2021 Subaru Forester | How Foresty is the Forester Really? [OFF-ROAD]

What's up, Internet world? And welcome back to the channel. Today I bring you the

2021

Subaru Forester. Okay, we're about to go down this steep little hill and it's starting. Subaru has an obviously very good symmetrical all-wheel drive system. but they make you have your seatbelt on because when i take it off it makes a

really

annoying sound, the dirty seatbelt has started again wait let me put the seatbelt on god come on

subaru

here we go lock it now because it's designed to obviously be a trail capable vehicle because it has a ground clearance of 8.7 inches which is higher than a tucson and a crv and let's go through some water.

This is exciting. This is exciting. You saw it the last time we were here. It was actually too high, we couldn't get through, but it's been a little dry, so this little current is a little bit of the GoPro hit, that's going to be awesome, nice, Subaru, oh, all the way, all the way, let's go . go

subaru

I

really

want to take my seat belt off because I really want to get out and look you know it's just a habit to just get out here and look down okay yeah get stuck this is what I love to speed up this This is what Subaru's all-wheel drive system is all about, so from the front here a little there we go, that's perfect, now I have good momentum, so the CBT takes a little while to activate when you're going to drive in reverse. .

Now it's got a tilt so I can see what tilt I'm on and right now I'm at 13 14 as I slide down here and perfect 12 and it's amazing really nice very smooth easy the CVT is smooth so now obviously . I'm going to think a little bit here, but I'm going to get some momentum and go up this little hill with the throttle here and boom, I'm up. We're excited today to bring you the

forester

because we're with my friend Darren. Noren's Forest and we are about to check out the forest movement and see how forestry it really is because 97 of all the

forester

s sold in the last 10 years are still on the

road

today so today is a great day to check it out and put it .

Along its course, the last time we were here we did the cross course through the water and the water level was too high so we couldn't pass the full test, but today we are lucky because we have a little bit of season dry so we can get this through some real mud, which is why subaru has the best iihs safety option. They also have the highest resale value over the past five years and the lowest cost of ownership in their class. Super owners have no problem telling me. That Subaru all-wheel drive is the best in the snow, but maybe it's also the best in the mud, so in the headlight design here it has the Forester stamping and it also has Subaru's signature C-design LEDs.

Now again, these are all LED. headlights, but this is not a sport model, the sport model has an orange accent on the front, sides and rear of the vehicle. This model has the typical Subaru hard plastic throughout to make it more suitable for outdoor activities. A piece of land like this is not damaged, you see people painting there, it would wear out a lot. Now Subarus have a really good starting price in Canada, it's 28,995 and you can probably get it as loaded as just under 43,000, which is a great value as we'll find out in this video, and at that price you get grille shutters active, you have something called subaru view and what it essentially is is subaru's eyes looking at the

road

and that will include a head-on collision.

It will include lane assist, it will include all the fun things that impact the front of the vehicle. It now also has something called access, which is the rear version of its safety system, so the blind spot indicator and rear cross traffic alert are in the rear. the vehicle now, if it's anything like the crosstrek, it won't have a hydraulic lift and it will have a support rod and there we go, under the hood of this thing it's exactly like the crosstrek, it's a two and a half liter four-cylinder boxer engine with direct injection and makes 182 horsepower and 176 pound-feet of torque, which isn't a ton of power, but in a gear like this and with the CVT with the torque converter, it actually makes a decent amount traction, that's their biggest complaint. but i didn't really feel like under normal driving circumstances it felt pretty good, i'm not going to lie on paper the numbers just suck but it's actually decent now obviously it has subaru all wheel drive blah blah blah blah , because people were criticizing in the comments for not showing it to your face, it has Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, so before we move on to the side of the vehicle, I want to talk one last time about the headlights that it has.

Something called SRH, which is the Subaru version of adaptive headlights, but here's the crazy part: This is the first vehicle I've tested that has an individual button on the driver's side that you can press to turn it off. Now, who would want to turn off their adaptive headlights? headlights off and I think it's more because it lets people know that the feature is there on the vehicle because it's adaptive headlights now, as far as the appearance on the side of the car, they follow it, it has the kind of coating of Subaru plastic like you have in the front, it falls completely and the rear of the vehicle, to the extent that any driver helps, I must say it has a kind of keyless entry, you walk up to it, pull the handle and it will unlock It also has heating. mirrors and, of course, lots of visibility.

You can see how big these windows are. Now that's an interesting point. These windows aren't actually double pane, they are single pane windows, which is a little strange. I would expect the front to be at least double pane or insulated windows. Up front now, another strange thing I saw is that there are raised roof rails. Now in some magazines I've seen them where they have kind of holes in here so you can tie things. This particular one doesn't have it and it moves. on the back here let's talk about design, look at these taillights, they have this cutout, it looks like a kind of lobster claw, but regardless of that, the only other flaw on the rear, I would say is this exhaust that you have. this cutter on the bumper and then it looks like it doesn't really belong there but anyway it has a power tailgate and it has a huge trunk look how wide this trunk is the access is great this is perfect to explain why I would buy this car now, the other thing it has is it has a hold button inside that can set the tailgate memory inside the vehicle.

You can configure retention inside the vehicle. You can actually open it which is great you don't have to go back and open it you can press a button on the inside and it opens and closes automatically now in terms of boot space this has the largest in its class with 76 cubic feet of trunk space and you can tell there's a lot of trunk space and that's because Subaru engineers don't believe in making something round because their design team is basically a guy who makes all the cars look the same except the wrx and the They still look a little different but everything else looks almost the same, that's from an outsider looking in and that's the truth, now 76 cubic feet of space is a ton because look at this, there is a ton of space, they actually have the most passengers. cargo space too and they have these nice buttons that you can pull and they just fall down nice and easy and they also have four different tie downs per side so we have two up here and then two down here on the front and the back now under this cargo compartment you have some kind of tray, it's not some kind of rubber tray, it's basically made of compressed styrofoam, so it's not a full tray.

I would like to see a rubber loading tray that I could take out and put back in with dirty, muddy boots because if you have muddy boots, where are you going to put them? So on the rear, this is where the build quality really shines. I like the fact that everything inside this car is now LED. You see these manual lights that can be turned on or off, they are LED, but the quality is good, like there is no type of plastic, but it is good quality plastic inside. I know it's a little tough because most people will buy this Forester because of this, they aren't. they care about how nice the front end looks, they don't care what tire package they can get, even though they can get it in black, now they like the fact that it's tough, it's tough and that's why I really don't understand why they just I don't have that car covered in rubber underneath, but regardless it has 60 40 split down, it has this tonneau cover that you can remove on top and obviously these rear ones connect to the seats, but it can also tow 1500 pounds and that was a question people were asking how much can this one tow, so 1500 pounds is what it can tow now.

I think if you have a car full of people and you're towing someone's 500 pounds, I think this engine is going to struggle a little bit, it just doesn't feel like it has enough power to get you uphill, you know, because it has simulated gears with the CVT. , so I'll talk about it a little while you're driving, but since we're in nature, I won't. I'm really going to spend too much time on the road, but I want to talk about simulated gears. The way the CVT works is that it maintains the rpm and its power band, which in this specific case is about 4500 rpm.

Now you have something called mock. gear, so it predetermines the gears, so when you drive it's not like you pretend they're gears, they're fake gears and they do it because people are used to having a real seven-speed, eight or nine-speed transmission and because this It doesn't really have gears, it simulates gears, so what does that do that makes you feel like you're driving a car with real gears? The only problem with this is that you're not always in the right power band when you're doing one of these, if that makes sense, if not commented below that's fine, so I'm in the back of the

2021

Subaru Forester and The first thing before we jump is that they have this kind of leg ledge that I can get on and you.

I know what it's there for because it's there so I can access the roof rails. I put my leg here and step up, that's great, it doesn't cover completely and it has the sill here, it's nice and big for my whole foot. I can go on there, but let's talk about going in now while I sit here. The first thing I notice is that I have heated seats, but I also noticed that this is not your typical subaru because the suru doors are kind of hollow and when I close it it feels solid, it's new so it has heated seats on the back. rear, two increments of heated seats, it has USB u2 in the rear, it also has a sort of two layer compartment on the back of the seats on both sides, not just one.

One way or another, it also has the most volume in the passenger segment, so it has 112 cubic feet of passenger space and compared to the crv it has 106, the rav4 has 99 and last but not Less importantly, the exhaust is 104. So this is significantly larger than any of those three vehicles and I can feel it because there's a lot of room, this is almost like my Dodge Ram, there's a lot of room, a decent amount of headroom, It's not the most headroom in the world, but it's still a decent amount. I have five eight and a half, but let's talk about cupholders because Subaru loves cupholders because remember the Ascent has 19 cupholders, this thing in the back has four, two here, small, pretty shallow, but not too bad, and obviously two bottle holders. on each door sorry there is a bottle holder on each door but quality wise the quality is really good these seats are really good the fit and finish the feel is really good and again remember you can Pull those buttons and these seats will fold. down it also has this handle, you can pull it here now one more thing the floor the floor because it's all-wheel drive it has a center axle now it doesn't have a very high floor which is a little strange I would think that it has a very high center floor, but in In the middle, that lump is not very high.

This may seem like a very small thing, but it also has a rear vent, so you have vents in the back, which sounds crazy, but remember. At this price, having vents in the rear actually costs money, so I'm seeing this is one crazy Subaru. The front doors feel less solid than the rear doors, which is totally unheard of. The fronts are always solid and the rears always. hollow but this wet case the back is solid the front is like a problem half hollow anyway let's jump now this has a 10 way adjustable seat its pretty good obviously i drove it here they are comfortable they are goodcomfortable seats no real complaints about them uh the only real complaint I have about most of the seats is that I'm five eight and a half.

I still feel like the seats aren't exactly long enough at the bottom so I can only imagine people being taller than me so that's my only complaint about the seat if I had to complain about anything more than that the seats are awesome okay so let's dive into this board. There are some improvements here that I wouldn't say, but there are a lot of good pieces here, it's not all. In plastic, there are some futuristic cuts, shapes and designs, so the design inside the cabin, as far as the shape of the doors is concerned, is much more futuristic than the outside of the car and that is totally the case of most Subarus.

There, the steering wheel is standard. Suru has this global platform. Basically, the chassis they built the Subaru on is now more or less the same and that's the case with the steering wheel as well. This seal is practically the same on the four Subarus we've reviewed. The same with this eight-inch infotainment screen, it's all the same. with the driver's overhead display it's the same the only addition this one has is that it has sort of a driver distraction mitigation system, which essentially means they have something staring you in the face, so if your eyes droop or lower , you know you are not focused on the road, it reminds you to please stay focused on the road or Put both hands on the wheel, it basically gives you a warning so you can start watching the road again and not get distracted or get drowsy or fall asleep , so it's good that it has some of those safety features and, as I mentioned on the Outside, with those adaptive headlights on the left, you have a lot of buttons here that are very obvious, but Super wants you to know that they have them, so, for example, on this left side, I'll start.

So this is going to be pretty in-depth about the interior, if you don't want to hear this you can skip the next two or three minutes, but here on the left we essentially have two memory seats, we have automatic windows on both of them. Left and right sides also have electric trunk, so I can press this button. I can open and close it like I mentioned again. On the left side it has this srh button where I can turn off the adaptive headlights and I can set the memory, so if I press it and there is a memory at the height that it sets, now you have to take out most of the cards, you hold the button, but in this specific case you just press this button, it also has a stability program that you can close. off and the biggest one is stop and start or auto stop start, so you can press this button and it disables the auto stop start.

Now on some vehicles you can't turn it off and that's a big deterrent to people buying them because some people hate them. being able to turn it off and on, they feel like there's too much shaking, so you can press that button and turn it off the same way with the blind spot indicator and something called sight that's essentially up here, so it has these two eyes looking up. forward now into the other. Subaru that we have reviewed when they have sight, what happens is that this visor is very small, but this visor on this specific Forester you can actually see that it actually hits the sight, which on the other Subaru is actually a very small visor and of somehow it fits. between the side of the eye and that and I prefer these big ones because there is still a space between this rearview mirror and the window because this is the largest window in the world, if I don't mention that it is already huge, the visibility is incredible like everywhere.

Look, I basically see glass and that's probably a big thumbs up for a lot of people who buy foresters, they probably get into other vehicles and realize it feels cramped but claustrophobic and this thing just has a lot of windows, including this panoramic sunroof. Now they call it panoramic, but it's not exactly easy because, like a larger sunroof, and if you want to close the blind, it has no power, you actually have to reach up here, which is not the easiest thing to pull it up. Go ahead without complaining because obviously the people who buy Subaru are active I'm also not complaining that this doesn't have wireless charging because if you want to use apple carplay or android auto you have to plug it in and when you plug it in it's charging so yeah there's no wireless charging on this one come on haters hate and like other subarus we have reviewed this one doesn't have ventilated seats or air conditioned seats it has heated seats in the front it has low and high and they are not a button digital or even a soft button, they are similar to the others, they are basically a hard plastic click to turn on or off, which is pretty traditional on Subaru, now they also have something called automatic vehicle hold, which essentially means when you stop when press the brake it doesn't go forward it just stops right there so you're not constantly pressing the brake and it stops and continues traffic so you can press this button it turns on and off but it has automatic parking brake and That's different from the Impreza which has a handbrake, this is just an electromechanical parking brake that locks the rear wheels, which I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I would like to have the handbrake, but again we are trying to get it. cleaner, newer, and more updated because again, this is a 2021 and it's been updated a little bit because everything here is LED, there's no amber lighting, it's all LED lighting inside, so two things deeper than I want talk again is this mitigation system. In fact, you can visually see five driver profiles and you can configure the seat, you can configure the climate control and the outside mirrors, all based on how you look now. I know I talked about traditional buttons and a lot of physical buttons and a lot of basics here, but it's I understood that's cool, it also has knee airbags, which is a good safety feature because at Subaru it's all about with safety because this as i mentioned earlier is the best safety option from iihs but let's get to the meat and potatoes and that is all wheel drive. system and this mode x, you see, as I mentioned in the cross trek, they have one mode x and this one has a dual mode x, so what exactly is mode x and how does it work now?

Downhill As I was going down that bank, that muddy bank, Notice the car straightened out and what happens when I go uphill? What it essentially does is it reduces the gear ratios or simulated gear ratios and on top of that it applies more pressure to the AWD clutch plates by 25 and it essentially turns the power back to where it needs to go and if I'm accelerating I need to. getting up, it will allow me to break traction and turn the wheels to allow me to go up the hill, which is great because it is more designed to get up hills and not get stuck or one wheel not spin like crazy.

Now the only complaint I have about the Forester is the lack of storage space inside the cabin. It now has a good amount of storage space in the doors, but I'd like to see some sort of compartment up here on the dash. It seems that it is built or designed for that, but it lacks a padded armrest, very soft and pleasant. It's a lot softer than even the other subaru's we've reviewed this is a different padding that they have in the forest and they have the climb and the impreza and again this center console is very tight I can't really fit many cup holders it's pretty simple it has a blocking area, but again I would like more space, even the front here for a cell phone.

This is an iPhone 12 and it just doesn't fit very well right now if you want to see me dive deep into this infotainment. I did it on the cross trek, so I won't do it here in the Forester, but before I take it for a spin I want to talk about the seats one last time and let you know that you can get them in cloth seats, which is cloth seats very nice and if you get the more loaded version you can get them in two tone leather obviously that's pretty standard on most cars they're all leather but you get a two tone version which is very nice , because when I think of Forester, I think of five ten-year-old Foresters that are banged up with clot seats, you know, like the real rough and tough Forester, so let's take this thing out on the trails and see how it drives well, so now.

I'm taking this subaru forester 20 21 for a spin and I'm taking the same kind of gear I took on the crosstrek just to feel like this is definitely a softer suspension than the crosstrek obviously it's a little bit higher but it's more smooth there's no Dudo so I'm going to quickly change this now to drive x ah sorry that's x drive mx mode to come. stop it to put this in mode At this price, it has independent suspension on all four corners, which may seem crazy, but remember the price of this thing, so now it all depends on the price, this is missing from the full text, so part of the technology, the integration of technology into the infotainment is better than other manufacturers, but there are so many little things you get in this that make the price so competitive, great brakes, it has two piston calipers in front of the throttle, it's great that you can drive with the family and get everything. equipment in the car and then take it off the road and accelerate.

I'm sure a lot of people who drive this around town would like to have the uh outback xt's 2.4 liter four cylinder engine that basically makes 260 horsepower. so they would like to have that engine, but okay, I mean, I know there's a lot of hate for that, but it was very deep, oh this is nice and dirty, wow, wow, great steering, now this is sensitive steering speed, obviously, I'm I didn't drive fast enough to test it, but on the real road, so this review will be all of this. There will be no no on the road, there will be no highway now, obviously you will miss out on some of the things you need. to really see what basically distracting driving is what i was telling you about and also the simulated gears which would have been cool to show you, but i have driven other subaru's and you guys have seen the other reviews, but this one was really cool because it's a beautiful day, This temperature is perfect and I'm at a 15 degree incline so let's try to back up, let's try this backup that we don't have, I don't have Ian recording outside.

I'm the drones above me, follow me, but it's really cool to see that no, I'm not going anywhere, all four wheels are turning, let's see this, let's see if all four wheels are turning here. I love seeing these kinds of things. No, I'm basically stuck. between a rock in the front and the rear wheels are spinning, so let's try a different mode and see if I can get out of this thing. No, my foot is on the ground and the rear wheel is just spinning. Let's try different modes now, so. I'm going to put this in the other x mode and see if it makes a difference here.

No, I'm going to turn off mode x and see if that makes a difference, so turn off mode x. I'm going to try to do it manually. turn off the ESP and see if that makes a difference. Okay, now I think it's a little bit too tight, so let me move forward a little bit and then get out of this little rut here and then get out of it, so I think it's actually not the vehicle. It's the tires, these tires are not the best specific tires, so this one is difficult and it's a trap. I'm asking the car to do too much, so let me go back to x mode here and as soon as I do you can feel the brake.

I push down because it's activating hill descent and I can see it on the screen right there so my windows are open because I'm going to get wet here with the throttle oh man great all wheel drive system if Subaru would take some of the word prints . so let's say Ford does it with their water shipping. Now think about this, if they say water delivery up to 15 inches, they talk about the height as the clearance of eight and a half eight point seven inches, but they did talk about water delivery because the Bronco does it. that and if I said well, the water fording is 18 inches or you know, 26 inches or whatever number, it would at least give a metric to compare to something that Ford is actually going to hit with their bronco, you know they advertise that like crazy, just use the same metrics then you have some kind of comparative analysis, so look at this, I'm going through some pretty difficult terrain and I feel comfortable, there's nothing crazy or wild aboutThis, it's just that if you live in the city, I really don't think Subaru has very good steering now, how does it compare to cross track if you have a Subaru ready?

I say to the extent that this is a little bit bigger, it feels bigger, everything else is more or less the same, all the buttons are more or less the same. the interior is pretty much the same again, this has the dual version, not the single, but oh, great, great, great on the brakes in the corners, great, it just fits very well. I want to congratulate darren noren for letting us have fun. this forest because it's amazing to have a playground like this and to subaru canada for lending us this 2021 forester now if you have a vehicle that you want us to look at obviously in any way you allow us we would appreciate it so if there is a car that want us to review and that you own, contact us on Instagram accelerate tv and we will be more than happy to review it as always thanks for watching and if you like this review don't forget to subscribe oh