How to Measure a Subaru Forester for a Car Cover (Step-by-Step Guide)

September 25, 2026

Why Measuring Your Forester Matters Before Buying a Cover

A Subaru Forester from 2016 isn't the same shape as one from 2021. The SJ generation (2014-2018) sits lower and shorter than the SK generation that launched in 2019, and the difference is enough to throw off a cover that's supposed to fit snugly. That's really the whole reason people search for how to measure a Subaru Forester for a car cover instead of just grabbing whatever's labeled "SUV" off a shelf. Guessing costs you.

A cover that's too loose flaps in the wind and lets water pool in the folds. One that's too tight stresses the seams every time you stretch it over the mirrors or roof rails, and eventually it tears right where you need it most. Neither is a great outcome for something you bought to protect the car in the first place.

This guide walks through the exact measurements you need, whether you end up buying a custom-fit cover built to your Forester's model year or a semi-custom/universal one sized off a chart. Along the way we'll flag the parts of a Forester that trip people up: roof rails, a rear spoiler if your trim has one, and the antenna. Small details, but they decide whether a cover actually sits right or just sort of drapes over the car.

What You'll Need to Measure Your Subaru Forester

Keep the tool list simple. You want:

A 25-foot fabric or metal tape measure (metal holds a straight line better over long distances)
Painter's tape or chalk to mark your start and end points
A helper, since holding one end of the tape steady while walking the length of an SUV solo is annoying at best
A notepad or your phone to jot down numbers as you go, so you're not trying to remember four measurements by the time you get back to the driver's seat

Park on flat, level ground, and make sure the Forester is sitting straight, not angled or turned. A crooked parking job throws off your width reading more than you'd think.

Before you pull out the tape, check your owner's manual or the door-jamb sticker to confirm your exact model year and trim. Roof rails and spoilers vary across Base, Premium, Sport, Wilderness, and Touring trims, and that detail matters just as much as the raw dimensions once you're deciding between a custom-fit car cover and something more generic.

Step-by-Step: How to Measure Your Forester for a Car Cover

Here's the actual process for how to measure a Subaru Forester for a car cover, done in order:

Step 1: Overall length. Measure in a straight line from the very tip of the front bumper to the edge of the rear bumper. Don't follow the curve of the body, run the tape straight across.

Step 2: Width. Measure at the widest point, which on a Forester is almost always across the side mirrors. Then fold the mirrors in and measure the body width without them. Write down both numbers. Covers handle mirrors differently, so having both figures matters when you're comparing options.

Step 3: Height. Measure from the ground straight up to the highest point of the roof. If your Forester has factory roof rails (most trims do), include them in this number. That's the true peak height the cover needs to clear.

Step 4: Ground clearance. Note the distance from the ground to the rocker panel, the lower edge of the body beneath the doors. This tells you how much material the cover actually needs to reach the bottom edge and stay put, especially outdoors where wind gets underneath a cover that runs short.

Step 5: Record everything together. Length, width (both figures), height, and ground clearance, all in one place. Then measure each one a second time. It takes five extra minutes and it's the easiest way to catch a mistake before you're stuck with a cover that's an inch short in the wrong spot. Check your numbers against a car cover sizing guide before you commit to anything.

Forester-Specific Measuring Points to Double-Check

The four core numbers get you most of the way there, but Foresters have a few quirks worth checking separately.

Roof rails. Measure how far they rise above the actual roofline, not just the total height. A cover's roof panel needs a bit of built-in clearance to sit over raised rails without pulling tight and stressing the fabric right where it drapes over them.

Rear spoiler. Sport and Wilderness trims often come with a spoiler mounted above the rear glass. Measure how far it extends outward from the body. If a cover doesn't account for it, you'll be fighting the fabric every time you try to snag it over the spoiler edge during installation.

Antenna. Check whether yours is the shark-fin style common on newer Foresters, which sits low and mostly flush, or an upright mast style that needs a cutout or a patch to avoid punching a hole in the cover fabric. This one's an easy thing to overlook until you're standing there trying to figure out why the cover won't lay flat.

Model year. Worth repeating: 2019 and newer Foresters run slightly longer and taller than the 2014-2018 models. If you're ordering based on a spec sheet rather than your own tape measure, confirm which generation that sheet is describing. Getting this wrong is probably the single most common mistake people make when shopping for a Subaru cover.

Custom-Fit vs. Universal: Using Your Measurements to Choose a Cover

Custom-fit covers are built around your Forester's specific model year and trim rather than the raw numbers you just collected. But that doesn't mean the measuring was wasted. Knowing your own length, width, and height lets you double-check that the listing you're about to buy actually matches your car, instead of trusting a dropdown menu blindly.

Universal and semi-custom covers work differently. Those rely directly on the measurements you took, matched against a manufacturer's size chart, so accuracy here matters even more.

Where you store the Forester changes what "good fit" means, too. An indoor cover can sit a little looser since it's not fighting wind or UV exposure, just dust and the occasional scratch from a shelf or bike leaning nearby. An indoor car cover prioritizes softness against the paint over a tight, wind-resistant fit. Store the Forester outside year-round, though, and precision starts to matter a lot more. An outdoor car cover needs to hug the body closely enough that wind doesn't get a grip on it, and if you're dealing with rain or snow regularly, a waterproof car cover built for that closer fit is worth the extra attention to your measurements up front.

This is really the payoff of learning how to measure a Subaru Forester for a car cover properly: it lets you match the cover to how and where you actually park, not just to the vehicle badge.

Common Measuring Mistakes to Avoid

A few things trip people up more than anything else:

Measuring on a slope. Even a slight incline in a driveway skews your height and length readings. Find flat ground first.
Skipping the roof rails or spoiler. Both add real dimensions the base measurements don't cover, and forgetting them leads to a cover that's technically the right size but still doesn't sit right.
Using the wrong generation's spec sheet. The Forester changed enough between 2018 and 2019 that specs from one won't reliably apply to the other.
Only measuring body width, not mirror-to-mirror. If you skip the mirror measurement, you won't know whether the cover is designed to tuck around folded mirrors or just stretch over them, and that's the difference between a snug fit and a baggy one.

None of these are complicated to avoid. They just take a second pass with the tape measure before you hit "order."

Next Steps: Get the Right Cover for Your Forester

You need four numbers: length, width (with and without mirrors), height, and ground clearance. Then double-check the Forester-specific stuff, roof rails, spoiler if you've got one, and antenna style, since those are what separate a cover that fits from one that just sort of fits.

Once you've got your numbers, it's worth running them against a proper sizing chart rather than trusting a generic "fits most SUVs" label. If you're storing the Forester outdoors, pay extra attention to how the cover handles wind and water, since that's where a loose fit shows up fastest.

Measure twice, write it down, and use an actual size guide instead of guessing. It's a ten-minute job that saves you from returning a cover that doesn't sit right. If you want more on getting the cover on properly once it arrives, our guide to using CarCovers.com has more on installation and care too.