Which is best for you? In this video we compare the 2023 Mazda CX-50 to the off-road proven Subaru Forester.
Hey everybody i’m sam and i’m bryce and today we’re comparing the 2021 subaru forester to the 2023 mazda cx-50 this is all we have available there’s no 2022 subaru foresters out yet so i’m going to show you the differences between the two we’re going to talk about which one is better in some categories which one’s better than others and we’ll just give you a
General feel for the differences between these two vehicles so we’ll start with the 2021 subaru forester this one is a sport trim level which puts it right in the middle of subaru’s trim lineup so with that you’re going to get some cool exterior badging on this one that differentiate it from all the other subaru foresters you’re also going to notice some orange
Accents around the vehicle that’s specific to this trim level also but all subaru foresters do come with led headlights up front on the top trim levels you do get steering responsive headlights so as you turn corners they’re going to turn with you to illuminate the road in front of you this one particularly also comes with led fog lights you’re going to get that
On the sport trim level and up and other than that one big thing to notice up front is super’s eyesight safety system so there’s two cameras up at top of the windshield up up there that’s going to give you things like adaptive cruise control lane keep assist lane centering and pre-collision braking all of those features run through those two cameras subaru has
Done a great job with their eyesight system updating it over the years they gave it a brand new update for 2022 so check that out on the super forester when you’re looking so we got the 2023 cx-50 right away we can see that the cx-50 comes with its signature grille design that takes the cx-5s to the next level with the rugged design mazdas will have standard led
Lighting this is dual led lighting meaning that we have no trim that comes with fog lights these leds will also act as your fog lighting system as you move up in trim packages and trim levels you will get adaptive headlighting meaning that as you turn the steering wheel they will turn whatever way or direction that the steering wheel is going to illuminate that
Area that you’re heading as well next up our mazda has our smart city braking system is our radar front setting or front sensing technology that’s going to be able to couple with your adaptive cruise control your lane departure warnings your lane keep assist as well as be able to bring your car to a complete stop and continue in those traffic situations there’s
Another housing unit down here and they work together as a pair coming back over to the subaru i’m going to take you around to the side of the vehicle here point out a couple different things that subaru is known for first and foremost their all-wheel drive system they do have active all-wheel drive um so it’s a dynamic system that adjusts based off your road
Conditions and driving conditions so there’s actually a computer in the car it measures your tilt angle as well as a couple different things that can send power to each individual wheel as you need it so that’s a really cool thing about subarus another thing is ground clearance this particular one comes with 8.7 inches of ground clearance that’s standard for the
Subaru forester now i should mention the subaru forester for 2022 also comes as a wilderness addition which is going to give you more ground clearance it’s going to give you all-terrain tires a couple other off-road v features that would help you when you’re not on pavement but standard is 8.7 for the subaru now it’s worth noting the wilderness edition is coming
Out for subarus however mazda is going to come out with a cx50 meridian edition this fall so that’s something to keep an eye out we don’t know specs for that yet but bryce is going to tell you everything he knows about the cx-50 thank you sam as we move to the side here of the cx-50 can highlight that the cx-50 is going to have 20-inch rims that’s going to be one
Inch larger than any other wheel that we’ve had on our mazdas or anyone in our fleet as well our mazdas and the cx-50 will come standard with an active all-wheel drive system it is a computer and safety feature that is going to monitor the road conditions it’s going to adjust the torque to maximize grip and minimize slip as you’re in those off-roading as well as
Your slippery road conditions the cx-50 here will keep that kodo design that mazdas are very well known for but kind of give it that more rugged feel and then in our mirror cups we will house our blind spot monitoring system the cx-50 as well will come with eight and a half inches of ground clearance um we’re really excited there’s going to be a meridian edition
Which is comparable to the wilderness edition for subaru um don’t know the specs just quite on that yet however it will be that outdoor package so we’re hoping to see some more clearance as well as outdoor accessories and trims to come along with that so coming around to the back of the subaru now there’s a couple things i want to point out and we’ll have bryce
Talk about the cx50 here in a second but in the back of the forester obviously power liftgate is one of the big questions that we get and is not available on every trim level in fact it’s not available on this trim level so you do have to go up in package to get that on the sport and everything above the sport will have a power liftgate typically just press a
Button right here and it will pop right open but this one being manual you just got to put a little muscle into it it’ll come right up and plenty of room in the back here as well i’ll touch on that in a second however there’s a lot of storage underneath the floor which is another perk of getting a forester and then underneath this as well you do have your
Spare tire and all your tools that you need to change that tire again if this was a power liftgate button to shut it would be up here as well as a lock button and then lighting is available in the back of the subaru forester it’s also not standard on this trim level bryce what you got great job sam what i got for you here is going to be the cx-50 this one will
Have a power liftgate which will come standard in all of our preferred trims and up so that’s going to go up nice and easy for you there will be a lock button as well as the button right here to close it right away here in the back the 50 has a lower clearance compared to the five to help make it easier for you to move all of your cargo and storage units into the
Vehicle at an easier not so back-breaking juncture for you as well underneath here we’ll have our spare tire with all the tools necessary to change that in the case that happens over here we will have extra storage compartment areas to put more of your accessory needs as well the cx50 will come illuminated up here on the liftgate as well as on the side so you can
See what you got going on in here as well fun fact here about cargo space with the seats up when you have passengers in the car the cx-50 is going to have more volume of space for your cargo what do you have to say about that sam it’s a good point bryce however when you put the seats down in the forester you are going to get more space than the 50. so there’s a
Trade-off there 50 does have more room when you’re holding more passengers something to think about however if you need to store something bigger maybe the forester might be a better option for you all right bryce let’s go around to the side of the car look at a couple more things particularly the roof rack so coming over the side of the forester one thing about
The forester is that it sits up a little bit higher which means the cargo or the roof rack excuse me is a little bit harder to get to so for me i got to open the door up and step on the side of the car in order to get up to my roof rack however once you’re up here this is an awesome roof rack it comes with tie-down points for you it can easily hold a rooftop tent
So something to consider on the forester how’s the cx-50 set up bryce well right away here on the cx-50 it does have a little bit lower clearance compared to the forester making it easier for you to get to your cargo and set things up up here as well if however you did need a little bit of extra height to be able to get up our doors do open up to 90 degrees you’ll
Be able to come up use our platform here and be able to use your full height and everything like that to get to what you need so using the keyless access to the car here all you got to do is have your key in your pocket and you’re able to unlock the door and lock the door as you come and go but once you’re on the inside here one thing about the subaru forester
Is that visibility is second to none you can see out the front very well it’s due to the higher roof here so you have more clearance out the front out of the side windows as well so when you’re turning the look in your blind spot you can see everything very easily but what we got going on for technology in the forester is evolving this one not being a 2022 it’s a
Little bit different than the newest model year but as a 2021 it’s pretty similar as well so this one being a sport it does give you the orange trim throughout the interior that is not standard on the forester it’s just particularly this trim level when you’re looking at higher trim levels you’ll get leather seats leather inserts things like that but this one’s
Designed to be a little bit more sporty the seats are a little bit more durable it’s a cloth and leather mix and of course the orange stitching looks great on the interior a couple other things to mention here you do have two different screen options this one has a six and a six and a half inch screen excuse me compared to the other available screen which is eight
Inches all comes standard with apple carplay android auto things of that nature there is an upgradeable harman kardon audio system for the super forester as well sounds really good maybe not as good as the bose in the cx-50 but it is really really a good option as well and then looking around a couple other things to point out here we do have x-mode in the subaru
Forester that is subaru’s off-road driving platform can be used for a couple different things you’ve got two options in this particular car you’ve got snow and dirt as well as deep snow and mud those are two different driving modes so whatever the conditions are that you’re driving in you just flip it to one or the other your screens will change and illuminate
Let you know which ones uh which driving mode you’re in excuse me and you can carry on from there i know one of them is designed to lower your front-end torque to give you better grip when you’re accelerating the other one basically turns traction control off in order to let your wheel spin a little bit if you do need additional grip other than that it’s a very
Comfortable interior like i said visibility is second to none we’ve also got panoramic moon roof standard on all subaru foresters except the base model but you’re pretty much going to get in anyone you’re looking at other than that i think this is a pretty good option what about you bryce mazda really prides itself on his design language first being that whole
Philosophy of less is more as you look up at the instrument cluster cluster and display you’re going to see that there’s not a whole lot of buttons everywhere things like that to distract your eyes all of our operation is going to be um utilized with this circular knob and dial right here as i rotate and press down you’re gonna be able to do everything you need
To do on this in this vehicle as far as operation all of our 650s will come standard with our app based remote start as well as our wireless apple carplay android auto as we come through and look through at the vehicle here mazda’s very intentional with its design like i said before the stitching as well as the leather is designed to emulate hiking boots on shoe
Laces as well as the backpack fabric so that way you feel more comfortable and you feel like you’re more in that outdoor environment next up all of our 650s will come with a panoramic sunroof when we go to the preferred plus trim and above as well our 650s are designed to minimize the blind spots that you’re able to see your surroundings and your outdoors as well
As in the city with the forester having a little bit higher clearance the windshield will not be as high um so you might get a little bit better visit visibility as far as the forester goes in front however the rest of the vehicle was designed to be able to still see all the things around you some others will come with the my drive here you’ll be able to toggle
Through four different driving modes that’s normal sport off-roading as well as towing mode um so as you look through that the colors on the display will change so you know what mode you’re in as well i’m very comparable to the forester there um as well uh you have your traction control system is going to be over here on the left you can turn that off and on as
You’re in your slippery conditions to allow the wheels to be able to spin and get more grip so you can be able to move forward in that mud or deep smell looking back on both of these cars here i definitely like the subaru forester i’d like to see the 2022 super forester as well price range for these cars go from just over 25 000 starting msrp all the way up to 35
Almost 36 000 and you can get a variety of packages in there as well this one again is the sport trim level it doesn’t have any of the technology packages or anything like that however it’s still kind of a good feel for what the middle of the pack subaru forester might look like overall again really big fan of the forester but i also really like that cs50 so what
Do you got to say bryce thank you sam so with our cx50s here we have about eight different trim packages they’re gonna range from about 28 000 starting msrp all the way to up to 43. um all of our trims however will come with apples to apples features meaning that whatever trim you get to the features on another trim or the exact same term will be exactly the same
We don’t have extra packages to put on them unless you’re putting on accessory packages however the cx50 is going to come very well equipped like sam was saying with all that extra technology both for the driver as well as your passengers and help you kind of get where you need to go thank you for watching once again this was the 2023 mazda cx 50. if you want to
Pick up yours today reserve one for you stop into your local walls or mazda thanks again for watching my name is bryce my name’s sam and we’ll see you soon you
Transcribed from video
Mazda CX-50 vs Subaru Forester | Pros and cons between two off-road ready vehicles By Walser Polar Mazda
