Jeep Renegade vs Subaru Forester

What's the difference?

Rugged, dependable and good off-road are the most obvious qualities of the Trailhawk. It stands out from the rest of the mini-SUVs by being able to do the S and the U with plenty of vigour.

It's just a shame that its on-road manners can't match that of its big brother, the Cherokee. Unless you're planning on proper off-roading, the Trailhawk might not be quite what you're looking for.

Don’t let the 7.5/10 make you think the Forester is not a good car. For the person who needs a practical, off-road-capable mid-size family SUV without too many complications, it’s extremely hard to look past this thing.

Is the STI Sport the best choice in the range? Not for most, given its higher price and relative lack of extra ability to go with it. A standard suspension tune and even a slightly less plush interior are probably a better call for most family needs, which means saving a fair bit at the purchase.

It’s also worth noting that the next generation Forester is coming soon, and with that could come a price hike. If a Forester is on the shopping list but the cost of living is starting to bite, now might be the time.

If the slightly sharper handling and red interior leather is of interest to you, the STI Sport might be worth a look, but just know the Forester’s best attributes can be had for less money in a much cheaper variant.

In what is absolutely not a coincidence, the Renegade immediately conjures up the Wrangler. Upright grille from the Willys Jeep (references abound here), round headlights, squared off wheel arches to mimic the Wrangler's guards, short overhangs and big rear view mirrors.

The 17-inch wheels look completely lost in the wheelarches which are even more cavernous owing to the Trailhawk's 50mm of extra ride height. The wheels are also a bit cheap looking but will probably survive the belting the car is intended to take.

Less rugged is the interior, despite a fairly self-conscious effort to make it look and feel chunky. The front seats are flat and unsupportive with the rears just as lacklustre making sure everyone is sliding around together. Luckily, front passengers get a dash-mounted grab handle.

It seems quite well put together, however, but with carpets and easily-marked plastics, you'll hope your passengers don't bring the mud in with them too often. And the "Since 1941" stamped into the steering wheel can go.

The dashboard is reasonably clear and has plenty of information to share via the screen between the dials but whoever thought marking the redline with a water splash graphic in bright orange should probably rethink their design decisions.

Storage is limited to two cupholders up front, door pockets in each door and nets on the front seat backs.

The Forester is a pretty good-looking thing in this writer’s eyes, but its design hasn’t changed dramatically in the last few years.

The mid-size SUV looks equally at home on inner-city residential streets and in the middle of nowhere, even with the slightly ‘sported-up’ black trim of the STI version. And I do mean ‘slightly’.

Aside from the fact it looks a lot like the Forester 2.5i Sport of a few years ago (without the red bits), the STI Sport is perhaps ironically unadventurous. Even its alloy wheels don’t scream ‘sports’.

For all the SUVs with their respective brands’ performance badging (and not engineering) attached to them that bear more bark than bite, maybe it’s not such a bad thing Subaru has refrained from putting the Forester in full Tecnica uniform.

Inside, however, the black and red leather seems determined to distract from the fact that not much else has changed cabin-wise. It feels visually busier than it needs to, but still falls on the correct side of the restrained/garish line.

But there’s probably a reason the interior feels a little bit ‘classic Subie’ - if it works, it might pay to avoid making big changes.

At $48,640, before on-road costs, the Forester STI Sport AWD (to use its full name) has some strong competition - there are high-spec AWD hybrid Toyota RAV4 GXLs, powerful front-drive SUVs like the Ford Escape Vignale and Hyundai Tucson N-Line hybrid, or even variants of Euros like the VW Tiguan and Renault Koleos all within $1000 of the STI Sport’s sticker price.

But those looking for the practicality the mix of Subaru’s AWD, the space inside, and perhaps even the slightly older interior can provide, there’s a decent list of features for a car coming in at just a slice under ‘fifty large’.

The STI Sport AWD is based on the top-spec (petrol) Forester 2.5i-S, so it shares plenty of standard features - read on for those - but the key additions for this variant include a suspension tune by the eponymous performance division, a combination black and ‘Bordeaux Red’ interior leather with red contrast stitching, STI badging inside and out, dark grey 18-inch alloy wheels and black exterior trim for the grille, mirrors, roof rails and light surrounds.

From the Forester 2.5i-S, the STI Sport also brings along the existing leather seats and trim, with power-adjustable fronts which are also heated, plus the other main interior features like the 8.0-inch touchscreen for multimedia with wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, an eight-speaker Harman Kardon sound system with subwoofer and amp and a large electric sunroof.

It’s lacking some more modern features like wireless phone mirroring, wireless phone charging, USB-C ports or a fully digital driver display, but the latter of those is certainly no great loss.

On the outside, the existing self-levelling LED headlights with cornering response, LED DRLs and fog lights, privacy glass, roof rails and electric tailgate all also carry over from the 2.5i-S.

There are certainly rivals with more features, but they require trade-offs in other areas that might not appeal to Subaru customers.

The Trailhawk is powered by Fiat's 2.4-litre four naturally-aspirated four-cylinder producing 129 kW and 230 Nm. Jeep reckons you'll get 7.5L/100km on the combined cycle. Our mostly city driving with a longish motorway run produced an 11.0L/100km average over a week.

The transmission is a nine-speed ZF automatic driving all four wheels.

The Trailhawk also has Jeep's five mode Selec-Terrain system which should cover pretty much every eventuality – Auto, Sport, Mud, Sand and, just for the Trailhawk, Rock. The Trailhawk is rated to tow 400kg unbraked and 907kg braked.

The same drivetrain as is used in the 2.5i-S is found in the STI Sport AWD.

No prizes for anyone who guessed it’s a 2.5-litre flat-four engine, but some might be disappointed to know that means no turbocharging and no sporty transmission - the STI Sport still outputs 136kW and 239Nm via a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

Subaru’s ever-present ‘symmetrical’ all-wheel drive system is, of course, here in the Forester too, but the brand’s relatively recent foray into hybrid drivetrains was given a miss for this version.

The Trailhawk name suggest that things are going to get muddy – compared to the rest of the range, the range-topper rides 50mm higher and has exposed, easy-to-reach tow hooks in the fairly unlikely event you get stuck. It also has a 20:1 low-range crawl ratio and Active Drive 4x4 which means it can switch between front and all-wheel drive. It'll also wade through almost half a metre of water. It's a genuine mud-plugging proposition and will take on some much bigger machinery out in the bush.

On the road, where we spent all our time in the Renegade, it's not what you'd call particularly inspiring. There's a number of sources of noise that contribute to a less than quiet cabin and having to constantly correct your course at freeway speeds adds to the tiring nature of the Renegade.

It's much better at lower speeds, pottering around but then again, its nine-speed transmission needs a lot more work on the shift mapping because it seems to forget which gear it needs to be in when you sink the right foot. If you don't need the Trailhawk's extra off-road goodies, consider the 1.4 litre Limited or Longitude.

Like much of the Forester STI, the driving experience is heavily borrowed from some tried and true Subaru characteristics.

That naturally aspirated flat-four engine, though underwhelming on paper, gets the job done without much fuss. In fact, it sometimes feels peppier than it should given its outputs.

Its 'S/I' (Sport or Intelligent) drive mode selector is there to adjust acceleration style, but it doesn’t make an enormous difference.

Yes, it could do with more torque, but the engine doesn’t struggle and only starts to sound laboured at high revs during the kind of acceleration you’d need for seconds at a time.

The sound of a CVT whirring away isn’t exactly auditory bliss, nor does it make for engaging acceleration.

But it’s relatively quiet under regular load below highway speed and, as long as the road isn’t too coarse, NVH is generally good in the Forester.

Road, wind and engine noise are certainly present in certain circumstances, but they’re not intrusive until you get to higher speeds.

At those high speeds is where you might notice one of the most significant changes to the STI version of the Forester - the dampers have been retuned by STI, for what Subaru hopes is a “sharper, more responsive driving experience”.

It’s hard to seriously call the Forester sharp - it’s a mid-size family SUV with enough clearance to go light off-roading - but the STI Sport holds up well for what it is.

The Forester driving experience was already likeable and easy, and in terms of cornering and handling bumpy rural (or even just bumpy urban) roads, the suspension keeps things under control without feeling too stiff.

Its body doesn’t roll as much as you might expect when cornering, but given STI’s engineers focused their efforts on the dampers, its a good thing the Forester doesn’t either waft or thud when presented with big sharp bumps, nor does it vibrate and rattle over constant rough surfaces.

Of course, it’s also got 'X Mode' controls for different surfaces like snow, dirt and mud, making it a pretty handy companion for outdoor adventuring or camping trips in regions where the weather gets a bit unpredictable. If you’ve ever tried to get a front-wheel drive hatchback out of a muddy hillside campsite…

Essentially, the Forester is the kind of SUV that, if you wanted to, you could have a medium amount of fun with on a twisty road before taking it down a particularly rough, unsealed or muddy trail, then later hand the keys to your grandma knowing she’d be able to handle everything about the driving experience, too.

The Forester holds a maximum five-star ANCAP rating from assessment in 2019, which sounds outdated but arguably the most important aspects of the ANCAP testing are the crash protection, for which the Forester scored highly - an extremely good 94 per cent for adult occupant protection and 86 per cent for child occupant protection.

Seven airbags including dual frontal, side chest, curtain airbags and a driver knee airbag keep occupants protected, while Subaru notes the engine’s low-centred nature means it’s designed to slip under rather than into the cabin cell in case of a frontal collision.

Its active safety systems have been kept up to date, with functions like lane-keep assist, driver monitoring, automatic reverse braking and the help of Subaru’s ‘EyeSight’ monitoring system are all welcome additions, particularly since they’re not as intrusive as some rivals.

The lane-keep assist, for example, only beeps (relatively calmly) and intervenes when the Forester actually approaches the lane edge, and the driver monitoring and speed warning systems don’t chime or give warnings unless something is actually going wrong.

Like the multimedia and interior layout, the active safety is one area where the most recent previous generation of common features seems to be better than those many manufacturers are now implementing.