2021 Subaru Forester vs Subaru Outback

What's the difference?

The Subaru Forester Sport is an interesting new addition to the range, despite not really moving it forward in any other way apart from its eye-catching looks. It is a competitive counterpoint to the likes of the CX-5 and CR-V, but still doesn't quite reach the same levels of refinement and driving enjoyment of the RAV4.

There is no doubt the Forester Sport will add a level of appeal that Subaru has been needing in its family SUV range since launch, but we really think the thing that would get more customers excited would be a new turbocharged top-spec model, which would certainly be more deserving of the Sport name.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring does its intended job of balancing city and suburban duties with having more than enough dirt-driving ability to take you to your favourite National Park campsite, within reason, of course.

This adventure wagon is nice to drive, comfortable, has improved safety tech, and it also manages to carry on the Subaru tradition of being practical without pretensions.

If you've ever trawled the Subaru Japan website like me (high five, car nerds!), you might be thinking: "This Subaru Forester Sport model looks a lot like that Forester X-Break in Japan!". And you'd be right.

It is, essentially, the same car. Just with a considerably nicer looking set of wheels than the Japanese model. They aren't my favourite rims, but then again, I think the Forester's rims on the whole are pretty yuck.

Wheels aside, the flashes of orange around the car will no doubt catch your eye. There are plenty of them: the lower body protection has orange trim from the front bumper to the side skirts/sills and the rear bumper, too; plus there are orange bits as part of the roof rails, too.

The exterior also cops a bit of a blackout treatment, with new dark graphics front and rear, including a black garnish between the tail-lights. And of course, the rims are black, too.

Inside the style a bit more adventurous, with a smattering of orange trim highlights on the vent surrounds, the transmission tunnel, the stitching that runs on the dashboard, doors and seats, and even the eye-catching and intriguing mesh-look water-repellent trim on the seats that goes up to the doors, too. I guess Subaru assumes Forester Sport buyers will be spending a lot of time in the rain?

I really love the orange trim finishes - they really lift the ambience of the cabin and make it feel a bit more exciting than a regular Forester. In fact, it's like the Forester looked a bit further down the Subaru line-up to the XV and said, "Hey, how come you're getting all the attention?".

There are some inherently awesome SUV features that the Forester's interior design brings to the fore - we'll get to that in the next section.

This new Outback looks suitably and unmistakably like an Outback – it’s adventurous-looking and inoffensive enough to satisfy those who prefer their high-riding SUV-wagon with a touch of low-key styling.

Design changes are generally subtle, but the use of LEDs (in the daytime running lights, self-levelling headlights, front fog-lights, and rear brake-lights, as well as inside), as well as roof rails incorporating stow-away roof racks are nice touches.

The Forester could be the most practical vehicle in its class. Against the likes of the Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Mazda CX-5 and VW Tiguan, it stacks up pretty well for cabin practicality, space utilisation and accommodation.

It's a nice, bright and airy place to be, with a big glasshouse that makes it feel a bit more outdoorsy than its rivals. The benefits of that are two-fold - it's easy to see out of, whether you're the driver or if you're a kid in the back.

Looking up front first, the Forester's cabin presentation is much more eye-catching in this grade. The other models in the range are, well, a bit bland. The Sport, though, is a bit more - dare I say it - sporty. And I personally hate models called Sport, but that's a story for another day.

The orange stitching everywhere and the orange metallic look finishes on the dash and the centre console - it combines for a more special feeling cabin than any of the other Foresters available.

I really appreciate the media screen Subaru offers - it's easy to use and is bright and colourful, and also the flush finish design - not a floating tablet style screen - does make it just a little easier to use. However there is a secondary screen above it, which shows you a bunch of information about the car that you theoretically will never actually need to know.

That top pod also has a driver monitoring camera system which is looking at you all the time and will warn you if you take your eyes off the road for too long. Intriguingly, it flashes a warning onto another screen - the one on the instruments, which also makes you look away from the road...

It really is a button and screen overload. If you like minimalism, you're not going to like the number of things in front of you as the driver of a Forester. But they all have a purpose (sort of), and for me, it's better than everything being run through touch screens!

The front seats are quite comfortable, with electric adjustment for the driver and passenger. Both are electric adjusted and heated as well, which is nice, and the material used is genuinely really comfortable - it's like a good quality couch.

Even though those are nice elements, I couldn't find myself a perfect driving position – I feel like I sat just a little too high and I couldn't get the steering wheel in quite the right position for my preferences.

Storage is mostly okay up front: the cupholders between the seats are a little bit deep so small takeaway coffees might be hard to get out, and there are bottle holders in the doors, a small cubby in front of the gear selector for a wallet and/or phone, and that's also where you'll find 2USB ports. No wireless phone charging, though.

The overall space for a family of four is perfectly usable. There is no seven seater version of the Forester, nor any seven-set SUV in the brand's range at all in Australia, so it's strictly a smaller family affair, or a good option for grandparents on duty.

There's very good second row seat space, with a high seating position and hip point allowing for adults to easily slot in there (I'm 182cm/6'0" and I can fit behind my driving position with heaps of leg, toe and headroom to spare), but it's also a handy height for child loading, with dual ISOFIX and three top-tether points. Weirdly, though, Subaru has kept with the ceiling-mounted centre seatbelt, and the seat is flat and a bit uncomfortable for adults in terms of cushioning and support. Great for child seats, though.

There are plenty of smart features in the second row, including twin map pockets on the seat backs, one of which is sectioned and divided for smaller items. Plus there are those two USB ports for charging devices (again, perfect for a family of four), and there are rear directional air vents. There is a fold-down armrest with cupholders, plus bottle holders in the doors.

Weirdly there are LED lighting pods for the boot and the tailgate, and up in the front of the cabin there is LED lighting, too - but in the centre, the middle lighting pod is halogen. Weird.

The boot area offers 498 litres of cargo capacity (VDA) with the seats up, but hit the electric release levers (handy!) at the sides of the boot and you liberate a total 1740L of space - enough for a pair of mountain bikes or a few weeks' worth of camping gear for a couple.

Plus there are shopping bag hooks on the outer sides of the boot area and one on the tailgate,, plus four tie down points if you need to attach things and stop it from rolling around. There's a cargo blind, and a 12 V outlet in the boot, too.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has five seats, two in the front and three in the rear. 

There’s plenty of room in the front and in the rear, in terms of being able to actually stretch about a bit and roll your shoulders without feeling cocooned.

The driver's seat is eight-way power-adjustable with dual memory; and the front passenger's seat is eight-way power-adjustable. 

The rear seat is a 60/40 split folding configuration and is equipped with three child-seat anchor points, and two ISOFIX child-restraint anchor points.

The interior, in Nappa leather trim, looks and feels pleasant.

The new multimedia system’s 11.6-inch touchscreen dominates upfront, bringing to mind the portrait-style unit of a Tesla, or even a Ram 1500 Limited I recently tested. It’s easy enough to use after you get your head around the fact you have to operate buttons on the screen and off of it to keep everything working to your satisfaction.

Connecting my Android Auto smartphone was simple and we experienced few issues with this set-up in the time I had this Outback.

Charging facilities for your devices include four USB ports: two upfront, and two in the rear.

Storage spaces include a small shelf under the multi-media screen, a shallow grippy, textured shelf for the front passenger, a lidded centre console, cup-holders between the front seats, as well as the usual bottle holders in the doors.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring's cargo capacity, with five seats in use, is listed as 522 litres. With the second row stowed away, cargo capacity increases to 1267 litres.

And most of the cabin’s handy life-friendly additions I reckon are in the load space and those include cargo hooks, flip-down tie-down points, cargo nets, cargo cover, and a power socket.

All in all, the interior is a pleasant mix of practicality and comfort, with a nice premium feel about it. 

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring is the top dog in a three-variant Outback range. It has a Manufacturer’s Suggested List Price of $47,490 (excludes on-road costs).

Standard features include LED headlights, LED foglights, push-button start, keyless entry, electric park brake, rain-sensing wipers, heated and power-folding side mirrors, heated seats (front and rear outboard), sports pedals, dual-zone automatic climate control, and power tailgate.

It has a new 11.6-inch touchscreen multimedia unit, with satnav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. 

It also has a heated leather steering wheel, steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, Nappa leather interior trim, driver’s seat memory settings, a nine-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, an electric sunroof, satin-finish door mirrors, silver highlight roof rails (with stowable crossbars), and gloss-finish 18-inch wheels.

Driver-assist safety tech includes Subaru’s EyeSight forward-facing camera system (comprising AEB, lane keeping, adaptive cruise control etc), as well as a driver monitoring system (which alerts you if your eyes stray from looking ahead through the windscreen for too long), a reversing camera, and more.

Colour options on the AWD Touring include Storm Grey Metallic, Crimson Red Pearl, Crystal White Pearl, Magnetite Grey Metallic, Ice Silver Metallic, Crystal Black Silica, Dark Blue Pearl, Autumn Green Metallic and Brilliant Bronze Metallic. These are all at no extra cost.

As mentioned in the introduction, we don't see the new 1.8-litre turbo-petrol engine here, with its 132kW/300Nm currently not available for our market.

Instead, the 2.5i part of the name indicated a carryover 2.5-litre four-cylinder horizontally-opposed 'boxer' engine producing 136kW of power (at 5800rpm) and 239Nm of torque (at 4400rpm). No turbo here.

The Forester is available solely with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) Lineartronic automatic gearbox, and as it's a Subie, of course it has the brand's "Symmetrical" all-wheel drive (AWD) system standard, too.

The Sport grade isn't available with the brand's hybrid powertrain, though that's no great loss. Read our review where we compared that version against the excellent RAV4 hybrid to see how it fared

The 2.5i models have seen a towing upgrade for 2021, with the unbraked rating set at 750 kilograms, while the braked towing capacity is now 1800kg (up from a meagre 1500kg in earlier models).

All of the new Outbacks have a 2.5-litre four-cylinder horizontally-opposed Boxer petrol engine – producing 138kW at 5800rpm and 245Nm at 3400-4600rpm – and that’s mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

The Outback has permanent (aka “symmetrical”) all-wheel drive and Subaru’s X-Mode system that includes Normal, Snow/Dirt and Deep Snow/Mud modes. These driving modes adjust engine torque, throttle response and traction control, among other things, to suit the conditions.

The official combined cycle fuel consumption figure for the Forester 2.5i Sport is identical to the rest of the range: 7.4 litres per 100 kilometres, with emissions claimed at 168g/km CO2.

On test, we saw an at the pump fuel economy of 9.5L/100km across a mix of urban, highway, country and open road driving (plus a very short unsealed off-highway stint).

Fuel tank capacity is 63 litres. It can run on the more affordable 91RON regular unleaded.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has an official combined-cycle fuel-consumption figure of 7.3 litres per 100 kilometres.

On test, we recorded actual fuel consumption of 9.0L/100km, from fill to fill.

The Outback has a 63-litre fuel tank.

The Subaru Forester is a smooth and decent family SUV, one that doesn't necessarily do anything exceptionally well, but nor is it terrible at anything when it comes to on-road driving.

In fact, my biggest complaint is the noise intrusion - there's quite a bit of tyre roar through even normal road surfaces, and coarse chip roads are louder again. There's also wind noise up around the windscreen and mirrors, and the engine is noisy under acceleration because of the CVT automatic transmission, and it doesn't sound overly delightful, either.

That said, the 2.5-litre engine's response is pretty good, offering decent and linear power delivery. It's not fast, not overly fun, and the CVT auto does rob it some of the excitement you might want. However, it jumps away from a standstill pretty nicely, and if you can hit the sweet spot when you're accelerating you might be surprised by its brisk response.

There are paddle shifters to take matters into your own hands - though even if you use the SI drive mode selector (Sport or Intelligent drive modes), it's less thrusty than turbocharged competitors (Ford Escape) or even hybrid-powered rivals (Toyota RAV4).

The ride comfort is quite good, there's a nice supple attitude to the suspension and the way it controls itself over bumps, but it is quite soft and that means that there is some noticeable body roll in corners.

Thankfully the seats are really quite nice and offer good support, and while the steering is decently weighted and accurate enough it's hardly the last word in excitement for thrills. I'm also not much of a fan of the lane keeping system and how it affects the steering, as it interrupts the smoothness of your steering a little too much. There's a button you can hit to turn it off, but you have to do it every time.

And that driver-monitoring camera system really does make you realise how much you're not looking at the road ahead. I'm a constant glancer, looking at whatever is driving past or whatever I see parked in people's driveways, and the system really made me realise that.

Because it's a Forester with all-wheel drive, I took it for a brief light off road review expedition, where it lived up to the brand's adventure-focused persona.

The most impressive element was a combination of nice high ground clearance (220mm), plus the way that soft suspension rolled over rocks and bumps allows decent travel to the suspension, and good control to the driver's hands, too.

The drive mode selection system allows you to choose "snow/dirt" or "deep snow/mud", meaning soggy camping trips or drives to the snow should be pretty well catered for. Like most soft-roading vehicles and crossovers, though, the tyres will be your biggest letdown but also your easiest upgrade. 

The hill descent control system worked really well, and while I wasn't pushing any boundaries of what to expect a SUV like this to do, it was pretty well sorted of the whole.

Pretty impressive.

For starters, visibility is good with a clear view in all directions from the driver’s seat.

Steering is well weighted, at low and high speeds, making it an easy steerer for parking and when on-road scenarios demand livelier rudder action.

This boxer engine is claimed to produce 7 per cent more power and 4.2 per cent more torque than in the previous generation, but, sans any turbo influence, it feels underpowered and is consistent rather than gutsy, with a rather lazy delivery of power and torque. Still, an unfussed workmanlike performance that you can rely on is better than a lacklustre alternative.

The Outback’s CVT works fine most of the time, although it can sometimes hunt energetically for the sweet spot – but, to negate that, the driver can use the paddle shifters to cycle through manual shifts.

Ride and handling are generally fine, with a suspension set-up – MacPherson struts at the front; double wishbones at the rear – that’s aimed at yielding a compliant, comfortable experience and, for the most part, succeeding. 

The Outback’s low (compared to most other SUVs) and wide stance lends itself to achieving that goal of settled and trustworthy ride and handling.

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring does not yet have an ANCAP crash test safety rating, but its safety gear includes eight airbags (dual front, front side, driver’s knee, passenger centre-front, and full-length curtain), AEB (between 10km/h and 160km/h), as well as pedestrian AEB (1km/h to 30km/h) cyclist detection AEB (60km/h or less) and rear AEB.

It has lane keeping assist with emergency lane keep assist that can steer the car away to avoid collisions with cars, people or cyclists (approximately 80km/h or less), lane departure prevention works from 60km/h to 145km/h, blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, speed sign recognition, as well as a driver-monitor camera that alerts the driver if their attention span is not up to the vehicle’s high standards.

Subaru Australia backs its cars with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is on par with its main rivals but behind the likes of Mitsubishi (10 years if you service with them) and Kia (seven years).

The brand offers just 12 months of roadside assistance when you buy a new car, where some others offer seven years or more.

The company also has unusual service intervals of 12 months/12,500km, with a capped price servicing plan that spans five years/62,500km. The average cost per service over that period is high, at $476.50 per annum - and it'll be even higher if you do a lot of kilometres.

There are also three-year and five-year service plans available. If you sign up for those, you get three years roadside assist plus a loan car when you get your car serviced. The costs for those are $1281.81 (three years/37,500km), or $2382.52 (five years/62,500km).

The Subaru Outback AWD Touring has a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Service appointments are scheduled for every 12 months/12,500km.

CarsGuide-sourced services cost details are $345 (12 months/12,500km); $595 (24 months/25,000km); $351 (36 months/37,500km); $801 (48 months/50,000km); and $358 (60 months/62,500km) – that’s an average of $490 per service.