Name: BEST CHOICE?? -- 2025 Subaru Forester vs. 2025 Honda CR-V: Comparison
Uploaded: 2025-05-02T06:10:52.000Z
Duration: 19 min 48 s
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We live in an automotive world dominated by compact SUVs, and one of the biggest names is the Honda CR-V.

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However, there's another competitor that gained sales traction each year, the Subaru Forester.

It's been gradually eating into the big competitor's market share, and for 2025 it was completely redesigned.

But, does it deserve this extra attention over the also-recently-redesigned Honda CR-V?

So first off, let's discuss pricing for these two family SUVs.

Starting with the popular CR-V, we have the fully-loaded Sport Touring trim level.

Honda doesn't really offer any options, so with Destination and Paint, it comes in at a touch over $42,000.

Moving to the all-new Subie, its top trim is also called Touring, and similarly, it comes with everything standard.

After Destination, its grand total is around $700 less than the CR-V.

By the way, if you want to get the best price from local dealerships and access to invoice pricing information for these two models or any vehicle, we have a tool on our website to do just that.

It's a great resource for car shopping, so make sure to check the link in the description for more information.

Now, if you're new to our comparisons, we do them in an objective way.

We've done our best to weigh the points awarded throughout in major and minor categories, and towards the end of it, we will also discuss reliability and resale value information.

Starting with the exteriors, you'll see that both of these crossovers have premium appearances in their top trims.

For the all-new Subaru, they stretched the grille out this year to increase the aggressiveness, and both models finished their front ends in gloss black.

We don't award points based on design preferences, but for lighting, we do have some differences.

Both come with LED lighting on all trims, but only the Subaru has projector beam LEDs instead of reflector ones.

Plus, it also has adaptive bending abilities.

And furthermore, it's the only one that has LED fog lamps as well.

Continuing to the sides, the Forester gains about an inch of overall length compared to the previous generation, but it isn't still quite as long as the CR-V.

Let that be a hint regarding interior space later on.

But for now, you'll find large 19-inch alloys on both the Forester and CR-V, and neither model offers color contrast roof options.

You may have your own opinion regarding the designs, but as far as the features, you'll find the same set with partially LED taillights, exposed exhaust outlets, and rear wipers.

If you're looking to tow, the Forester will be the better choice, coming in at 1,500 pounds of capacity versus the CR-V's 1,000 pounds.

Now moving on to some individual features, you'll find nice gloss black mirrors on both.

They have heating, blind spot monitoring, and LED turn signals.

But family SUVs need to be safe, and one of the really nice things about these two is that all four of your major active safety systems are included as standard equipment on all trims.

Their warranties are also mostly the same as well, besides for Honda giving you one year of complimentary maintenance.

It's been a tight race so far, and now it's time to compare the interiors.

But first, if you're new here, we're brothers, and we've been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16.

And we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our CarConfections family.

Let's learn a lot, have some fun, with all the latest cars.

Approaching both SUVs, they have smart entry systems with premium key fobs.

Remote start is available on both, but only the Honda is including it on the key fob, free for life.

Both have sensors behind the door handles to unlock.

And after opening up the doors, you're going to see spacious and surprisingly nice cabins in their high-end trim levels.

Before we dig into the features, let's start with the seats.

Honda gets a real black leather seat for the Sport Touring trim, and the Forester also gets a real leather seat with Alcantara suede accents.

For seat adjustability, both come in the same, with 10-way power adjustment and 2-way lumbar support.

However, it's the Subie that has the advantage with seat climate, as it now includes seat ventilation for 2025.

Unfortunately, that's something the CR-V can't get on any trim level, but both of them do still include memory seat abilities.

Now, once inside the cabins, let's check out the major point category of material quality.

In this regard, both have very solid cabins for this segment, with nice materials.

They aren't the most premium for this segment, but overall feel is high quality, substantial, and not different enough from one another to award a point.

After startup, you'll see a pretty big difference.

Despite being all-new, Subaru still has the traditional gauge cluster design, with a 4.2-inch display in the middle.

The CR-V doesn't have a full digital display either, but it is including a larger 7-inch half-digital display, with more customizability.

Neither of them have the option of a head-up display.

And moving back, they both have heated, leather-wrapped steering wheels, along with rain-sensing wipers.

Now it's time to evaluate another major interior section, storage.

This is a big deal for many families, and in this regard, the CR-V pulls away with the lead.

When conducting our Signature Car Donut volume test, the CR-V holds over double the volume, 20 donuts compared to 9 in the new Forester.

It also has a larger storage area in front of the shifter, in addition to both of them having wireless phone charging pads.

Honda almost always has incredible storage solutions, and the CR-V is no exception, beating the still-good Forester.

Surprisingly, both still have traditional shifters, and when in reverse, you'll see a new feature for the Forester this year.

That would be a 360-degree camera system, which is something Honda has still not added to any version of the CR-V.

For climate, both have dual-zone automatic setups, with physical buttons for the main temperature adjustment.

But if you need to mess around with any of the extra controls in the Forester, the interface can be laggy when you first turn on the vehicle.

And for audio, both have their respective upgraded audio systems.

That means the Honda has a Bose, and the Subaru a Harman Kardon sound system.

Both have good audio quality that buyers in this segment will appreciate.

However, they aren't different enough to score a point.

What is worth scoring a point, though, is your in-car technology.

Both are good, but in the CR-V, we have a 9-inch display for the top trim.

And not to be outdone, the all-new Forester adopts a large 11.7-inch display from other products.

That's a whopping 26% more screen real estate.

And as far as functionality, both have integrated navigation systems with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

As we wrap up the front of the cabins, both have auto-dimming mirrors.

However, Honda has removed the HomeLink ability unless you pay an extra $250 to add it back.

And it also does not include the rear camera system that you get on the Forester Touring.

Lastly, both have sunroofs to let air in, but it's the Forester with the panoramic-style setup that's about twice as large as the CR-V's standard size.

But compact SUVs are made for American families, so how are the back seats?

Well, both are going to have impressive amounts of space.

As a matter of fact, some of the best space you can get in the entire segment.

The CR-V has about 3% more back legroom, and the Forester about 3% more headroom.

Both of these aren't quite at the 5% threshold required to score a point.

Now that that's out of the way, they also have quite a few features.

Both give you two USB ports and rear vents, but only the Forester Touring has heated rear seats, again something unavailable on the CR-V.

However, CR-V fights back with special 8-position reclining seats.

While Forester does also have a reclining function, it doesn't go back nearly as far as the CR-V, which makes it less comfortable to take a long nap.

Now let's see how much stuff you can bring along with you for the journey.

Both have power tailgates with hands-free ability, and once they open up, you'll find a large 35% advantage in the CR-V behind the second row of seats.

That advantage lessens with the seats folded down, but the Space King CR-V still can't be beaten with a 10% advantage as the maximum.

Only the Forester has a spare tire, and it's also the Subaru that includes premium switches to easily fold the 60-40 split folding seats.

But there are a number of differences when it comes to the driving experience, so let's go ahead and dive into that.

As I just said, the experience behind the wheel is very different between these two.

The all-new Forester has a traditional 2.5L Boxer 4 for 2025, but half of the CR-V trims, including the Sport Hybrid, are hybrid exclusive.

While the Forester will have a hybrid eventually, at the time of this video, we have no estimated on-sale date or detailed information about it.

That means as far as performance in real life, the CR-V is significantly quicker when accelerating because of its additional 24hp and 69lb-ft of torque.

Alright, there was a 60mph acceleration with the CR-V Hybrid.

Now of course, as we discussed on the outside, this is the hybrid variant.

More than half of the trim levels are going to be hybrid exclusive with this new generation, and honestly, that's a good thing.

You get a lot of benefits by going for the hybrid model.

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BEST CHOICE?? -- 2025 Subaru Forester vs. 2025 Honda CR-V: Comparison

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