We’re back! This past weekend we took a four-day trip to Bruce Peninsula National Park. Budds’ Subaru was gracious enough to lend us the Forester Shuttle for our trip, and we had a stellar time testing out the capabilities! The space was one of the major reasons why I was so excited to test it out this weekend, so I figured I’d start with some feedback on that.
Forester: Largest Subaru SUV
Neither myself, or my boyfriend are particularly ‘minimal’ people. AKA, we bring a lot of crap. My daily driver is a 2010 Civic, which we had taken last year on our camping trip to Chutes Provincial Park. Let me tell you, THAT was a struggle. After packing, I’m pretty sure we lost about 3 inches of ground clearance, and the thing only has 5.8 inches to begin with. The Forester however, boasts an 8.7’’ of clearance – the largest of the Subaru SUV’s. Even with the extra weight, we didn’t notice any loss of clearance. And we packed a lot.
We’ve got a few pictures, but below is a list of EVERYTHING we put in the car for our trip.
Everything We Packed:
- Two, 4-6 person tents
- Three sleeping bags
- One king sized comforter (it was 5 degrees at night)
- Four pillows (What can I say, I’m a princess)
- One throw blanket
- Two regular sized coolers
- Queen size air mattress
- 30×30 tarp
- Portable folding BBQ
- Three camp chairs
- Beach umbrella
- Two regular sized duffel bags
- Beach tote
- Hiking backpack
- Photography bag
40/60 Split Fold
There’s probably more that I’m forgetting – but we STILL had room. If you want some stats, the 2018 Forester has 1940L of space available with the seats folded down, and 892L with the seats folded up. While the seats have a 40/60 split fold, we folded both down to give us maximum space for our trip. We did however take out the cargo cover, as with the larger items it didn’t quite make sense. But if you’re a better packer than we are, it would probably help keep the coolers out of the sun, and valuables out of view.
Lots Of Leg Room
As for leg room, I’d consider myself on the leggier side at 5’9’’, but I fit comfortably in both the driver and front passenger seat. We didn’t have to compromise on comfort at all, even with all of our gear. The steering wheel is telescopic and fully adjustable, so my boyfriend and I had no trouble switching the height when we swapped seats.
Overall, we had no space issues with the Forester on our trip – and could probably even fit more. Then again, we could probably benefit from some downsizing tips…
Click here for a complete overview of the Forester. Better yet, take it for a test drive today!