Car Test
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R0284 | |
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December 2002 |
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| Subaru Forester | ||
| Printer Friendly Page | Featured model: 2.0X 'All Weather' | |
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We recently sampled Mazda’s all-wheel-drive 6 estate car. Now, is the Forester its counterpart or is it a Sports Utility ‘soft-roader’, to be compared rather with the likes of Honda’s CR-V and a Rover Freelander?
The truth is that it’s somewhere in-between. With a 1.6metre roofline and seat cushions set 53-56cm off the ground (an ideal H-point for the less spry), the Forester is halfway between your average estate car and a fully-fledged SUV. Inside, it lacks the ultimate space and adaptability of some alternatives, but makes up for this with some clever detailing. For instance, the load deck is high, limiting height beneath the load blind to a mere 40cm, and only double that dimension to the tailgate top. However, it has the (full-size) spare wheel beneath, as well as some really useful lined stowage areas; this also results in a superior tailgate opening and a shorter overall length than most SUVs’ – just like an estate car’s, in fact. Up front, the oddments spots should also be soft-lined, but the foldable but otherwise fixed back seat is comfortable and nicely trimmed – even where it doesn’t normally show. The driving position is commanding, but not so lofty as to exaggerate cornering roll angles, so the Forester feels as go-anywhere-wieldy on tarmac as on meadow. Off-road driving is greatly eased by the extra ‘gear lever’ that can be put into low-range (even on the move) to step up the revs by about 50 per cent – in any gear, at any time. This is a feature unique to the manual X version. The result is the ability to keep plodding, just so long as the car's modest ground clearance is sufficient. Our car had the All Weather pack, which adds a significant Ł1800 to the X’s competitive price. This does provide a very large electrically powered glass sunroof (which is nice), but the car already has climate control, albeit one that revealed glitches. There’s also painted instead of plastic-finished bumper shields in this option pack – again a dubious advantage if you’re a serious off-roader. The cruise control doesn’t hold the speed precisely but here, we’re more inclined to blame the engine, which displays mild hesitancy of response to small accelerator variations – a typically ‘flat-four’ characteristic, in fact. In normal, more assertive driving, this isn’t a problem, however, but the lower rev vibrancy is a nuisance when pulling strongly. |
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