2019 Subaru Forester

[MickinMD ★]

A review of my rental car, a 2019 Subaru Forester.

I received a call from the body shop this Wed. AM saying they found more damage than the original inspection showed and they have to wait until the insurance company comes out and approves it before continuing the repair. I told them to take their time because the insurance company has approved paying for my rental until May 5th if necessary and I love it - though my car should be ready soon before or after Easter.

After I dropped-off my rear-ended 2013 Honda Fit to be repaired, an Enterprise Rent-A-Car driver picked me up in a 2019 Subaru Forester.

I immediately liked the car and asked if it was a rental option that insurance was paying for. It was.

I've drove it about 40 miles yesterday and it was great: it rides so smoothly I barely noticed going over one locally-notorious set of across-the-road railroad tracks that rattle my Fit and it registered between 29 and 27 mpg for the mostly non-expressway drives I took: it's rated 26 city/33 hwy.  All Wheel Drive is standard.

I has all kinds of standard safety features and extra bells and whistles including a wide-view, rear-view camera, front/rear collision warnings, lane crossing warnings, your head not being in driving position warnings (falling asleep, etc!) and automatically aligning all mirrors to the position of your head if desired.  It moves the headlights on turns and to where you turn your head. There is excellent head and leg room for 6'3" me.

I am so used to my subcompact Honda Fit so easily fitting everywhere that I've been extra careful driving and parking the Forester but there has been nothing to make me anxious.

I usually buy a new car every 15 or so years, but I'm going to research the newer compact and subcompact crossovers/SUVs and maybe get one within the next few years because of all the bells-and-whistles I don't have on my 2013 Fit.  The main things holding me back are a desire for a good, cheap hybrid car with plug-in charge option and that six years after I get my next car, I'll probably be looking at a similar jump in tech improvements.

Here are some pictures and reviews from Edmunds and U.S. News, both of which rate the Forester their #3 compact SUV behind #1 Honda CRV and #2 Mazda CX-5, but mostly because of the Forester's "underpowered" engine which makes it a poor choice for towing - which I wouldn't need to do - but otherwise it's great for mpg and it's 8.7" clearance makes it great over rough surfaces.  I found the acceleration to be very good and I had to be careful not to accelerate too fast when moving from a stopped position.

Pearl Blue (I have this one as a rental) 2019 Subaru Forester:

The cloth gray interior which my rental has: I have a 6' x3' rubber mat I placed over the rear seats when driving 80 lb Golden Doodle Jake to a park for a walk Wednesday:

Excellent and intuitively easy-to-dashboard controls:

 

U.S. News summary:

Edmunds Summary: