Old Subaru Forester Wilderness Soldiers on for the 2025 Model Year, Starts at $34,995

Seven months later, Subaru of America has finally detailed the new Forester, which is exactly like the 2024 model. The only change from last year is the starting price, with Subaru asking $34,995 versus $34,920 before destination charge and optional extras. Delivery adds $1,420 to the final price, whereas the only extra worthy of your attention brings forth a nicer infotainment system, audio system, and a power liftgate.

$2,000 gets you the Subaru Starlink 8.0-inch Multimedia Navigation System, a nine-speaker Harman Kardon system boasting a 576-watt equivalent amplifier, plus the aforementioned power liftgate. Coming to a dealership near you in early 2025, the 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness obviously comes with all-wheel drive and a raised suspension.

Subaru claims 9.2 inches of ground clearance, with the new-gen Forester topping 8.7 inches. In metric talk, make that 233.7 and 221.0 millimeters, respectively. In other words, the redesigned Forester has the very same ground clearance as the previous generation. That's hardly a surprise, but Subaru did work its magic on the platform, improving torsional rigidity by 10 percent for model year 2025.

Turning our attention back to the Wilderness, the longer coil springs and shock absorbers are joined by all-terrain rubber from Yokohama. Mounted on 17-inch alloys finished in matte black, the Geolandar tires are joined by a full-size spare located underneath the cargo area.

As expected of a jacked-up crossover that isn't afraid of venturing off the beaten path, Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard. In this application, which is active torque-split AWD, the system distributes torque 60:40 fore and aft in regular driving conditions.

Dual X-MODE is also standard, along with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters and eight virtualized gears for the continuously variable transmission. Hill Descent Control, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, and Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist are – yet again – standard. Equipped with a 60/40 split-folding rear seat, the Wilderness can swallow up to 69.1 cubic feet (1,957 liters) of cargo.

Customers who are not fond of the standard 6.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system don't have a choice but to spend two grand on the package that includes 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment. Under the hood, the only powertrain available is a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-pot boxer with 182 hp on tap.

Those 182 horses are joined by 176 pound-feet (nearly 240 Newton-meters) of twist, which is a bit underwhelming for this kind of vehicle. Furthermore, you need 4,400 revolutions per minute for the boxer to generate peak torque. On the other hand, the Forester is doing perfectly fine as far as delivery figures are concerned. In the first nine months of 2024, the Japanese automaker moved 130,098 units, up 22.3 percent from the 106,345 sold in the first months of 2023.