I am on my second Forester. The first was a 2009 with manual transmission. I had a dedicated set of winter tires on that car, cheap Firestone Winterforce snows without studs. They were great in snow, but noisy. However, who cares about noise when you really need traction?
Last summer, I traded that car in on a 2018 Forester with CVT. I have 18,000 miles on the new car, and am getting 30 mpg overall. The old car got 27 overall due to the low final drive ratio.
At 50 mph the old car turned 2,000 rpm in fifth gear. The new one does 70 mph at 2,000 rpm. My only complaint with the Forester is small size. However, at 73 I don't need all that much room. If I were younger and went hunting and camping, it could be a problem.
In that case I think a full-size 4x4 pickup truck would be in order.
