New Forester
bigger, morerefined
Information on theNew Zealand model Foresters is pretty thin on the ground, even at Subaru New Zealand. We do know that the new Forester has grown. At 4595mm, it’s 35mm longer than before, while it’s 15mm taller, at 1795mm, and at 1695mm across the beam it’s 20mm wider. The new car also rides on a 25mm longer wheelbase of 2640mm, which certainly explains its extra space and airiness out back.
Cosmetically, the new model has a distinctive crease running down its flanks, just under its waistline, while the new grille introduced with the latest Impreza is also included, along with solid-looking, squared-off new bumpers and alloy wheels. Over all it’s a much neater, less quirky design. Though from the front in its paler tones, it isn’t the prettiest of recent Subarus.
Equipment changes include a new infotainment centre with smartphone integration, along with Sat-Nav with a reversing camera, and in most markets an upmarket Harmon Kardon sound system.
The 2013 Forester will be available with two petrol engines for New Zealand. The base 2.5-litre boxer four will make 127kW and drive through a six-speed manual in the entry-point model, with a seven-step third-generation Lineartronic CVT also available.
A new 2.0-litre direct-injection turbocharged flat-four, as in our briefly-driven review car, producing 186kw will also be available, but with the Lineartronic transmission only.
The fourth generation Forester will also get a modified version of Subaru’s popular 2.0-litre turbodiesel, putting out 112kW and for the first time this will also be offered with a Lineartronic CVT option.
The Forester XT turbo is the first Subaru Turbo I’ve driven with a CVT. I had mixed feelings about how such a transmission would work with the turbo. But I guess the fact Subaru’s new Lineartronic is going to be used with its new range of European market turbodiesels, in both the Outback and Forester later in the year, means that it will take the torque.
I noticed no disconcerting flare – often a bugbear with CVTs and more powerful engines – and loved the way the car stepped smoothly off the line, settling very decorously into low-revving cruise mode for town and around work, and open-road driving.
Well-chosen gearing allows the Forester to surf along on its low to mid-revolution biased torque curve, which will allow pretty useful economy in normal running, while the surge of energy on tap when you mash the throttle is very pleasing. With a rise in engine pitch, the Forester XT quickly catches up with itself in that distinctive CVT way, and dispatched overtaking manoeuvres with great aplomb.
Ride quality appears improved, with attention obviously focused on impact damping.
The car feels as roomy inside as a generation old Legacy/Outback, with particularly useful rear legroom. This shows that the Forester is placed to slot in neatly ahead of the XV, though with the extra space, Subaru may see the car cannibalising Legacy and Outback sales.
The new Forester’s dash treatment is an improvement, with better choices of texture and a simpler layout than the old car’s. Particularly useful are the dashtop mounted readouts. My preview car had Eyesight as standard and though it’s a nice accessory, it does get confused with paint spills!
Most disappointing is the car’s styling. It doesn’t look too bad from the side and rear, but the offwhite car seems too busy in the jutting front bumper area. From rear and side-on, you can tell it’s a Forester and that’s no bad thing, though we’d make ours charcoal, or even darker, thanks.
No pricing has been released here for the 2013 Forester just yet, nor even the final specification. But if the range’s ‘‘hero’’ car is anything to go by, it’s a big improvement on the current model that was always a little unresolved in terms of its styling and detailing.
The new car seems to have taken up most of those issues, though the jury’s still out on its ‘‘Bruce Forsyth chin’’.
While its non-turbo petrol engines will obviously offer less in the way of outright grunt compared with our review car, the genuinely ‘‘just right’’ or Goldilocks car in the range is likely to be the turbodiesel CVT version, which arrives much later in the piece.