Subaru Forester Cargo Test: How Big Is the Trunk?

• The 2025 Subaru Forester's specs say most trims have 27.5 cubic feet of cargo space.
• That's lousy for a compact SUV.
• But our real-world test shows where the Forester really stacks up. (Spoiler alert: It's a lot better.)

A disconnect between the spec sheet and cargo test results is often due to a car company measuring cargo volume from the floor to the top of the seatbacks instead of to the roof. That can't be the case here since Subaru includes numbers with and without the sunroof. As such, I'm stumped as to what's going on.

Now, for the test itself, you will see that this Forester has a cartridge-style retracting cargo cover. Usually, I'd have to test with and without this, but ...

Subaru designed the underfloor area to accommodate the cargo cover. Great. Less great is that the underfloor area cannot be used to expand cargo capacity as it can in most competitors. We'll see how much that really matters soon.

Before that, though, I will note that the upcoming Forester Hybrid will not have the spare tire, so I don’t know if this will change the overall dimensions. I do not know if this space will shrink as well.

Here's some nice boilerplate information about the bags I use and their dimensions. There are two bags you'd definitely have to check at the airport: Big Gray (26 inches long x 16.5 inches wide x 12 inches deep) and Big Blue (26 x 16.5 x 10). There are three roll-aboards that usually fit as carry-on: Medium Tall (24 x 14 x 9), Medium Wide (23 x 15 x 9) and the smaller Green Bag (21 x 14 x 9.5). Finally, there's everyone's favorite Fancy Bag (21 x 12 x 11), a medium-size duffle.

Well, that was easy, and look at all that extra space. This is the first hint that there's way more space here than other vehicles with cargo volumes in the upper 20-cubic-foot range.

Now let's fill 'er up with cargo test bonus items.

This would be a 38-quart cooler (23 x 16 x 13), the Edmunds Golf Classic Duffle (20 x 10.5 x 10.5), and a soft-sided duffle that has roughly the same dimensions as Fancy Bag.

I ended up doing better than this, but let's pause for a moment to see the exact same items in a Honda CR-V Sport Touring (a hybrid trim):

The Honda is full, yet its specs say that this version of the CR-V has more cargo volume at 34.7 cubic feet. (Others have more due to the absence of a subwoofer and/or the presence of underfloor storage.)

In my expert opinion after doing about 185 of these tests over the years, the Honda's volume is indicative of an SUV with 34.7 cubic feet. Now, if the 2025 Forester had a volume spec of 33.7 cubic feet (the previous generation's original volume plus the 0.6 cubic foot supposedly added for this generation), I would totally buy that the Subaru's boxier cargo area shape allows it to eliminate wasted space and therefore maximize volume when compared to the CR-V. That's totally feasible, but not if we’re talking about a difference of 7 cubic feet.

Moreover, the Forester performed better in my test than the Chevy Equinox, Mazda's CX-5 and CX-50, and Nissan Rogue — all of which have greater on-paper cargo volumes.

And just to put a bow on this ...

Here, I moved the Medium Tall bag forward into the position of the blue duffle bag. I left its original position vacant and put the Edmunds Golf Classic Duffle on top like a metaphorical cherry. In other words, there's a whole extra roll-aboard in the Forester that won't fit in the CR-V and all those others.

This is an exceptional result. In my testing, it's basically equal to the Toyota RAV4 and only bettered by the Hyundai Tucson (I have yet to fully test the Kia Sportage, which has the highest cargo volume spec in the segment). Perhaps most impressive is that this result is accomplished with a spare tire aboard, without using a dual-level cargo floor in its lower position, and while maintaining excellent visibility.

See, visibility totally fine. Furthermore, this fancy-pants Touring trim level has a digital rearview mirror that makes the visibility concern a moot point anyway.

A lot of this test was about measurement inconsistencies between brands and even Subaru itself, but it should also be emphasized that the Forester is awfully boxy, and boxy is better when it comes to stuffing luggage inside a cargo area. Well done, Subaru, although maybe take a look at those measurements.