I’m back after exchanging our new 2026 Forester Touring for another.
After returning a new Forester Touring due to eyesight-system problems, and having another (brand new) loaner for a week, and now the replacement, here is our new Forester Touring in its ‘forever’ home.
Why Forester? We have a 2025 Outback Touring. Sold our beloved ‘18 Premium (heated cloth seats), and dislike the new Outback. See other vehicles we tried below.
I may add to the list below as we just got home for a celebration meal…
Here are my impressions:
What I like, as follows:
Roomy driver’s position,
360° camera view,
Rear automatic braking,
The info system controls are fine but then I drive a 2025 Outback on long trips so it’s Déjà vu. We use Waze for navigation and our SXM radio stays tuned to Motown and soul. It’s all we need.
Has real carpeting not the felt-like material in the new 2026 Outback (my wife calls the latter ‘cheesy’).
Little things that matter: has phone holder thank goodness! Has side-vents airflow control ‘wheels,’ which we use all the time (removed from the ‘26 Outback, all trim levels).
Things that our 2025 Outback Touring does better:
Smoother ride! If you have a child in a car seat, save up for an Outback. Or if you have a sensitive neck or back get an Outback.
Retracting side view mirrors. Very handy for pulling into one of our mid-century garage. Not included in F. Touring!
Lane centering is far superior in ‘25 Outback. After driving 3 specimens of Foresters, I see this as a model and year issue. In short, it sucks. Garbage lane centering.
Any comments or suggestions that mention Outback are base on our 2018, my sister’s 2020, and our 2025 Touring.
If you get onto main roads, and regularly use adaptive cruise control with lane centering, and expect lane centering to start promptly like Picard ordering “engage!” warp, or if you cruise on long trips or on highways where that feature might even be a lifesaver, get an Outback!
I prefer the shorter wheelbase for errands around our major city.
Strangely, we prefer the pearly White. Our brand new loaner that was also Touring was green, which we thought we would love. For this body shape, we both prefer the white, especially with the side body molding.
I won’t discuss price but let you know that we negotiated hard to get the all weather floor mats, rear tray, side body panels moldings, and the nerdy door and sill lighting that we like in our senior years when we drop stuff.
After the return, we got the same deal but the dealer had to do a number of installs and accomplished them the same day. Accessories are great ‘negotiables,’ after you achieve price target. Definitely get “free” on some and half-price on remainder, plus free installation (0 zero labor).
In the end, we needed a car, and there were concessions. We did test drives of all Subaru models, some multiple times; also we test drove Toyota RAV4, and 4-Runner. We found RAV4 claustrophobic in the drive position. After owning 2 turbos our preference is to avoid them. Also we don’t want a hybrid. Frankly if there were a 3.6 in an Ascent we would have bought it. If the Toyota Land Cruiser had an all-gas, non-turbo. Nostalgia for our Series 100 …sigh. Or a 6-cyl in the new 4-Runner, as we liked that very much!
The little extra that we received in the exchange was already-installed interior side covers in the rear cargo area at no charge. Didn’t even know they existed but thanks!
