Subaru Forester (2013-2019) review - Reliability and Safety

The Forester has a reputation for being thoroughly engineered, well built and extremely reliable. A lot of the technology is already well proven, and the engines are carried over or adapted from other models already on sale.

This is reflected in the Forester's brilliant 8th place finish in our Driver Power 2016 satisfaction survey. It finished sixth for reliability and eighth for build quality, though running costs and in-car tech were both blots on the otherwise exemplary score sheet. The brand scored an decent 10th place overall, up two places on 2015.

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All Foresters have a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, while the excellent visibility afforded by the high driving position and superb grip from the four-wheel-drive system, should help you stay out of trouble in the first place.

For the record though, the Euro NCAP test scores were 91 percent for both Adult and Child Occupant safety, while Pedestrian Safety scored 73 percent and the Safety Assist technology score was 86 percent – not bad for a car tested back in 2012.

Included in the standard Forester spec are electronic stability control and an impressive tally of eight airbags, including knee bags for the driver and front seat passenger. However, you can’t add the autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control systems that recently debuted on the new Outback, which is a pity.

Warranty

The Subaru Forester is well served on the warranty front, coming with the brand’s standard five-year/100,000 mile cover. That’s the same cover as Toyota, and not far off the warranty leaders Hyundai and Kia.

Servicing

With no fixed pricing plan for servicing supported by the manufacturer, the Forester’s servicing cost will be set by local dealer rates. Service intervals are set at 12,000 miles.