Last spring the we bought a 2018 2.5i Forester for my wife to drive. We really loved the vehicle. It did very well on rough muddy roads and in the snow. Our daughter who graduated from college loved it so much she wanted to buy one. Since she had saved us a great deal of $ by working hard and landing a full ride to NCSU we decided to sell her ours at a great price and buy another for my wife. Unfortunately all the 2018's were gone so we decided to buy a 2019 2.5i.
The vehicles look similar but are very different. The ride in the 2019 is definitely more smooth and it feels more "solid" as it travels on the highway and on back dirt roads. The 2019 has many more electronic features standard as compared to the 2018. These features include the eyesight system, lane departure, distance pacing cruise control, android play and auto start/stop. I like the android play so google maps can be better used. The jury is still out on the lane departure and the distance pacing cruise control as they seem ok but can be annoying at times especially on some of the curvy mountain roads where I live.
The auto start/stop feature was not listed as a feature on the dealer's website when I was researching the vehicle. I should have done more due diligence in my research but did not discover this feature until after the purchase. Coming from a background that included a number of vehicles that I had to work on the keep running I am programmed to feel that when a vehicle "stalls" on the road or in traffic it is a safety and mechanical problem. There is a button to disable auto start/stop but the default is to turn the feature back on after each time the vehicle is cycled off and back on.
The 2018 has a very touchy acceleration. If you do not feather the accelerator pedal when starting from a dead stop, you enter a stage I call "warp factor" which is a sudden "jackrabbit" type acceleration. After some experience we got used to this and it ceased to be a problem. The 2019 does not exhibit warp factor and has smooth acceleration.
It may be my imagination but the paint on the 2019 seems a little better quality as it seems to have a more mirror or deep shine type finish. This of course is very subjective.
I think the alloy wheels on the 2018 are better looking and are easier to clean and wash.
My wife likes the look of the 2019 better than the 2018 but they are so similar to me that I don't see much difference unless they are side by side.
I hesitate to buy the first year of a redesigned model but a 2019 was our only option in a new vehicle. In fact we usually do not purchase new vehicles but the Forester is my wife's "retirement car".
Overall the 2019 would be my preference if it were not for the auto start/stop. Every time we forget to disable this feature and it kicks in my heart skips a beat and my stomach tightens up as I hope that the vehicle will restart. I have even found myself reaching for the key to restart the vehicle before I realize what is going on.
As it is, I wish we had bought a used 2018 because the auto start/stop feature has denied us the enjoyment of a new vehicle.
The vehicles look similar but are very different. The ride in the 2019 is definitely more smooth and it feels more "solid" as it travels on the highway and on back dirt roads. The 2019 has many more electronic features standard as compared to the 2018. These features include the eyesight system, lane departure, distance pacing cruise control, android play and auto start/stop. I like the android play so google maps can be better used. The jury is still out on the lane departure and the distance pacing cruise control as they seem ok but can be annoying at times especially on some of the curvy mountain roads where I live.
The auto start/stop feature was not listed as a feature on the dealer's website when I was researching the vehicle. I should have done more due diligence in my research but did not discover this feature until after the purchase. Coming from a background that included a number of vehicles that I had to work on the keep running I am programmed to feel that when a vehicle "stalls" on the road or in traffic it is a safety and mechanical problem. There is a button to disable auto start/stop but the default is to turn the feature back on after each time the vehicle is cycled off and back on.
The 2018 has a very touchy acceleration. If you do not feather the accelerator pedal when starting from a dead stop, you enter a stage I call "warp factor" which is a sudden "jackrabbit" type acceleration. After some experience we got used to this and it ceased to be a problem. The 2019 does not exhibit warp factor and has smooth acceleration.
It may be my imagination but the paint on the 2019 seems a little better quality as it seems to have a more mirror or deep shine type finish. This of course is very subjective.
I think the alloy wheels on the 2018 are better looking and are easier to clean and wash.
My wife likes the look of the 2019 better than the 2018 but they are so similar to me that I don't see much difference unless they are side by side.
I hesitate to buy the first year of a redesigned model but a 2019 was our only option in a new vehicle. In fact we usually do not purchase new vehicles but the Forester is my wife's "retirement car".
Overall the 2019 would be my preference if it were not for the auto start/stop. Every time we forget to disable this feature and it kicks in my heart skips a beat and my stomach tightens up as I hope that the vehicle will restart. I have even found myself reaching for the key to restart the vehicle before I realize what is going on.
As it is, I wish we had bought a used 2018 because the auto start/stop feature has denied us the enjoyment of a new vehicle.