Subaru Forester Real World Highway MPG Test

What is the fuel economy of a Subaru Forester? How many miles per gallon does a Subaru Forester Premium get on the highway? Does a 2022 Subaru Forester actually get its EPA MPG? Tonight we find out with this real world gas mileage test!

To see my full review video on this Subaru Forester Premium, click here:

To see my POV test drive video on this Subaru Forester Premium, click here:

If you own a Subaru with Eyesight and would like to see a video showing how to use the Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Centering, click here:

[CarDietrich]

If you own a Subaru Forester, what MPG are you seeing out of your car?

[sansfinchy]

I picked up a 2022 Forester Premium in October and am enjoying the fuel savings. I miss my 4runner but with each fill up I miss it less.

[CRVgarage]

Just watched your CRV fwd mpg review & immediately searched for this Forester video. I'm glad I ordered the Subaru because its only 1mpg less & still gives me AWD. Very happy & thanks a ton.

[toronado]

At 65 MPH you might have matched the EPA rating. Seems like a good test.

[jamessimonds]

We bought a new premium trim Forester in 2020. We also bought anew base trim impreza 5 door in 2018. And we bought a new premium trim Impreza in 2022. And all 3 get virtually the same mpg.

[dlg]

I always calculate my mileage manually and the vehicle's lie-o-meter is ALWAYS optimistic by about 2 mpg in every vehicle I've owned. That said, 32.3 mpg is great for 70 mph.

[jp]

I find it's impossible to fill/refill to exactly the same point. Driving 400-500 miles will largely wipe out that error, or just run the test in a running average over 3 tanks of gas. Being 1-2 mpg high is really common for the internal MPG meter. Some say there internal MPG meter is always 10-15% high which is pure BS. They can do better than that. I specifically asked Toyota and Subaru how they calculate MPG, and both said it's the number of injector pulses (a precise volume) and travelled mileage. However they said it's also variable due to the temperature of the gas because a "gallon is only a gallon at the standard temperature". So at cold temps, the internal MPG meter is always low.

[SyrupCanuck]

Hope you can do the same for the wilderness version but my guess it would get 30mpg

[Eden]

I love my Subaru Forester 2021 but I am disappointed to find out that mine is getting 23.9 miles per gallon on the freeway. I took it to the dealer and they said that's about right because what they advertised it is in ideal conditions, and no car will give you that. The mpg advertised are all lies for all cars. The summer blend of gas lowers the mpg s even more. The service department show me to reset the trips and now the mpg s are going all over the place from 5 to 70. It's too bad that gasoline in Los Angeles CA is almost $7 per gallon and nobody is complaining. If it was the 1960s or 1970s with the gas prices and inflation hitting 9%, there would have been a revolution already.

[FlowJunkie]

Interesting MPG experiment -- thanks for doing this. But, I wonder if car manufacturers estiimate their highway MPG at 70 MPH or at a more modest MPH like 65 or 60 MPH? I've never heard/read any car manufacturer specify how fast they drobr when they calculated their highway MPG.

[toronado]

2:17 "downhill on the way up" 🤔😊

[VipulDK]

After so many rave reviews from the current Subaru owners and the internet, I decided to finally switch from Toyotas and Hondas. I got my first Forester Limited 2022 model this year.

Good:
I love the way it drives - smoother than any cars I previously owned.
The interior is spacious and the windows/views outside are great.

Bad:
MPG - gas mileage is bad.

I have usually gotten 3-5 miles more than claimed on any cars I have driven. I would like to think I drive efficiently (not pressing the accelerator when not needed, using cruise control where I can, staying around 70 mph on highways, ensuring proper air pressure in tires, etc.).

Forester is a HUGE disappointment when it comes to MPG. I get ~22-23 in the city, ~30-31 on highways and ~26 mixed. (For comparison, in my Honda CR-V those numbers would be ~32, 38 and 34.) I did know that Forester is CVT and not modern but these numbers are pathetic. In fact, I have not driven a car in the last 25+ years that gives such a poor MPG. With gas prices being so high, this gets expensive. Every time I fill up gas, I get about the same total mileage as in CR-V but for ~4 gallons more on the Forestor! I thought I would get at least what they mention on the sticker but it's not even there. I have driven ~1600 miles now and every single time it fell short on what they claim on the sticker.

Subaru needs to invest on modernizing their engines and come up with fuel-efficient cars. If not, change their MPG claim from city 26, highway 33, mixed 29 to 23-30-26 MPG so buyers are not misled.

[davidforrester]

My 2021 forester gets 19.7 around town only, 15, 700 mileage on car

[shedder]

Im only getting 26mpg with my 2023 forester sport. The computer says 29mpg. My 2019 crosstrek got real 32mpg no matter how i drove it. Not happy with it.

[markhamer]

Thanks for taking the time and money to do this.

I wouldn’t be disappointed at doing close to the EPA mpg when you were driving at a much higher maximum and average speed.

Anyway, what would be more useful would be a fuel consumption curve by also testing at maximums of 50mph and 60mph on the same route. 80mph would also be useful but probably not feasible where you tested.

I guess that you keep the distance high so as to average out some sources of variability e.g the volume of fuel used will be much larger than the differences due to imprecise fuel refill levels - of course you could have filled to visual confirmation at some level before overflow except that overfilling is an unsafe practice.

I can understand the interest in real world fuel economy tests and comparing them with the manufacturers sticker. People are either pleased or aggrieved about their mpg and like to see their position confirmed. Except that “real world” tests are not capable of proving that the EPA mandated test results are correct or not because such “real world” tests generally don’t even bother to be easily reproducible by controlling conditions. Nor do they come close to matching the precise speed variations in the EPA tests.

Looking at the actual EPA Highway test there could be several differences in your controls. So I’ve included the easier to control variables below. In your case they’d be expected to increase fuel consumption by more than the difference you found:

Engine startup: EPA warm for max efficiency vs yours unknown. Possibly close to warm as drove to fill up.

Highway speed: EPA max 60mph avg 48.3 vs your max 70 avg say 65 or 60 if compensating for speedo overestimate. So using more fuel, say 20% engine efficiency with 50% of that used for higher air resistance would be 15% higher fuel consumption e.g. 33 mpg would reduce to 29mpg.
I can check that the average speed is about right because odometer at 9.23pm reads 62 miles. Somewhere after 11.03pm and before 11.22 184.3 miles is competed. If refill and pay takes 5 minutes then 122.3miles travelled in 1h54min at about 64mph.

Max acceleration: EPA 3.2mph/s vs yours unknown. So probably about same on default cruise control.

Temperature: EPA 68-86F avg 78 vs yours about 65 at start. So out of range but with minimal impact on fuel consumption.

Air conditioning: EPA off vs yours unknown but internal temp is set to 68 so probably on. If on would use more fuel.

Vehicle heater: EPA off vs yours unknown. If on could use more fuel

[RR-vfbd]

How is driving impressions. Do you feel getting tired after one hour driving?

[Larry-Hi]

Any Forester owners having issues with oil burning issues requiring to top oil levels every 1000 miles or so? Thanks. Thinking of purchasing the '22 Limited soon.

[abbas]

My friend you are fighting a losing battle when trying to get better fuel economy any where in North America and it's mainly because of you Gasoline quality. Here in the UK/Europe our fuel back in the late 1990's the oil companies were told to remove many of the pollutants and compounds that remained in the gasoline after refining process, the result, better fuel economy, lower emissions and extended oil change intervals as a result of less contaminants in the blow by gases deteriorating the oil. Oil changes here are 8000 to 12000 mile intervals. You guys are getting screwed.

[welshman]

Hi I have watched a few MPG in the UK, and most seem to be around what you recorded, Being a 4-wheel drive what about Tyre ware, Our country roads in the UK are in a shocking state, what's it like in the US country roads, I have not seen any video covering this subject, Seeing that the Forester has the ability to go off-roading, I think this should be considered on general Country terms, Thanks for the video just proves most are on the same lines. Regards welshman2081

[MrArmaan]

Mine 2010 Subaru Forester gives 12.2 km/100L