It had to be blue. It’s almost like Subaru knew that was my favorite color, and when I first noticed the 2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness in my driveway, I basically fell in love.
Not only is this the first Wilderness version in the new Forester body style, but it has the look of a vehicle I’d like to drive up into the foothills where I live and just camp out (maybe in the vehicle itself) for a few days and then hit the mud and snow.
I usually cover one main tech innovation in my car reviews, but the Forester Wilderness has too many off-roading perks to ignore so I’m going to cover what I liked best about those features.
For starters, this is a tall vehicle. The ground clearance is 9.3 inches so it looks noticeably more stout and nimble for driving over snowbanks. And that is exactly what I did with the Wilderness, even if they were just at the end of my driveway. No problems or concerns there, and the fact that you also look cool with all of the accents and accoutrements on this trim level makes it even more fun. I like the look of this Forester more than any others.
I also definitely noticed the new roll and pitch meter in the dash, so I am already drifting (no pun intended) back into the tech that is available. If you do drive over a snowbank, you can see the incline easily and avoid going at too much of an angle.
I’ve mentioned in other reviews how I have a newfound passion for some slower-paced driving simulators like Snowrunner, the kind where you go off-roading as opposed to punching it to 100 or more. By “slow paced” I mean very slow — only a few miles per hour. I tested the real Wilderness in about five inches of snow as well and felt right at home, since I’ve finished about half of Roadcraft and I’m just starting to play Snowrunner lately.
I’ve mentioned this before, but real cars are far more interesting. The video games do provide some fertile ground for testing “what if” scenarios, and it’s fun to compare the simulation to the real handling during off-roading trips.
I didn’t tow anything with the Forester Wilderness but it is nice to know it has more towing capacity than previous models — running at 3,500 pounds.
One last thing to mention is the “cladding” which is basically all of the extra arches and bumpers. I noticed them right away and had the random thought that they looked bigger and more obvious with this version of the Forester Wilderness. Checking the specs revealed that I was right — they are more beefy with the 2026 model.
Not that the more rugged appearance impacted my testing, but then again — we’re only human. The right color, the right stance, the beefier look. They all added up to a test that made me think this is the vehicle I’d want to use for real off-roading — not just in a simulation.