We have both a 2016.5 CX-5 Touring FWD and 2017 Forester XT Touring at our house, bought them both in the last 4 months. We bought the CX-5 in January for our son, the XT is my DD, bought it in March after the 2017 CX-5 press release. Both are great CUVs, and almost bought the 17 CX-5 instead of the XT for myself.
The things that caused me to buy the XT are powertrain (250hp), utility (easily accessible big square box loading), interior room (lots of it), visibility, and aftermarket mod support (vast). CX-5 wins on looks (inside & out), seating comfort, and value. Both are comfortable, well engineered vehicles that ride and handle well, with the CX-5 handling slightly better than the XT, but the XT's ride is a bit better than the CX-5. Handling on the XT was easily improved to equal or surpass the CX-5 with a swap to a larger rear anti-sway bar off of the WRX, which I've done. The interesting thing is I've hated CVT transmissions on Nissan and Hondas I've driven in the past. The CVT on the Subaru, working with the 2.0 Turbo flat four is a very nice combo. Smooth and powerful, with the rubber-banding effect almost totally eliminated.
The "one thing" that pushed me over the edge to the XT was the extra HP. The Mazda CX-5 needs the 2.5T engine out of the CX-9....bad!!! Sure, I understand that for most people the economy and HP out of the NA 2.5 CX-5 engine is enough, but for me it wasn't. I will say that if the XT had not been available with the more powerful engine I would have bought the CX-5, hands down.
