You can only get EyeSight with the CVT. Not available on a manual.

 

To order a vehicle you'll still have to go through a dealer. Subaru will issue you the VIP email and you present it to the dealer that you're working with. If you're taking a car off the lot, the price is based off of how the car is currently built. If you're special ordering one, just tell the dealer what accessories you want and they'll submit the order.

If you're looking for a forester premium, you can get eyesight and the all weather package or eyesight, all weather package and navigation.

However....orders are closed for the 2016 models. The only "order" you can do at this point is if a dealer has a car being shipped to them at the end of may or sometime next month, you can get them to change what accessories are on the vehicle to suit what you're looking for. The last 2016 models will be arriving on lots in June and orders for '17s will likely be opening later this month/early june with new models showing up end of july/beginning of august

 

Only with the CVT? Can anyone confirm?

We went to the dealer yesterday and, based on this site and cars101, we SEEMED to know more than (at least) the VIP salesman. That being said, he seemed to think that there was not a problem with a manual/eyesight combo.

Thanks!

 

Only with the CVT? Can anyone confirm?

For 2016, it was only on the CVT models.

Since you can't order a 2016 anymore, as stated above, wait to get all the info on the 2017 models. It may be available with the MT, but I doubt it.

 

Here's a breakdown of the option packages available for the 2016 models: 2016 Subaru Forester research webpage

 

Subaru does not offer EyeSight on any models with MT, not just Foresters.

It makes sense if you think about the primary features of EyeSight. Most (but not all) of what EyeSight provides is a way to accelerate your car from as low as 0 mph to 90 mph, and a way to bring your car from any speed to a dead stop, all under computer control. It's really hard to do either function in a reasonable way without shifting gears. Unless EyeSight works the clutch and gearshift lever for you (in which case, you wouldn't really have a manual!), you're pretty much out of luck.

 

For what it is worth, MT models of the WRX and STI have rear cross traffic features as well as blind spot monitoring, but do not have forward collision features.

 

True, but those features aren't part of EyeSight. And it's pretty unlikely that those models will ever get the new rear-braking feature that some of the 2017 models are getting.

In theory, they could put the EyeSight cameras on an MT model and just use them for forward collision warning (but not braking), lane departure, lane sway, lane keep assist, and a couple of other EyeSight features. But I don't think anyone would find those features worth the cost.

 

In theory, they could put the EyeSight cameras on an MT model and just use them for forward collision warning (but not braking), lane departure, lane sway, lane keep assist, and a couple of other EyeSight features. But I don't think anyone would find those features worth the cost.

And they would have to engineer a special version of a safety system -- which means years of exhaustive testing -- just for use on the worst-selling variant of the Forester. Not gonna happen.

One wonders if the eventual government mandate of collision-prevention on all US cars will be the death knell of manual transmissions in this country.

 

Weird.

When we have rented cars in Europe in they have always been manual transmissions and the last few years they have all had 'eyesight-like' functions. Adaptive cruise, beeping and stopping the car if there is an obstruction in front or behind the car, as the case may be. These have included Skoda, VW, Renault (ugh), and Mercedes.

I wonder why this is an issue for Subaru?

 

So how did that work with the ACC? If you're stopped, how did those cars get you from zero to sixty without you working the clutch or shifting?

 

0-60 never came up as an automatic sort of thing. Whenever I was on the highway I know the skoda, vw, and merc would slow me down behind someone, and then when I moved over it would accelerate back to the speed the cruise control was set to. It never needed to shift. When you hit the clutch you could tell some features stopped--don't know how else to say it.

One kept me from backing up one time into some people walking by at Neuschwanstein and stalled the car. The software didn't seem to have a problem with the car stalling. As soon as I pushed in the clutch, and the key remained in and in the 'on' position, the car cranked--automatically--back up. Weirdest feeling in the world, but suddenly the car/power is back.

I guess that was the fallback solution. Always worked for us and I never felt out of control. When I got back home I missed it...and the beeping.

Looking at a 2007 Forester right now to hold me until I can order

 

Zero to whatever IS a feature of EyeSight's Adaptive Cruise Control, and it's one of the things that makes it stand out over many of the competitors' offerings, though some of them are finally catching up.

So is whatever speed to zero. Maybe stalling the engine is okay to do in an emergency, but I wouldn't think a lot of people would find much value in an ACC that stalled the car all the time, especially in stop-and-go traffic.

The reason putting EyeSight on a manual is "an issue for Subaru" is because they opted to provide a better-thought-out, more useful feature than the competitors' cars you drove in Europe, and that feature set just doesn't work on a manual. At least not without a huge investment in R&D to provide for a small fraction of the cars they sell.

 

Wow. But about what I expected. Glad that you know the "inner thoughts" of the Subaru engineering team.

 

That came out a bit sharp and pointy.

There are just so many parts of Eyesight that are more useful than the ability to make my car go from 0-60 without interaction.

These cars in Europe do not go around stalling all the time and when the cars do stall they turn back on immediately when you press the clutch (making it seem like they never stalled at all). Someone who has not experienced this may not understand how streamlined these manufacturers have gotten the process.

I just want to see this on MT Subarus. If they can just about drive themselves surely a solution to MT can be found.

 

In general, just because a manufacturer does not produce a product that you desire, it does not mean that they have "an issue" with something. Your needs or preferences (while perfectly reasonable) may not be at the center of their target market, or may not represent something that has a sufficient ROI to warrant an investment.

Subaru's EyeSight is a leader in driver assist systems in non-luxury class cars. The two key features in driver assist systems that seem to be driving the market are ACC and Forward Collision Braking (or whatever various people call that feature). And Subaru has done a great job with both.

Yes, there is more to driver assist features than ACC. You know that and I know that. But MOST people don't see past the ACC. (Just read the comments of people on various Subaru owners forums like this one, and you'll see that most people use the terms EyeSight and ACC interchangeably.) So whereas YOU don't think ACC is EyeSight's most useful feature, the market as a whole almost certainly does. The good guess is that Subaru wants to address the broader market. It's always the case that there will be individuals such as yourself who want something different than the broader market.

Making ACC and FCB work in a manual is not easy. ACC you can't really do at all unless you're willing to limit its value to varying the speed over a small range of speeds. Better than nothing, I suppose, but not really "ready for prime time".

Subaru mainly sells automatics/CVTs. To justify a special version of the EyeSight technology for manuals, there has to be a business there. And the typical buyer of a manual is more of the "purist" kind of driver, i.e., the type who would be less likely than the typical automatic/CVT buyer to want a nifty automated system like EyeSight.

Maybe if at some point Subaru sees their sales of WRXs and STIs being hurt by the absence of the availability of EyeSight, they will start worrying about it. (Although given that WRX sales for April 2016 represented a 14.1% year-over-year increase, I don't think that will happen any time soon.)