Review: Subaru Forester
I wouldn’t want to chase giraffes through thick bush in it, but for carting the family around all year between occasional forays into the bushveld the new Subaru Forester would have to be near the front row of the grid overall, and probably in pole position in its price range. The model sent to us for evaluation was the top-of-the-range Xec auto, which comes with side airbags, leather upholstery and a sunroof on top of all the other toys that are standard in the lower specced X and Xel models.
Subaru launched the new Forester about four months ago. The company has stuck to its trademark horizontally opposed boxer engine, but it now displaces 2,5 litres and produces 112kW and 223Nm of torque, up from the 92kW/184Nm of the outgoing model’s two-litre unit. There’s also a limited slip rear-differential with a viscous coupling and standard ABS on all models, which means that every Subaru sold in South Africa now offers all-wheel drive, ABS and dual front airbags as standard. Our car was an auto, so it came without the low-range transfer box that is standard on the manual versions.
I cheated on my duty as an intrepid off-road adventurer in the test car for one main reason. Money. During the launch in July we drove the new Forester range under virtually every condition you could reasonably expect for a vehicle of this type, and then did some pretty serious off-roading to boot. We bounced across terrain I’d steer well clear of if the vehicle belonged to me, and the cars coped better than any of us expected, with the only shortcoming being the relatively long overhangs. Then we plunged into waterholes and scrabbled up steep rock faces that would have made me pick another route if I were on my own. After that exercise I couldn’t think of anywhere more demanding to take the vehicle they’d lent me that wouldn’t risk bruising my wallet and shredding my relationship with the importer. Some are grumpy if you give their R300 000 cars back with the bumper on the roof rack.
Around town and on the open road the Subaru is a lively, comfortable and classy family wagon that you can very easily forget is a 4×4. It’s spacious without being bulky and handles like a dream. And it’s actually relatively affordable. When Subarus first arrived in South Africa a couple of years ago they were perceived to be really good cars, but a tad expensive. The importers decided to rectify that image and after some hard bargaining with the Japanese parent company have managed to pin prices at the same levels they were two years ago. At R299 950 the Forester Xec auto isn’t cheap, but it provides excellent value for money if you want an automatic soft-roader that gets the job done when it has to. For my money, though, I’d go for the bottom-of-the-range Forester X at R239 950. Now there’s a real bargain.