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2024 Subaru Outback vs. 2025 Subaru Forester
2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt
For the first time in six years, Subaru has redesigned its popular Forester SUV. The new 2025 Subaru Forester is part of the hottest segment of the automotive market – the compact crossover, known for blending utility, comfort, fuel efficiency, and relatively affordable pricing.
But unlike most automakers, Subaru has a second contender in that same niche: the 2024 Subaru Outback. Whether you call it a mid-size crossover or call it a station wagon, the Outback delivers a similar flavor to the Forester at a similar price. So which one is for you? For this review, we spent a week testing both the Outback and the Forester so we could compare them in each of eight categories, then name an overall winner. Keep reading to find out which one we picked and which one sounds like the best Subaru crossover for you.
Pricing and Features
Although the Outback is technically one size larger than the Forester, the 2024 Outback is actually slightly less expensive than the new 2025 Forester – which got a nearly $3,000 price bump as part of its new generation. To be precise, the Outback starts at $28,895 while a similarly equipped base Forester costs $29,695. Especially considering their standard all-wheel-drive systems, those are reasonable prices.
The Outback can get expensive faster. You have to pay just as much or more to get an Outback as a Forester with leather upholstery, a sunroof, and some other higher-end amenities. But the larger Subaru costs less on popular entry-level versions, and that makes it our winner for this category.
Winner: Subaru Outback
2024 Subaru Outback Touring XT ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Exterior Design
The Outback and Forester are similar in many ways, but exterior design isn’t one of them. The Outback starts with the body of a Subaru Legacy mid-size sedan, just lifted higher off the ground. It’s 8.6 inches longer than the Forester, yet it’s 2 inches lower despite the Outback’s chunkier roof rails.
The details differ, too. The Outback has a more aggressive face than the new Forester – it leans forward, has longer and pointier headlights, and has a more boldly sculpted bumper that also includes a black plastic stripe from the headlight down to the bottom. At the same time, chrome trim around the windows is an upscale touch. The Forester, meanwhile, goes about its business anonymously. The redesign brought a softer, gentler face that took few design risks, for better or for worse. And the boxy body has few adornments. We won’t name an aesthetic winner between wagon proportions and SUV proportions.
Winner: Tie
2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Interior Design
Get inside these two crossovers, and you won’t find many differences. The redesigned Forester rolls out a dashboard that’s practically a mirror image of the Outback’s, and it wraps around the same infotainment system: an 11.6-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen on most trim levels or a pair of stacked 7-inch screens on base models. And both models have similarly sturdy-feeling interior materials with solid assembly.
Subaru’s infotainment system isn’t our favorite in the industry; it looks nice enough, but some views are cluttered, the system isn’t always lightning-fast to respond to inputs, and some of the big screen is given over to climate controls that would work better as real buttons and knobs. Still, many basic controls remain simple, and the screen supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration. And it’s the same in both the Subarus. The main interior difference is a small aesthetic choice: the Forester wears textured plastic on the passenger side of its dashboard, while the Outback wraps that spot in leather. Once again, we won’t declare a winner.
Winner: Tie
2024 Subaru Outback Touring XT ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Passenger Accommodations
While their dashboards are all but identical, that doesn’t apply to the rest of the Forester’s and Outback’s interiors. The different shapes of their bodies aren’t for show; they distribute the crossovers’ near-identical passenger volumes (106.6 and 107.5 cubic feet, respectively) in different ways.
The Forester has higher seats in the front and rear, and its bigger windows and shorter nose make it easier to see out of. The Outback’s seats are lower to the floor for a more sedan-like seating position, though the crossover’s high ground clearance means it’s still easy to get in and out. The Outback has more rear legroom, but the Forester offsets that with a higher seat. Overall, we found both Subarus comfortable in their own ways, but we’ll give the edge to the Forester for its extra-easy visibility.
Winner: Subaru Forester
2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Cargo and Utility
The Outback’s longer body helps it the most when you’re carrying cargo, especially with the rear seat in use. It fits 32.6 cubic feet behind the rear seat and 75.6 cubic feet with the rear seat folded. That doesn’t beat every compact crossover, but it trumps the Forester.
The Forester has 27.5 cubic feet behind the rear seat and 69.1 cubic feet with the rear seat folded down on most trim levels. The base-model Forester, which doesn’t include a roof-lowering sunroof, has a few extra cubic feet – though they’re all up at the ceiling, and the Outback has more room anyway. The Forester’s higher roof might be useful for carrying certain bulky items, but the Outback has more room – especially on the floor, where most of us are more likely to put the space to good use. The Outback can also tow more: 2,700 pounds with its base engine and 3,500 pounds with its optional turbo. The Forester can tow a mere 1,500 pounds.
Winner: Subaru Outback
2024 Subaru Outback Touring XT ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Fuel Economy
With similar weights and similar powertrains, the 2025 Subaru Forester and 2024 Subaru Outback get nearly identical gas mileage.
Most 2025 Foresters get an EPA-estimated 26 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway, and 29 mpg combined, while Sport and Touring trim levels with bigger wheels drop by 1 mpg to 25 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 28 mpg combined. (Our Forester Sport test vehicle edged out the EPA rating to average 29 mpg in a week of mixed driving.) The Outback with a similarly powerful 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine manages 26 mpg in the city, 32 mpg on the highway, and 28 mpg combined – splitting the difference between different Forester trim levels. Subaru also sells the Outback with a more powerful turbo engine that dips to 25 mpg combined; on our turbocharged test vehicle, we averaged 24 mpg. Rather than penalize the Outback for having a larger engine option that the Forester lacks, we’ll call this category a tie.
Winner: Tie
2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt
On-Road Driving
The optional turbo engine does give the Outback an advantage on the road. For roughly $3,000 extra on upper trim levels, this 2.4-liter four-cylinder turbo makes 260 horsepower and 277 lb-ft of torque – up from the standard 2.5-liter non-turbo model’s modest 182 hp and 176 lb-ft. The bigger engine isn’t a thrill ride or an aural delight, but it gives the Outback some extra zip.
The standard Outback is only about as quick as the Forester, which uses a slightly revised version of the same engine (making 180 hp and 178 lb-ft of torque). We find it adequately quick – not dangerously slow – but no better than OK. Both crossovers ride smoothly (the Forester a bit more so). But we thought the lower, wider Outback hugged the road more confidently on curves. City drivers will welcome the Forester’s smaller footprint and slightly tighter turning circle – 35 feet versus the Outback’s 36 feet – but the Outback is our overall pick.
Winner: Subaru Outback
2024 Subaru Outback Touring XT ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Off-Road Driving
On most trim levels, the Outback and Forester have similar off-roading technology and 8.7-inch ground clearances. With its smaller footprint and shorter wheelbase, the Forester should do a bit better on a challenging off-road trail. But the Outback – for now – has an ace up its sleeve: the Wilderness model.
The Outback Wilderness amps up the Outback’s capabilities with all-terrain tires, a skid plate, a retuned suspension for better low-speed off-road driving, revised off-road-driving settings, and 9.5 inches of ground clearance. The last-generation Forester had a Wilderness trim level, too, but Subaru hasn’t introduced one for the new 2025 model. This will likely change in the next year or so. But if you’re looking for maximum capability from one of these crossovers, the Outback is the place to go today.
Winner: Subaru Outback
2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Final Thoughts
Even when the Outback cost more than the Forester, we appreciated how Subaru offered a bigger, more expensive-feeling crossover at such a modest price premium. Now that the Forester costs more than the Outback, Subaru added icing to the cake.
Some buyers will prefer the Forester’s tidier size, superior visibility, and more SUV-like shape and seating position. But we appreciate the Outback’s extra cargo room, greater towing capacity, wider model range, and tighter handling. We recommend checking out both of these similarly priced Subarus, but we think more folks will prefer the Outback once they do.
Winner: Subaru Outback
2024 Subaru Outback Touring XT ・ Photo by Brady Holt