a six-speed manual transmission. Those turbo XT-trim sleeper Foresters with hood scoops are some of my favorite Subarus of all time, oddballs though they may be. At Expedition Portal, we’ve even had a couple of Foresters as project cars, and they’ve proven to be seriously capable.
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- Subaru let us flog the 2025 Forester on some serious terrain.
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- Bronze 19-inch alloys on the Forester Sport model have a distinctive design.
A quirky outlier no more, in 2024, the Forester quietly competes with the massively popular Outback as Subaru’s top seller. In fact, the Forester now occupies probably the most important spot in Subaru’s lineup, as the company is positioning it as a direct competitor to the Toyota RAV-4, Honda CR-V, and Hyundai Tuscon. The Forester is a “wagon” no more, and given that this is the most profitable segment in the SUV world, Subaru is banking on the Forester to offer more standard equipment and performance at a lower price point than their competitors.
Will the 2025 Forester run on gas? The 2,000 cans of beans that can fill the cargo hold might suggest the possibility.
What does that mean, exactly? For starters, an 11.6-inch central touch-screen, advanced driver convenience and safety aids, 8.7 inches of ground clearance, several electronically controlled X-Mode off-road drive modes for the AWD system, a massively retuned torque curve for the familiar 2.5-liter boxer 4-cylinder engine, and, of course, all that bean capacity. Subaru claims the integrated reinforced roof rails will accommodate pretty much any rooftop tent you want to throw at it. There is no official word yet on a Wilderness edition or a hybrid for the 2025 Forester, but both options seem inevitable down the trail.
We’ll have a full write-up of the 2025 Subaru Forester early next month, but in the meantime, what do you want to know about Subaru’s stealthily popular mid-sized SUV? Let us know in the comments below or on the Expedition Portal Facebook or Instagram pages, and we’ll tackle them in our review.
Read more:
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Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness :: First Drive
Images: Subaru, Stephan Edwards
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