What's going on YouTube?
Now it would certainly be an understatement to say that Subaru has been on a roll recently
Since sales have been climbing ever higher and they have introduced all-new versions of their most popular models
Forester and Outback are two of those all new products
however
Just like in the past they continue to overlap a lot in terms of price and size
Which has a lot of customers wondering which is the best bet
That's what we're about to find out
All right, so kicking things off here we have to talk about pricing and equipment of these two
For the Forester we selected the middle trend called sport. That is probably the most popular one among customers
Obviously every Subaru has standard all-wheel drive
So after factoring in a small selection of options and the one thousand ten dollar destination charge the total is a very reasonable
thirty one thousand ten dollars
Now, like I said the prices overlap a lot though. The Outback is considered the more premium product
Because of this you will have to drop down one trim on the outback to make it cost the same as the Forester in this
Case that would be the premium model
With a little over two thousand dollars in options and the same
1010 dollar destination charge the total is again, very reasonable at thirty two thousand and sixteen dollars
2016
So starting things off here by taking a quick look at the exterior designs
You'll notice the same general design language, but applied in different ways
Obviously the Outback has always been kind of a wagon on stilts which does continue for 2020 while the Forester has the more
Traditional crossover look to it
The Outback also looks more rugged with chunky black moldings all around
But really besides for styling which is entirely subjective. They are pretty much the same features wise
Both have entirely LED headlight clusters besides through the turn signals and then LED fog lights below
Additionally front ground clearance is identical at eight point seven inches
Now as far as the wheels you'll be looking at an inch difference in size
17 inches on the outback and 18 inches on the Forester
Both sets of mirrors are heated and auto dimming but as equipped our Forester is lacking the blind spot monitoring system
However that one system aside the entire Subaru brand puts an emphasis on safety which is why both of them have automatic emergency
braking
Lane Keeping Assist adaptive cruise control and auto high beam headlights
And obviously they're both going to share warranties as well
Finally the last thing to mention on the outside is that the Outback can tow larger loads of up to
2,700 pounds as compared to the 1500 pounds in the Forester
So that's it for the exterior. So now let's go ahead and check out the cabins before we take them out on the road
Now as you would expect there are going to be a lot of similarities inside as well since they are sibling vehicles
For instance both have the same key fob and smart interest systems
However once you open up the doors
The interior designs don't look all that similar at all
The sport Forester always comes with this gray black and orange color scheme. And then for the Outback we have the warm ivory color
as
Far as the seats themselves both are cloth with 10-way power adjustment and have multi stage heating
Cabin materials are also another important area. So starting with the Forester
we have a soft touch upper dash with a real stitching detail an
Area of leatherette below that and in the lower areas that are often touched are also leather covered
More or less the Outback is exactly the same with a soft touch
dash leatherette middle portion as well as they love the rest Center tunnel where your knee might rub against
Press the buttons on both to start
As far as the gauges they are pretty much the same with four point two inch multi-function displays
They both also have helper displays the Forester having a separated one on top of the dash and the Outbacks
Integrated into the large main display, which we'll talk about a little later on
Next up we have the very important aspect of storage where surprisingly the Forester comes out on top
now, of course the Outback isn't bad, but the foresters deeper console extra cubby and much larger front bin have it beat
Coming to the shifter area
They are identical with paddles on the steering wheel back up cameras with active trajectory and electronic parking brakes
Now the next stop up the dash are the climate controls
This is where the similarities start to disappear since the Outbacks climate is integrated into the lower part of the main display
Normally I do prefer physical controls but because Outback uses both types of buttons has an extra zone and
Dedicated processing to eliminate lag. It's the overall better option as
Far as the audio systems, they are identical, but we'll take a lesson anyways
And now that brings us to the elephant in the room the infotainment screens
It pretty much goes without saying that the Outbacks
11.6 inch display is nearly twice as big as the Forester six and a half inch one and
That does have big benefits in the amount of information that can be displayed at once
However, it is still important to realize that as far as the main features they are exactly the same
Both of them have apple carplay and android auto and then at this price point they will lack integrated navigation
Finally the last thing to mention is a big advantage for the Forester and that's the fact that it has a standard
Panoramic moonroof while the Outback at this price point doesn't have any kind of moonroof at all
So heading to the back just in case you still don't believe me about how similar these two are
Look no further than the rear seat measurements
There are only fractions of an inch separating them and both feel extremely spacious for an average-sized adult
Once inside in terms of amenities both have two charging USB ports
But you will notice that the outback premium will miss out on the rear airbag
Heated seats are also available on higher trims for both
Moving around to the rear our outback has a power tailgate with the hands-free activation while the Foresters is manual unless you add a
$2,000 package
Now once the gates themselves open up again, you will find very similar numbers though. The Forester has a slight advantage
With the seats upright it has about 8 percent more cargo capacity
But once the seats fold its lead falls well below our 5% threshold
One last thing worth mentioning though is that the Outback has handles in the bat to fold the seats more conveniently
Now let's go ahead and compare them under the hood and out on the road
As
You've seen up to this point these two crossovers have a lot of similarities and that continues here under the hood
both have the exact same engine a
2.5 litre naturally aspirated boxer 4-cylinder making
182 horsepower and 176 pound-feet of torque
All right, so first taking off in the 2020 calbeck
This is the base engine the 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine
Is it will be what most people will choose so while this doesn't get all the headlines and stuff like the XT
It's very important that this model be
Very good and my initial impressions here that it feels really quite peppy. I'm very surprised
just kind of barely getting on to it it really
Power feels really good
So there's our first acceleration at a 2020 Forester
and power definitely feels very good for this category of vehicle, you know a
basic four-cylinder engine is not ever gonna knock your socks off, but
You know definitely seems to put the power down
Subaru also does pretty aggressive throttle response. So they make the most of the
182 horsepower that this two and a half liter naturally aspirated boxer 4-cylinder does produce
It is paired to standard symmetric all-wheel-drive and both have continuously variable transmissions
of course, as you would expect this does produce very similar experiences when accelerating
Also just right off the bat I just want to go ahead and talk about the CVT
Extremely responsive
you can just tell how quickly it responds to the way that I
Changed my position on the throttle
If not got any of that CVT lag where you put it down and it has to figure it out
You know just kind of wail around and whatever
You know if I press lightly we kind of just stay right here
I press down heavier it immediately jumps it up
it gets me going in an appropriate way and then brings it back down almost like a traditional gearshift there is
There are some drive modes that you can switch into so this is our S
sharp
You can see it kind of immediately rev things up that's gonna make things sporty-er
We do also have manual
Simulations with paddles that we can try out here in a second and see how that is
But for the most people you're going to keep it in the normal mode cruise around like we just did
And you'll notice the CVT that is very responsive
One important factor to mention is that the Outback can be equipped with a more powerful turbo engine
Which is something that this newest generation of Forester can no longer do
Both these crossovers have moved to Subarus new global platform which gives them big benefits in terms of ride and handling performance
Structural rigidity is up in both steering setups are heavier and more accurate than their outgoing generations
One of the other really obvious and person that's about this new model is
Just kind of the way that it feels overall with the balance and the steering
Now Subaru says the structural rigidity of this has actually increased by
70% which seems like outrageous, you know
But you can't actually tell that definitely has just this really solid feel
Now one thing I remember from our previous
2018 Forester
review and
continued to really notice here in this 2020 is the
Pretty agile feel that Subaru has given this forester
Definitely a lot tighter on the suspension. You can definitely tell
there's a lot more rigidity here and
That definitely translates to just feeling a lot more balanced
You can kind of go around corners a little bit here and you notice a whole lot less body rolled on the previous generation
Also the steering
Surprisingly has a nice weight to it. If you're getting the impression that they drive very similarly to each other you'd be right
there's honestly not enough separating them to award any points and
Then finally in regard to fuel economy the EPA rates them identically at 26 City
33 highway 29 combined
Now in case you thought we forgot we must remember that the Forester rings in
1006 dollars less expensive than the Outback
To represent this we will award one point per thousand dollars of difference or 1 point to the Forester
So there you have it the two Subaru crossovers finished neck-and-neck
Since they are so similar in most things besides for looks that is probably what it's going to boil down to for most people
But as always make sure you check both these out in person to determine which flavor is best for you
Anyways, thanks for joining us for another car confections comparison and be sure to subscribe for more comparisons and our signature for
Review videos. Take care everyone!