Subaru’s superior hybrid buries the petrol-powered Forester

Why would Subaru even bother to make a petrol version of its Forester when its hybrid outperforms it on every measure? Is it just for the Luddites?

Stephen Corby

Some Subaru customers just don’t like new things. Picture: Supplied

4 min read

12:00AMJuly 03, 2025.

Updated 8:59AMJuly 03, 2025

The Weekend Australian Magazine

I have always loved technology with a nerdish intensity, and I promised myself this would not change as I aged, because I find watching old people being confused by smartphones and ATMs infuriating.

Sadly, I have reached the end of this road because I am failing to interact with a form of tech the younger me would have found irresistibly sci-fi cool: ChatGPT. I have friends as old and wizened as me who are using this constantly improving AI to provide them with detailed (and free) financial advice, and to compose important and emotionally complex emails to loved ones.

I’m confident that within two years everyone under the age of 50 will have an AI assistant that “knows” them (I’m also predicting that no one will write their own emails any more – you read it here first). Alarmingly, Australia’s eSafety regulator has reported concerns from primary school nurses that Australian children in fifth and sixth grade are spending as much as six hours a day interacting with their AI “friends”.

It might seem obvious, then, why I’m refusing to engage with AI while still staring lovingly at my smartwatch, but it’s not a form of social protest. Instead, I feel, as a writer, the way a production-line worker at a car plant must have felt when they wheeled the first robots into the factory. (Yes, I have asked ChatGPT to write a review in the style of The Great Stephen Corby, and it was alarming.)

The hybrid set-up charges itself as you drive, so there’s no need to plug it in or drive it differently in any way. It’s like an iPhone that’s old-person-proof.

This car offers more than 1000km of range from a single tank of fuel. Picture: Supplied

Yet this does not mean I have any sympathy for the kind of person who would ignore the obvious superiority of the hybrid version of Subaru’s new Forester and insist on buying the plain petrol-powered one because they simply don’t want to interact with new technologies (these people will also complain to the dealer about why the car doesn’t have a CD player any more). Having driven and learned about the new hybrid variant I simply couldn’t understand why Subaru was offering the plain old petrol one at all, but it was explained to me that many customers don’t even want to know how good the hybrid technology is, because they just don’t like new things.

In other words, some customers don’t want a Forester that basically feels and sounds like a petrol one (OK, it’s sometimes much quieter because it’s running in pure EV mode), yet has more power and torque, and is more capable off-road in its X-Mode because it can use its electric motor for more grunt. And they don’t want the version that will offer more than 1000km of range from a single tank of fuel, at a fuel-economy figure of 6.2 litres per 100km, versus 7.9L/100km for the old-tech Forester.

It’s not like they have to learn anything new, either, because the hybrid set-up charges itself as you drive, so there’s no need to plug it in or drive it differently in any way. It’s like an iPhone that’s old-person-proof.

So, will the newer technology cost more? Yes, of course – but not as much as you think. Picture: Supplied

I do like the way it drives and handles. Picture: Supplied

The new car combines a version of Subaru’s 2.5-litre engine with a 90kW electric motor (borrowed from Toyota) and a 1.1kWh battery for a combined output of 145kW.

While it might be the first Subaru in decades that’s actually nice to look at (previous Foresters, in particular, looked like they were designed to accommodate a family of hunchbacks) and is blessed with steering sourced from the brand’s fabulous Subaru WRX, I still don’t entirely love it. That’s because the gearbox is one of the brand’s accursed CVTs (Constantly Variable Transmissions), which means it tends to drone on like the kind of blue-rinsed old person who won’t eat food that’s been microwaved.

While you can put the Forester Hybrid in Sport mode, which makes things better, there’s still a weird disconnect between what you’re asking the engine to do and the revving sounds it’s making. For me, an artiste of the accelerator, this is like a piano virtuoso being asked to master an instrument where the keys have been cruelly and randomly shifted around.

That aside, I do like the way it drives and handles. I also love the seating position – because it’s down there rather than up in the air – and the fact that the vehicle feels more like a station wagon than a lumbering SUV, while still being capable enough to perform the kind of off-road mud-plugging that’ll satisfy 98 per cent of four-wheel-drive dabblers. I tried this for fully 10 minutes, and didn’t even get bored.

So, will the newer technology cost more? Yes, of course, but unfortunately prices on the new Forester are up across the range, with the entry-level petrol now $43,490 (up $4800) and the bottom-spec Forester AWD Hybrid $46,490.

Frankly, I still think that’s a bit of a bargain in a world where fairly basic EVs – none of which can go 1000km – now cost $60K plus. But of course, the people who won’t buy a Subaru Hybrid are surely not looking at EVs anyway.