2019 Subaru Forester consumer reviews

I owned a 2013 Impreza until I gave it to my daughter at 125,000. It was a very reliable car and had no problems with it. I got a new 2019 Forrester and it is an impressive car. All the positive reviews on this board are true. You have to consider a Forrester before buying a crossover or mid-size car.

This car is easy to handle good to look at and I feel safe driving it. It requires minimum service with everyone being friendly and helpful.

We just came out of a 2015 Forester XT and have been a family of dedicated Subaru owners for about 30 years now. We have always loved our Scoobs, and then came along the new and "freshly" designed 2019 Forester. We were very excited to see what the nice folks at Subaru had built for us. Now we are stuck with the most unliked vehicle our family has ever owned, literally... My spouse will not even drive the vehicle anymore and prefers to take the beater car (a 2006 Toyota), or just walk. The vehicle is gorgeous and still has that that great Subaru drivetrain, but that's where the fun starts and stops. The vehicle is equipped with a "driver assistance" suite of gadgets that makes this car an absolute NIGHTMARE to be in once the power button has been activated. The facial recognition feature works less than 50% of the time, and god forbid you be in any sort of daylight because it just turns itself on and off at a whim. Facial recognition is tasked with knowing who you are when you enter the vehicle so the car can upload your preferences and thennnn watch you like a drunken hawk while you drive. Well, that is when it feels like it. You can expect to receive between 3 and 15 ALERTS for every trip you take. If you look at the speedometer it yells at you to keep your eyes on the road, even though you are. It will also tell you to keep your hands on the wheel, even when they already are, and so forth. Or, it won't because it turned itself off because "reasons". The Auto on/off feature that is supposed to save gas while stopped can never really figure out when to consistently engage/disengage leaving you constantly wondering what the engine is going to do next. If that isn't enough the EYESIGHT and myriad other "safety" features will bark, whine, whistle, scream, and rattle your nerves to death literally every trip. My least favorite is the overdone proximity alarms. We live in a tight urban area, so if a vehicle changes lanes in front of you, nothing crazy mind you. The EMERGENCY braking system will unload itself and smash its own brakes. This system makes the brakes sound like the front gun of an A-10 Warthog (the Air Forces Tank Buster). It literally scares the living, you know what, out of everybody inside the vehicle to the point we just all want to get out of the car and walk. The rear hatch has been another "fav" of ours... It likes to just "lock" itself. This has happened multiple times. It usually waits until one of us has the kids and a handful of groceries to do it, and the only way to repair it is to take it to the car dealership where the tech's have to crawl through the back doors and manually unlock the hatch door from the inside, and completely reset the vehicle. It is SOOOOO irritating. The powertrain, and I use the word power here in jest, is a joke. This thing accelerates at a glacial pace. If you need power to get out of a tough scenario it is NOT there for you in this vehicle. In fact, I cannot recall driving a more power-starved Subaru in my life. It appears to the Subaru engineers that the only option is to just stop over EVERYTHING. Well, there are many traffic scenarios where stopping is way more dangerous than getting through and/or around it. To be entirely fair, once you are on the OPEN road, the adaptive cruise control is a nice feature for road trips, the Harmon Kardon sound system is excellent, the seats are comfy, and the climate control system is second to none. We have called Subaru directly so many times at this point I can't count, and they just say the vehicle is operating as designed. If you drive other vehicles with similar features the sensitivity appears to be managed by less caffeinated individuals with more reasonable road condition parameters. If you are considering purchasing one of these, we highly recommend a thorough, overnight, even multiple day test drive so you can decide for yourself if you need or want to deal with all this nonsense. I would take my 2015 Forester XT back in a heartbeat. Thanks for reading, but I do write longer reviews when I spend $40K... To Subaru, if you're reading this, DO something about this overly sensitive, anxiety generating, heart attack causing monstrosity you have created.

We also own a Forester we purchased new in 2006. We use it off road, around town and as an RV Tow Vehicle (Manual Trans). We just bought a 2019 Forester Limited with Option Pack 32. IT's AMAZING! There is nothing we don't like about it. It is quiet, comfortable, gets the advertised mileage and has plenty of power. The adaptive cruise control is amazing and it does a great job of tracking the vehicle in the lane ahead of us. I set the cruise at 65 and it maintained a safe distance from the car ahead of me. As I exited the off-ramp, the Forester slowed as the car ahead of me slowed. I kept my foot over the brake and waited to see what the car would do. It eventually came to a complete stop about 3/4's of a car length from the stopped car ahead of me. Then when the traffic started flowing again, the Forester released the brake and started accelerating up to the flow of traffic. I'm not saying I recommend doing this on a regular basis, but it is testament to how well the system works. Great car.

This car meet all my needs ! Love it. Drives great and user friendly. This car exceeded my expectations-now I know why everyone loves Subaru's.

Easy to drive, great on gas. My wife loves the many safety features on the Forester. The eye sight function is great, it was already put to the test when a car pulled out of a parking spot without looking

After reading many reviews, I purchased a 2019 Subaru Forester Limited. I found the reviews very helpful in making my choice. The ride is comfortable and the interior is spacious. There is plenty of get-up-and-go from the 2.5 L engine. The symetrical AWD gives this vehicle sure-footing in cornering and on winding roads. The safety features are great and the visibility through the large windows is superior to all of the other small suvs out there. Overall, I believe that I chose the best small suv for 2019.

Pretty good car for the price range. Not enough or rather a loss of towing capacity from last year. Not areal performance machine. I traded in a Crosstrek.

This car has everything you need legroom Comfort ride good gas mileage excellent sporty look . I can't wait to take it on a long trip

We purchased the Forester sport edition. Dark blue pearl exterior. This version of the Forester in our opinion is definitely the sexiest of them all.