Our review of the 2023 Subaru Forester is coming soon. You can get a quick quote for a 2022 Subaru Forester if you're interested in purchasing one.
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Price: We expect the 2023 Subaru Forester to have a starting price of approximately $25,000.
The 2023 Subaru Forester continues to offer strong value, standard all-wheel drive, and a roomy cabin for passengers. It doesn’t hurt matters that the 2023 Forester also serves up a roomy cargo area, an impressive suite of standard active safety features, plus excellent outward visibility thanks to the upright seating position and large windows.
After all, what good is having a family-friendly SUV that’s loaded with safety tech if you can’t actually see to the front, sides, and rear of the vehicle?
Fresh from a redesign for the 2022 model year, we expect the 2023 Forester to remain relatively unchanged except for minor trim changes, or new choices of exterior color or wheel designs. With competition that includes the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen Tiguan, Kia Sportage, and Hyundai Tucson, Subaru is keeping the Forester fresh and in top fighting form.
With this in mind, it’s not out of the question that Subaru might surprise us with an engine upgrade for the 2023 model year. Expect the base powertrain to continue to be a 182-horsepower 4-cylinder coupled with all-wheel drive [AWD] and a continuously variable automatic transmission [CVT]. This powertrain is fine for everyday driving, and pretty good when it comes to fuel economy, too.
But previous iterations of the Forester have offered a more potent turbo 4-cylinder, which gave this agile SUV added straight-line verve. While a turbo has remained absent from the option sheet since this generation Forester appeared as a 2019 model, we have our fingers crossed that Subaru might add one at some point. Another possibility is some degree of electrification, with a hybrid or plug-in hybrid variant noticeably missing from the Forester range.
If you want some added visual toughness in your Subaru, the Wilderness trim was added last year and brings along extra ride height, all-terrain tries, chunky-looking black plastic body trim, a 180-degree front-view monitor, and driver-selectable modes for traversing mud and snow. The CVT used in the Wilderness is also tuned to cope with more extreme off-road driving.
The Forester Wilderness also comes with StarTex, which uses recycled materials to create a waterproof and animal-friendly alternative to leather seats. It adds a feel-good factor to a trim meant to be more in tune with nature.
Safety features are ample, thanks to the standard fitment of Subaru EyeSight, a suite of driver assistance systems like automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane-keeping assistance, and adaptive cruise control with lane centering.
2023 Subaru Forester Pricing
We expect the 2023 Subaru Forester will have an asking price of approximately $25,000 once it starts rolling onto dealership lots.
Every trim comes standard with all-wheel drive, a feature that often costs $1,000 to $2,500 extra on many rival compact SUVs.
The rugged Forester Wilderness is expected to have a price that hovers around $33,000, while the Touring trim rounds out the upper reaches of this Subaru SUV with an entry fee of about $36,000.
Keep in mind, the Subaru Forester has a great track record for value, as proven by its multiple victories in our annual 5-Year Cost to Own award for compact crossovers. Superb resale value is another bonus to owning this Subaru.
KBB Vehicle Review and Rating Methodology
Our Expert Ratings come from hours of both driving and number crunching to make sure that you choose the best car for you. We comprehensively experience and analyze every new SUV, car, truck, or minivan for sale in the U.S. and compare it to its competitors. When all that dust settles, we have our ratings.
We require new ratings every time an all-new vehicle or a new generation of an existing vehicle comes out. Additionally, we reassess those ratings when a new-generation vehicle receives a mid-cycle refresh — basically, sprucing up a car in the middle of its product cycle [typically, around the 2-3 years mark] with a minor facelift, often with updates to features and technology.
Rather than pulling random numbers out of the air or off some meaningless checklist, KBB’s editors rank a vehicle to where it belongs in its class. Before any car earns its KBB rating, it must prove itself to be better [or worse] than the other cars it’s competing against as it tries to get you to spend your money buying or leasing.
Our editors drive and live with a given vehicle. We ask all the right questions about the interior, the exterior, the engine and powertrain, the ride and handling, the features, the comfort, and of course, about the price. Does it serve the purpose for which it was built? [Whether that purpose is commuting efficiently to and from work in the city, keeping your family safe, making you feel like you’ve made it to the top — or that you’re on your way — or making you feel like you’ve finally found just the right partner for your lifestyle.]
We take each vehicle we test through the mundane — parking, lane-changing, backing up, cargo space and loading — as well as the essential — acceleration, braking, handling, interior quiet and comfort, build quality, materials quality, reliability.
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