Compare the2023 Subaru ForesterVS 2022 Honda CR-V

Safety
Reliability
Engine
Fuel Economy and Range
Environmental Friendliness
Brakes and Stopping
Tires and Wheels
Suspension and Handling
Passenger Space
Towing
Servicing Ease
Ergonomics
Economic Advantages
Recommendations

Safety

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For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Subaru Forester have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Honda CR-V doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Forester are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The CR-V doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

The Subaru Forester has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The CR-V doesn’t offer knee airbags.

The Forester has standard Whiplash-Reducing Front Seats, which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Whiplash-Reducing Front Seats system allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The CR-V doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.

Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Forester (except Base/Premium) offers optional Reverse Automatic Braking that use rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. The CR-V doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.

To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the Forester. But it costs extra on the CR-V.

The Forester Premium/Sport/Wilderness/Limited/Touring has standard STARLINK Connected Services, which uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a cellular system to remotely unlock your doors if you lock your keys in, help track down your vehicle if it’s stolen or send emergency personnel to the scene if any airbags deploy. The CR-V doesn’t offer a GPS response system, only a navigation computer with no live response for emergencies, so if you’re involved in an accident and you’re incapacitated help may not come as quickly.

Both the Forester and the CR-V have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available blind spot warning systems, rear parking sensors, rear cross-path warning and driver alert monitors.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Subaru Forester is safer than the Honda CR-V:

	Forester	CR-V
	Driver
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Neck Injury Risk	23%	27%
Neck Compression	22 lbs.	70 lbs.
	Passenger
STARS	5 Stars	4 Stars
HIC	293	309
Neck Injury Risk	31%	37%
Leg Forces (l/r)	105/93 lbs.	276/243 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Subaru Forester is safer than the Honda CR-V:

	Forester	CR-V
	Front Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
HIC	66	71
Chest Movement	.6 inches	.6 inches
Abdominal Force	122 lbs.	142 lbs.
	Into Pole
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
HIC	121	386

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Subaru Forester is safer than the CR-V:

	Forester	CR-V
Overall Evaluation	ACCEPTABLE	ACCEPTABLE
Structure	ACCEPTABLE	ACCEPTABLE
	Driver Injury Measures
Head/Neck	GOOD	GOOD
Head Injury Criterion	107	151
Neck Tension	223 lbs.	290 lbs.
Pelvis	ACCEPTABLE	ACCEPTABLE
Head Protection	GOOD	GOOD
	Passenger Injury Measures
Head/Neck	GOOD	GOOD
Torso	GOOD	MARGINAL
Torso Max Deflection	1.26 in	1.69 in
Torso Deflection Rate	8 MPH	11 MPH
Pelvis	GOOD	ACCEPTABLE
Pelvis Force	625 lbs.	1004 lbs.

For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, and daytime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Forester the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2023, a rating granted to only 53 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The CR-V last would have qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2022.

Reliability

To reliably start during all conditions and help handle large electrical loads, the Forester has a standard 620-amp battery. The CR-V’s 410-amp battery isn’t as powerful.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2022 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that Subaru vehicles are more reliable than Honda With 4 fewer problems per 100 vehicles in the first three years of ownership, J.D. Power ranks Subaru higher than Honda.

Engine

As tested in Motor Trend the Subaru Forester is faster than the Honda CR-V:

	Forester	CR-V
Zero to 60 MPH	8.3 sec	8.6 sec
Zero to 80 MPH	14.1 sec	14.7 sec
Passing 45 to 65 MPH	4.1 sec	4.4 sec
Quarter Mile	16.5 sec	16.7 sec
Speed in 1/4 Mile	86.2 MPH	84.9 MPH

The flat cylinder configuration of the boxer engine in the Forester lowers its center of gravity, enhancing handling stability without compromising ground clearance. The CR-V doesn’t offer a boxer engine configuration.

Fuel Economy and Range

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Subaru Forester uses regular unleaded gasoline. The CR-V requires premium for maximum efficiency, which can cost 20 to 55 cents more per gallon.

The Forester has 2.6 gallons more fuel capacity than the CR-V (16.6 vs. 14 gallons), for longer range between fill-ups.

Environmental Friendliness

In its Green Vehicle Guide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the Subaru Forester higher (7 out of 10) than the Honda CR-V (6). This means the Forester produces up to 1.1 pounds less smog-producing pollutants than the CR-V every 15,000 miles.

Brakes and Stopping

The Forester stops shorter than the CR-V:

	Forester	CR-V
60 to 0 MPH	117 feet	119 feet	Motor Trend

Tires and Wheels

The Forester’s standard tires provide better handling because they have a lower 60 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the CR-V LX/SE’s standard 65 series tires.

The Forester Wilderness has a standard full size spare tire so a flat doesn’t interrupt your trip. A full size spare isn’t available on the CR-V; it requires you to depend on a temporary spare, which limits mileage and speed before replacement.

Suspension and Handling

The Forester Touring handles at .83 G’s, while the CR-V Touring pulls only .82 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The Forester Limited executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver 1 seconds quicker than the CR-V Touring (27.3 seconds @ .63 average G’s vs. 28.3 seconds @ .6 average G’s).

For better maneuverability, the Forester’s turning circle is 2 feet tighter than the CR-V’s (35.4 feet vs. 37.4 feet).

Passenger Space

The Forester has 5.7 cubic feet more passenger volume than the CR-V (111.6 vs. 105.9).

The Forester has 1.1 inches more front headroom, 2 inches more front legroom, .2 inches more front shoulder room, .4 inches more rear headroom, 4.1 inches more rear hip room and 1.6 inches more rear shoulder room than the CR-V.

The front step up height for the Forester is 3.5 inches lower than the CR-V (15.5” vs. 19”). The Forester’s rear step up height is .8 inches lower than the CR-V’s (17.25” vs. 18”).

Towing

Maximum trailer towing in the Honda CR-V is limited to 1500 pounds. The Forester offers up to a 3000 lbs. towing capacity.

Standard Trailer Stability Assist on the Forester uses the Vehicle Dynamics Control sensors to detect trailer sway, then uses individual brakes to counteract any swaying and help keep the tow vehicle and trailer steady. The CR-V doesn’t offer electronic trailer sway control.

Servicing Ease

The engine in the Forester is mounted longitudinally (North-South), instead of sideways, as in the CR-V. This makes it easier to service and maintain, because the accessory belts are in front.

Ergonomics

In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Forester Premium/Sport/Wilderness/Limited/Touring’s exterior PIN entry system. The CR-V doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system.

The Forester’s variable intermittent wipers have an adjustable delay to allow the driver to choose a setting that best clears the windshield during light rain or mist. The CR-V LX’s standard fixed intermittent wipers only have one fixed delay setting, so the driver will have to manually switch them between slow and intermittent.

The Forester’s LED headlights produce a whiter, brighter light (up to 3x) using five times less power than the CR-V’s standard halogen headlights. LED lights also light instantly and last over twenty times longer than halogen.

To help drivers see further while navigating curves, the Forester has standard adaptive headlights to illuminate around corners automatically by reading vehicle speed and steering wheel angle. The CR-V doesn’t offer cornering lights.

When the Forester Touring is put in reverse, the passenger rearview mirror tilts from its original position. This gives the driver a better view of the curb during parallel parking maneuvers. Shifting out of reverse puts the mirror into its original position. The CR-V’s mirror doesn’t automatically adjust for backing.

The Forester’s optional rear and side view mirrors have an automatic dimming feature. These mirrors can be set to automatically darken quickly when headlights shine on them, keeping following vehicles from blinding or distracting the driver. The CR-V offers an automatic rear view mirror, but its side mirrors don’t dim.

Both the Forester and the CR-V offer available heated front seats. The Forester Touring also has standard heated rear seats to keep those passengers extremely comfortable in the winter. Heated rear seats aren’t available in the CR-V.

Economic Advantages

Insurance will cost less for the Forester owner. The Car Book by Jack Gillis rates the Forester with a number “1” insurance rate while the CR-V is rated higher at a number “10” rate.

According to The Car Book by Jack Gillis, the Forester is less expensive to operate than the CR-V because typical repairs cost much less on the Forester than the CR-V, including $3 less for a muffler, $16 less for a starter, $37 less for a fuel pump and $270 less for a power steering pump.

Recommendations

Both are recommended, but Consumer Reports® chose the Subaru Forester as its “Top Pick,” the highest scoring vehicle in its category, based on reliability, safety and performance.