2022 Subaru Forester SUV review (inc. 0-100)
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00G'day, I'm Paul. So the last time we drove the Subaru Forester, I didn't really like it all that much
00:04It was the hybrid model, but they've just updated it and this is the non-hybrid model
00:09Which I think I'm going to like a whole lot better. This is the top specification
00:13Non-hybrid Subaru Forester and today we're going to do a detailed review of it. This one here's priced at just under
00:20$45,000 but if that's a bit too much the whole range kicks off at a little over 35 grand
00:24This competes with things like the Toyota RAV4, the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Sportage
00:29You have a lot of competitors to pick from there
00:32If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review
00:34You can use the time codes up on the screen there or if you're on YouTube just scroll down and use the chapters below and
00:39If you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
00:42That way you're going to find out every single time we drive updated cars
00:46Now let's talk about the exterior. So you've got nine external colors to pick from and here's something fun
00:51They're all free of charge so you can pick whichever color you want and they're not going to sting you any extra for it
00:55So I mentioned that this is the update
00:57It really is just a bit of a minor facelift
00:59But generally with Subaru when they do facelifts
01:02They tend to kind of pull in and prod at it and you can see there the headlight cluster in this bottom section looks very
01:08Different to the previous Forester
01:10But it does mean that you get this sort of standard black grille here with the piano black elements down the bottom and then an
01:16Intake there for cooling big Subaru logo just there and I like this finish down the bottom
01:20It's kind of a 3d textured finish which splits it apart from this top section
01:25It gives it a bit of a rugged sort of adventurer vibe, which is what you want from your Subaru over here at the headlights
01:30You've got full LED headlights with an LED daytime running light fog lamps down the bottom
01:35They're a little bit of a chrome garnish come around to the side here. You've got your 18 inch alloy wheels
01:41So it's got that diamond cut finish on the outside and then the piano black finish on the inside
01:46The 18 inch alloy wheels are pretty modest here on the top spec given that
01:50Some of the cars in this segment are now going 19 and even 20 inches
01:53So it does mean you get a bit more profile there on the rubber. They've done some work to the ride
01:58Also the engine mounts as well. So I'll be keen to see how that actually
02:02Transforms this car out on the road. The last one that we drove was a hybrid and I wasn't really all that impressed with it
02:07Let's hope that this one is slightly better
02:10Cladding there because off-road you've got 220 millimeters of ground clearance
02:14Which is fairly big for this segment a lot of the time
02:16They're under 200 mils, so you could in theory do a bit of light off-roading
02:20But if you are doing anything more serious
02:22You're going to want some meatier tires than these sort of highway terrain tires up the top here
02:27You've got this sort of satin finish on the wing mirror there with the indicator built-in chrome elements around the doors
02:32You've got roof rails a sunroof tucked into their privacy glass and then come around to the back now around the back here
02:38It's not LED taillights. Look look at this. You've got incandescent globes in there
02:42I think we're at the point now where we can well and truly be using LED across the entire car
02:48Incandescent globes require replacing more often, and I think it's just better to just get rid of them and go LED all together
02:54Forester down the bottom there, and then you've got Subaru and all-wheel drive a bit strange given the whole range is all-wheel drive
03:00But it's there to remind you just in case you forget
03:02You've got a shark fin aerial there and then a little spoiler built into the rear. What do you reckon about the design?
03:08Do you think they've given it a modest enough update or do you think something a little extra was required?
03:13Let me know what you think down there. We're inside the Forester. Let's start off with the key
03:17So you have lock unlock it's the Subaru button boot and then on the back it is blank a little bit of garnish on the side
03:24It's a proximity sensing key. So you leave that in your pocket once you're inside you got a push-button start now
03:30What about your design?
03:31Look, I think that given this is an update
03:34It would have been a really good opportunity to introduce the big screen out of the Outback
03:38I think that looks really cool in the center there instead. They've stuck with this 8-inch screen now across the range
03:43So I think I could have gone to a little bit more effort there
03:46And the other thing that kind of concerns me longer term as well
03:49If you look at the new Kia Sportage, the new Hyundai Tucson, look at those big wraparound screens here
03:54We've just got the 8-inch screen this screen up the top and then a small screen ahead of the driver
03:58So they've kind of kept with that old-school
04:01Traditional look as opposed to going to something new which I guess is fine
04:04It suits their buyers, but just something to keep in mind
04:07Outside of that though, I really like the materials they've used around the cabin
04:11So everything around here is soft or rubbery and it means that if you are going for longer distance drives
04:16You can rest your legs and knees on these surfaces and they just give you a bit more comfort while you're out on the road
04:22So big bonus on that side. In terms of your touch points, really nice and soft there in the center and soft on the door as well
04:29How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer
04:31We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin
04:34If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, look at the link in the description
04:39What about build quality?
04:42Feels really good. Very nice and solid and finally the door test
04:49Yeah, it sounds really nice and solid as well. Okay, let's talk about the infotainment system
04:54So 8-inch color touchscreen, you have shortcut buttons down the bottom as well
04:59It is joined by another screen up the top there and one ahead of the driver
05:02But I'll run you through those two separately. Built into the infotainment system is native navigation. So it's a TomTom system
05:09It is a little bit laggy
05:10You can see there as I'm sort of moving around it takes a little bit of time to catch up to what I'm doing
05:15And then on the radio front you have AM, FM and DAB plus digital radio
05:20This particular spec has an 8-speaker Harman Kardon sound system. Pretty decent sound system
05:25So if you are into your sound you will need to go for the top specification that gets that sound system
05:30You do also have smartphone mirroring built in both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. They're both wired
05:35I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like. There it is
05:39So tiny bit laggy as it sort of moves through those screens
05:42But it does take up the full screen there and it looks pretty good
05:45You also have voice recognition that works both with the native infotainment system and also when your phone is paired
05:51And this is what Android Auto looks like. Click there. So full screen integration again
05:56But same story with Apple CarPlay. It's just a tiny bit laggy as you try and go up and down there
06:01But look it really isn't the end of the world. Now the screen up the top there
06:05It serves a couple of purposes
06:07So using this button here on the steering wheel you can actually go through all of the different
06:11Menus to see your fuel economy, trip computer, you can do a clock
06:14There's some off-road settings and also safety settings up there as well
06:18But when you are driving it'll act as a reverse camera in addition to the side view camera
06:24So pushing the side view brings that up and I'll run through a bit more detail on that when we talk about our parking section
06:30And just above that is actually a set of cameras that can look at your face
06:34Recognize who you are and then apply your car settings or alternatively can also act as a driver attention warning as well
06:41So pretty intelligent setup and the screen is easy enough to see from the driver's side
06:46Finally, there is a screen here ahead of the driver, which is just for your basic trip computer information. Now, let's talk safety
06:51There's actually a pretty comprehensive safety suite here and it's all driven by the Subaru EyeSight system
06:57So it's a set of cameras up the top there. That means you get autonomous emergency braking in the forward direction
07:03You also get it in reverse. You have lane departure warning and a lane keeping assistant
07:08In addition to that you have radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring using that little thing there on the mirror, rear cross-traffic
07:14Alert and all of the airbags inside the cabin that you'd expect. On the parking front
07:20It's a little bit curious. You have a whole stack of cameras here
07:22But not really a 360 camera and you get rear parking sensors, but not front parking sensors
07:27So I'll show you what it looks like. You press this button once and it brings up this view up the top so you can
07:31See out the front there and also the side view which is good for parking. One more push of that brings up a wide-view
07:37Version of the front camera and then when you put it into reverse you get this camera here
07:42So quality is pretty decent and you're able to clearly see what's going on behind the car there with those lines included as well
07:49Moving on to practicality and we'll start with your connectivity options
07:52So you've got two USB-A ports down here, 2.1 amps
07:55So decent amount for charging, an auxiliary outlet, a 12-volt and then in here you have a 12-volt outlet as well
08:02Where are you going to put your phone? Well phone can live down the front here
08:05although it's a bit of a squeeze not designed for big phones or you can pop your phone in the
08:12Cup holder there or in that little section, but kind of a bit wonky in there, a coffee cup
08:17Now it's interesting because you put that in but it catches on the sides there and it's a little bit tricky to grab while you're driving
08:23So I'd use the key to prop it up a little bit. So keep that in mind if you like little coffee cups
08:28Water bottle fits into there easily
08:30You've got teeth on the side that hold it in and then bottle storage inside the door for the little bottle
08:35Let's try our big bottle. Let's see how that goes. Oh, it's so heavy
08:41Sort of fits in there. I don't know if that's just gonna fall out
08:44So I would tread cautiously with that. In terms of your other storage
08:49You've got this little slot back here
08:51The center console has a coin tray and then it's pretty decent sized as well. And then we have a glove box
09:00reasonably sized there, manual takes up most of that though and has a little button there to set your tire pressures if you change them
09:06And finally you have a sunglasses holder up the top and finally comfort
09:11You have dual zone automatic climate control and look at this
09:14You finally have heated seats for some reason when the Forester first launched in Australia
09:19It didn't have heated seats even on the top spec model
09:21So I'm glad they've figured out how to integrate that which is good news. The seats are very comfortable
09:26They just hug you in so nicely. They're quite soft as well
09:29So really good place to be seated for a long-distance drive. Both the driver and front passenger offer eight-way power adjustment
09:35So it's forwards, backwards, backrest forwards, backwards and then you can lift the base of the seat as well
09:41Plus memory on the driver's side and the steering so it offers both tilt and reach
09:47Adjustment and on our reach test all of this is easy to grab on to while you're driving
09:51Now before I show you how much room we have back here, have a look at this
09:54I like the fact that the door has pretty much a 90 degree opening means getting kids inside and
10:00Baby seats and all that stuff is made much easier. Once you are inside though, there is heaps of room here
10:05So my seat's pretty far back, but I've got loads of knee room. Toe room's excellent and headroom is reasonable
10:11It kind of cuts into it a little bit there and that's partly due to this
10:14Roof that comes back. You can see that sort of eats into your headspace a little bit, but it's not too bad
10:20Other creature comforts you've got back here. You've got matte pockets or two tiers of matte pockets, air vents, two sets of 2.1 amp
10:27USB-A chargers. In the center here, you've got an armrest with two cup holders
10:33Bottle fits in there nicely. You've got rubber teeth as well. Bottle storage inside the door, too
10:38I don't love the fact you have to assemble your own seat belt here for the center
10:42I just wish it would be built in like most other cars on the market
10:45But anyway, you've got ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats with three top tether points
10:50Now what about your cargo space given how big the Forester is?
10:53I'm expecting good things under here in terms of usability. So you have a little under
10:59500 litres available just here in this configuration
11:02But the good news is under the cargo floor you get a full-size spare tire plus this storage as well
11:08So really good setup there. It is kind of rare in this segment to get a full-size spare
11:13Normally, it's a space saver. And if you are doing a lot of country driving a full-size spare really is mandatory
11:18So Hyundai and Kia are the only two others off the top of my head that do that. Over on the sides
11:24You've got hooks. You've got a 12-volt outlet. More hooks over here, but have a look at this one
11:30They've stuck one into the boot
11:33So you can actually hang stuff off here if you need to or if the boot's closed you can attach things to there as well
11:38So I haven't seen that before and I think that's a pretty cool setup. Let's see what it's like with our bags in here
11:44I forgot the suitcase
11:46Fortunately, so
11:48Here is a standard carry-on sized bag that you would normally take onto the plane
11:53So it shows you that you do have a fair bit of usable space there. Now these cargo blinds interesting as well
11:58So instead of just being a standard setup actually has a little lip on the front of it here
12:03So you can actually hide everything that's in the way there
12:05If you do need to drop the second row, you've got these handy switches here and that expands the space to a little under
12:131800 litres
12:15We've just hit the road in the Forester. Now if you did watch our old Forester review
12:20If you haven't seen it, you can click up here
12:21It was of the hybrid and the hybrid just wasn't very good at all. This on the other hand is very different
12:26So this uses a naturally aspirated 2.5 litre four-cylinder petrol engine makes 136 kilowatts of power and
12:35239 Newton meters of torque now, it doesn't sound like much but it is actually pretty good behind the wheel
12:40If you give it a kick, it's got a CVT
12:43It picks up and moves pretty quickly
12:45The actual car itself is fairly light and it means that when you are sort of getting stuck into the throttle
12:51It doesn't feel all that sort of lacklustre or boring
12:54You do also have the ability to go to the sport mode which they call SI Drive and that just makes the CVT
12:59Far perkier and it means that when you do get stuck into it, it's ready to pick up and go with a whole lot more urgency
13:05I know that some of you really don't like CVTs, but in the world of CVTs
13:09This one's actually pretty good and communicates well with this engine
13:13It just feels like it has a lot of punch across the rev band
13:15And of course, it's a permanent all-wheel drive and that's standard pretty much across all Subarus except the
13:22BRZ and the upcoming new BRZ as well
13:24the rest of them are permanent all-wheel drive and it's all the better for it because a lot of the other cars in this
13:29Segment are an on-demand all-wheel drive system and those just don't really work that well because they wait for the front axle to slip
13:36Before they send torque to the rear whereas here with the Subaru if I give this a punch out of this intersection
13:42There's just no slip at all
13:44It just hooks up straight away and gives us the the traction that we need and I think that's exactly what you want for surety
13:50Behind the wheel to make you feel like you're completely in charge of the vehicle. Let's talk fuel economy
13:55So official Subaru figure is 7.4 litres per 100 K's
13:59We are currently sitting on 8.1
14:02So not too bad close enough there to the official average. Okay, so this is blinding me
14:07I'm gonna shut that for a second pop this into sport mode. We'll see what it's like through a couple of corners here
14:15Like it's not a fair bit of body roll it is just body roll and you do notice there
14:19It's not like the old Forester XT. You remember the turbocharged one that was around was doing tuning to and all that sort of stuff
14:26It doesn't feel like that
14:26It sort of feels very much more family like but it's not the end of the world because the all-wheel drive system
14:31You really do have enough traction to just keep the foot in through the corner
14:35It's not enough power to really sort of get you into trouble. So from that point of view
14:39It's it's one of those cars that you can drive
14:42Drive fast slowly if you get what I mean, so yeah now on your other drive modes
14:48You have X mode down here. So you have two modes to choose from here
14:52so you can go over to
14:53Snow and dirt or to snow and mud and that will basically just vary what the stability control is doing and the amount of
15:01Intervention it gives you before it actually lets the wheels slip a little bit
15:04So it's good to say that they do actually have that it goes back to their roots of this being kind of an off-road
15:09Focus car you still do have that sort of 220 mil of ground clearance
15:13So you can do some very light off-roading
15:14But I wouldn't expect to climb Mount Everest or something in this now Subaru doesn't have an official 0 to 100 time
15:20But we've put it up against our stopwatch and this is how it went
15:31Let's
15:33Talk about the ride so they did make some changes to the ride here with the
15:382022 version and the ride was always actually pretty good and I think they've just made it better now as well
15:43There's enough meat on those tires to just soften out the ride
15:46It is probably softer than some of the competitors in this segment, but that's not such a bad thing
15:51It's built for comfort and then when you do load it with passengers
15:53It really just soaks in all the bumps beautifully, especially for highway driving and country driving
15:58It just feels nice and at home on the freeway. It can be a little bit noisy though when you are at highway speeds
16:04Especially on course chip road. So keep that in mind
16:06I wonder if a lot of that has to do with this roof and it being glass they tend to let in a bit more
16:11Noise than you would normally expect with a car that's sort of fully insulated in the roof as well and visibility
16:16So the commanding driving position here is something that I really like about the Forester
16:21I can see clearly down the fronts of the car there and it just feels nice and airy inside the cabin
16:26I don't feel too claustrophobic
16:27I've got the blind spot monitor built into that wing mirror and then in addition to that I can hit that view button to bring
16:33Up the camera whenever I need to while I'm driving. So you really do have some great visibility around the car out the back
16:39It's also excellent. The window is huge. So it's easy to see exactly where you're going turning circle is 10.8 meters
16:45It's actually really tight when you go full lock it kind of turns on a dime
16:49It's really impressive the way it spins around the steering is nice and light as well
16:53It means parking and low-speed maneuvers a piece of cake
16:57So the Subaru Forester it may not be as technologically advanced as some of the other competitors in this segment with their big screens and all
17:04That sort of stuff, but it makes up for it in almost every other way. There is heaps of room inside
17:09I love the fact that it is a proper permanent all-wheel drive and the engine
17:13Yeah, I don't be the punchiest thing in the world and it may not have forced induction
17:17But it suits the characteristics of the car and more importantly the gearbox as well
17:21So if you are looking for an SUV that is a little different from the standard competitive set on the market
17:27You really should be checking this out
17:29I think that Subaru will eventually bring in the big screen that you see in the outback
17:33But in the interim, I think this is a great place to be. Let me know in the comments section below
17:36Have you bought one? What's it been like long term? I always love hearing from you guys on your feedback on these cars
17:43So let me know what you think if you did enjoy this video
17:45Please make sure you share it with your mates
17:47And if you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, but until next time take it easy