Subaru Forester Sport Review: Finally, a mid-size SUV with fight
Subaru needs to do more ‘Sport’ models.
After all, Subaru is the rally brand. Mitsubishi has long ditched Ralliart and Ford has signalled it’s not interested in much more than utes and pickup trucks.
There are plenty of options in the market for classy, even elegant and luxury SUVs (think Mazda or Kia). Although, Mazda CX-5 and CX-9 are a bit dear, and Kia doesn’t quite match Mazda's level of polish (but crikey, it’s close).
There’s a good array of affordable family cars, from Toyota RAV4 and Mitsubishi Outlander, to smaller choices like the ASX or Seltos or Kona. But Toyotas wear an expensive badge, and while Mitsubishis are reliable, they're on the cheap side because they're not as nice to sit in as the Korean or other Japanese brands.
And there’s strong value argument for anything Hyundai does right now, from Santa Fe and Tuscon. If you can get stock.
And then there’s Subaru. The cars are such good build quality, they’re unique, they have a bit of character because they have drivetrain advantages if you live in places with few (or zero) sets of traffic lights. But they’re getting a bit boring. Warm SUVs, even hot SUVs are desirable. There are mums and dads out there (particularly blokes) who don’t want the SUV lifestyle, and miss their old performance car from their youth, but are forced into the SUV thing because of kids. This is a customer crying out for a shot of masculinity, a lick of colour, and SUVs are not masculine. Except Jeeps. And the Hyundai Palisade.
Enter the Forester Sport. It’s a bit more ‘out there’ than the regular Forester range, it gets coloured highlights that warn others of its venomous bite, and the blacked out wheels and trims (exterior and interior) look much tougher than the standard 2.5i-S.
The Forester Sport was loaned to BestFamilyCars for one week.
Let’s delve into what makes the Forester a compelling family car, starting with the all-important boot.
Lock & Load
Installing child restraints into Forester is a piece of cake. (Not that any of us really need cake.)
Top tethers (two in row 2, outboard) are within easy reach for a regular arm without having to step into the car or go via the boot, although they should be higher for shorter people. And the ISOFIX points are where they’re expected to be. The centre armrest is also a good length, putting the cup holders within easy reach for kiddo's drink bottle.
The forward facing restraint leaves plenty of legroom for the Kicking Monster and the front passenger without mum having to slide forward to avoid a pummelling.
And the rear facing capsule fits happily behind my average height driving position with about two inches to spare. Especially tall drivers might have to have capsules on the left-hand side and big kids in their rocket chairs on the right-hand side of the Family Space Shuttle.
Your Ultimate Child Seat Installation Guide: Common mistakes and getting it right _
Obviously if you have a variation or unique aspect to this average kid hauling scenario, you’ll wanna look carefully at the specifics and ergonomics. Of you're all six-footers before putting socks and shoes on, maybe consider something bigger like Kia Sorento or Hyundai Palisade (review coming soon; its quite big - perfect for tall families).
With the essentials packed, there’s still room for weekly shopping in backseat footwells, and you can still see out the rearview mirror.
Even adding His and Hers luggage bags for a weekend away, (oh, and I suppose a small travel bag or two for the squirts) you’ll still have enough room stacking vertically, to leave a hole to see tailgating idiots out the back.
Having measured it myself, the boot is exactly 1355mm at its widest, 1070mm at its narrowest, and 1100mm between the rear wheelarches.
In that expanse, I managed to fit the BestFamilyCars pram (sideways), portacot, the highchair (with collapsible legs), and the capsule stroller (sideways). And the kid’s scooter, which is always a pain in the arse from a Tetris point of view.
The boot space is also 905mm deep along the floor, and 780mm deep to the headrest. That’s due to Subaru having the foresight to offer a good angle of tilt for the back seat.
Compared with the new Outback which has a more elongated boot, the Forester’s boot design favours width. You can see this in the shape of the rear looking directly from 6 o’clock.
The boot aperture is exactly 1300mm at its widest, 1020mm at its narrowest at the roof, the boot height from the ground is about 810mm, and the fully opened tailgate height is 1835mm for standing under when it rains. You wont get too wet either because it opens and closes in 5 seconds each way, from the button push to stationary.
Under the boot floor is a full size spare wheel. And somewhere to store the cargo blind when not in use. So good. Plus you’ll find all the recovery gear for changing that spare or screwing in the towing eye bolt, which screws in at either the front or back, not that you should be needing it to exit the dewey campgrounds because you have AWD.
Inside, you might appreciate Subaru’s slight departure from the morbid piano black fascination (which I always feel reminds me of some talking haunted piano in a Tim Burton cartoon). Instead there's patterned cloth trims on the doors and seats, plus the venomous warning trims continue on the aircon vents and the transmission selector panel. Very cool. Funky. Yes, I still use that word.
The Forester is a bit taller than its longer Outbck sister, so you get heaps of headroom for particularly tall buyers, and the cabin is generally quite spacious. I guess it depends how you pack as to which boot layout worksbesrfor you. Mazda CX-5 has a pretty square boot cavity, but if you’re a weekend warrior, don't get the top spec Akari because you’ll scratch the hell out of the panels with chair legs, sharp or hard-edged objects; get the mid-specs because you’ll be okay if you scuff them. And let’s face it: kids = damage.
Driving & Living
If you’ve told anyone you know that you're thinking about a new Subaru, they might voice their opinion. Try to just be polite if they say things like all the gizmos and gadgets are crap, or that they can’t tow or any of the CVT-hating rubbish (We’ll get to that). Chances are they’re just repeating stuff they’ve heard.
Here's the reality. Modern Subarus are perfectly fine to drive in traffic, they're very reliable, and Subaru dealers are generally pretty good at treating their customers well, particularly if there is a rare problem. I can certainly tell you my local Subaru dealer has been excellent. But there’s more.
Fortunately, you get 12-month servicing intervals now (or 12,500km, whichever comes first). And it’s important to realise, Subaru is a top 10 brand now. They’re in the big league and what they do to and for a customer, really matters. It can be a death sentence in 2021 if a brand is caught trying to manipulate or weasel their way out of something. Social media, forums, anti-marketing, petition.org, even the comments section on YouTube - all a reputational noose ready to slip over a brand’s over-inflated ego. So, you can rest assured Subaru will look after you if you have a problem. It’s in their best interest.
Not that you should have many issues because, in my view, the 20 per cent stake Toyota has in Subaru has really brought the brand’s quality right up with the previous generation of cars. The doors close with a reassuring, firm thunk, nothing ever rattles or squeaks on a modern day Subaru - at least not that I’ve come across. The only item that has not lived up to expectations is the little plastic flap on the forward console cubby hole, which remains open at all times because closing it means entombment or whatever nick knacks you had in there.
Unfortunately, you have to tolerate Subaru’s ignition stop-start system in all of its vehicles, including Forester. It stunts the driving experience of what feels like Rocky, bouncing on tippy-toes, practicing the old jab-cross, sizing up the competition, looking it in the eyes - until you stop at the lights and the car shudders silent. Because you forgot to deactivate it when you started the car earlier. You just have to learn to live with this feature. Every brand has one of these now, and you simply have to make turning the bastard off part of your pre-launch sequence. Seatbelts. Check. Kids. Check. Wallet and phone. Check-check. Coffee. Cold, but check. Lights. Check. Stop-Start rubbish. Ugh, check. Time check. Late.
Other myths your uninformed mates or in-laws will try to tell you is that you can’t drive a CVT in traffic. This is utter horse shit. CVT transmissions work perfectly fine in stop-start traffic commuting scenarios. You just have to not drive it like a moron. Learn to watch the traffic about five or six cars ahead of you, and keep a forward awareness for what the lights are doing. If they’re red in the distance, nobody’s going anywhere, so stay calm, cool your jets and relax. Listen to ABC Radio and learn something; don’t get all flustered because there’s no point.
Transmissions: Which one works for your driving?_
The Forester has a fairly rowdy 2.5-litre Boxer engine which is direct-injected, meaning it’s quite punchy off the mark (although not especially fast, which is a good thing because this is a family SUV, not a bloody sports car - yet another myth people will try to force upon you). With 136kW peak power at 5800RPM on all models (except hybrids), it takes about 8-10 seconds to reach 100km/h if you gun it in Sport mode or Intelligent mode. (But I was counting in my head, not with a stopwatch.) If you want a fast SUV, the Mazda CX-5’s turbocharged 2.5 SkyActiv is a bit of a stealth fighter.
Of course, Subaru (in Japan and the US, not Australia) thinks it knows us better and isn’t interested in bringing back a turbocharged Forester XT (that I’m aware of), as I mentioned at the beginning. So the Sport is it for hotting up the Forester range, and that’s okay because ‘performance SUV’ is a pointless exercise - the only person who can enjoy that is you. Kids hate being flung around (and you hate cleaning up vomit), and the missus thinks you’re a dickhead flinging her forwards and backwards under hard braking or throttle applications. This is also a childishly irresponsible way to drive these days. Mostly because you will eventually make a mistake and put your Forester into the forest - because auto emergency braking doesn’t work on off-camber gradients with ditches and trees either side.
Forester Sport is also a bit lighter than the top-spec 2.5i-S (by 24kg), so it’s generally better handling in the corners, and if you are on a nice bit of twisty road and can learn to drive the CVT by telling it a fraction ahead of time what you want it to do, you’ll get the satisfaction of being in the powerband and accelerating/decelerating as desired. This is the mistake people make in rubbishing CVTs - they’re actually very good and extremely efficient. You just need to load them up with information. Lastly on weight, the Forester ‘Premium’ is a further 7kg and $1700 cheaper, and the ‘L’ is at least $4000 cheaper than the so-called ‘Sport’ and is 28kg lighter. So, if you want the leanest, sportiest Forester, consider the version with fewer features and a smaller pricetag if that’s truly what you want because the power output remains the same across the range. Heck, the base model is $39k and it only weighs 1521kg (tare, without a full 63-litre tank).
Using the Forester’s infotainment screen is dead easy because you still get buttons (although, not for long - new Outback uses a big vertical tablet-style screen, so if you hate big screens, current Forester might be a good choice). The radio is pretty clearly marked, there are no routine functions hidden behind menus, and the three or four primary tools - radio, nav, phone and media (including a CD player, YES!) - they’re all one push away, or two using the ‘home’ button. And it’s a button, not a touchscreen icon, which is excellent for minimising distraction for your eyes away from the road.
And when you do select the icons, they’re easy to see and hit because they’re big, colour-coded and clearly marked. Other brands could learn from this. On balance, it’s also a bit stupid having the touchscreen’s ‘Home’ icon on the top-left (furthest from the driver). Obviously, the ‘Home’ button in the centre is the one you’ll use.
Another small but very valuable consideration Subaru has made, is the sunvisor extension panel which you can pull out to block that hot, aggressive and annoying afternoon sun in the corner of your eye through the driver’s door.
Other driver-centric aspects to the Forester (and indeed other Subarus) is what others criticise as the massive number of buttons on the steering wheel. Many car reviewers say this either as some passive-aggressive observation, or simply as a straight criticism - which is entirely misguided. Putting buttons at your fingertips (where your hands should be at all times, at 9 and 3) is ergonomics 1-0-1. It doesn’t take long to figure them all out and hit them without taking your eyes off the road.
The cruise control, (which is the adaptive, radar-guided kind in all Subarus now), is easily engaged and set. And the increases or decreases are in 5km/h increments, or, if you want to set the speed in between, you can manually throttle up to, say, 98km/h or 103km/h and hit ‘set’ to hold that speed. I’ve also tested the cruise control going through the sloped 80km/h Eastlink tunnel and in the Forester it did a great job to hold that speed going downhill and uphill. It certainly does a better job than my Outback, which I have to watch carefully, especially downhill, often setting the cruise at about 77-78km/h in order to make sure the computer doesn’t let the road speed increase.
The reversing camera is fairly decent resolution, although not excellent. You get dynamic guidelines with a distance guide that flashes in unison with the sensors and changes from green to yellow and red the closer you get. And with half a dozen trips to the shops there was no confusion from the CVT or any throttle spikes etc in trying to quickly select ‘R’ and ‘D’ when finding a park. The mirrors are also in a very useful position, not only for parking, but also driving, as they’re located on the door panel, not in the corner of the window, so, you can see around corners better. Plus, when correctly adjusted (outwards, away from the side of the vehicle) they offer a nice wide view, as well as being heated, auto-folding and memory-positioned on all spec-levels at or above ‘Premium’.
While I didn’t get to test it, the X-Mode system gets a pretty dependable dual-mode ‘Snow-Dirt’ or ‘Deep-Snow/Mud’ setting which changes the responsiveness of the traction control settings and the throttle sensitivity depending on the gnarly driving environment you might come across if you travel to the snow, or visit grandad’s property or like to access those harder-to-reach campsites regular front-drive SUVs or hatchbacks wouldn’t dare. Just remember, this is a family SUV at its core, only with better ground clearance and a mechanical AWD system - it is not an off-road adventure warrior. If you see pictures of an Outback trying to ‘go outback’ or a Forester trying to tackle the dense forest, that’s a very stupid idea.
Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is not a LandCruiser and that’s okay_
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Subaru has told me they understand their customers want to take their vehicles into trickier roads than most SUV buyers, and they will warranty major problems that might arise from careful driving on dirt roads, bumpy backroads or hilly unsealed terrain. But flat-out carelessness and bush-bashing is not something the brand is responsible for. So, take it easy and don’t push your Subaru into the Realm of Moron.
Forester (and new Outback, testing soon) come with a driver monitoring system. It’s a retinal scanner which detects when your eyes aren’t facing forward out the windscreen.
No, this is not some Big Brother thing. Yes, it does work quite well. Especially if you’re looking down when you shouldn’t be - like to check a portable communication device which, if you can’t resist, needs to go in the centre console or glove box, or on the front passenger footwell. (Can’t believe I have to write this.) But the driver monitor is also a bit over-sensitive and easy to trick. Simply resting your chin in your hand with your elbow on the centre console can trigger it. if you’re stopped at the lights adjusting something on the radio or temp, it might activate. Or, also while stopped, if you decide to look out the door window at something for too long, as I did because sometimes you just need to observe strange driver behaviour, it’ll politely beep you.
If I had a teenager borrowing my Forester, I’d rather have this feature than not. I think this is one of those features that is better than not existing, and a very minor inconvenience at worst. If anything, it’s a good reminder to stop day-dreaming and to stay on-task.
Four affordable new cars for camping families_
TURNING STUFF OFF! (Rant Warning)
I want to make special mention here about the driver’s level of control and the ability to turn things off. Thank you, Subaru. Many, many people hate - I repeat, hate - the over-enthusiastic, false-positive, intrusive and downright annoying so-called safety features in new cars.
Yes, I acknowledge, it’s happening whether we like it or not, and we have to learn to live with these features. But, in many cases, they are fricken dangerous. Beg pardon.
Lane-keeping features are especially bad, at least in my view. Even more diabolical, on occasion, is the auto-steering ‘feature’, which suddenly decides you cannot position your vehicle a certain way. Perhaps in a corner, or politely indicating to a right-lane slug they need to move over and let traffic through. Or sometimes you need to glance at traffic situations in the distance to decide whether to overtake.
Lane-keeping can save your life. And it’s important to note that it’s good that it exists. But it needs perfecting. And I appreciate Subaru’s decision which allows you to turn the bloody thing off permanently - and it stays off - even when you shutdown and restart the car. It’s also great that Subaru puts the button right in front of you, easy to find, again without having to ferret down on the right-hand side of the steering wheel on the dashboard above your knee - taking your eyes off the road even longer.
If a ‘safety feature’ distracts you, or makes you frustrated, or makes you second-guess yourself, or in some way removes your attention from the road environment, then it’s in direct violation of those laws they talk about in I, Robot. It becomes a potential hazard. And buggering it off needs to be quick and simple.
ANCAP, the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, and its EuroNCAP counterpart, need to stop pushing carmakers to make features like auto-steer and lane-keeping default-on. Seriously, cut that shit out and stop telling consumers this is what’s safest for them/us when we are the ones licensed and legally responsible for driving a motor vehicle. If my wife wants lane-keeping off because it distracts her, with our son onboard, then she should be able to remove it permanently.
Rant over. (But please let me know if you think I’m wrong about this; I don’t have a referendum’s worth of public data to sway my view on this.)
Three easy steps to safe driving: like a fighter pilot_
Dislikes
No car is perfect and the Subaru Forester, for all its many and overall high-praise good points, it does have some foibles which need a mention.
The aforementioned lane-keeping stuff - Subaru’s system is one of the better versions, but it’s still far from finished. It needs to be ready to intervene if the vehicle does start to stray without input from the steering wheel. That’s the moment you want it to detect something isn’t being deliberately executed. If I position the vehicle with one degree of steering lock to check what’s on-coming ahead of a truck, I need to touch the white lines with the front tyre. If I’m on a mountain road going around a left-hand bent, I want to position the left tyre close to the white line (but not on it) so I’m taking the shortest route through that corner.
Likewise, with on-coming traffic on a right-hand bend, I might need to shift the car to the left to keep a bit more gap in the event a motorcyclist has his knee on the bitumen coming the other way, or in case a log truck is on approach filling the entire lane. These are critical moments where the car simply cannot be over-riding my risk mitigation decisions. Mostly, Forester and Subaru’s EyeSight doesn’t intrude like this, but it’s something for you to be aware of when taking a test drive. Assess what the car does based on how you drive and decide what your threshold is - without being unreasonable, of course. Can you put up with it for the sake of just-in-case safety, or is it a liability to you?
Forester’s boot is big enough that there would be (cramped) space for a third row of seats. Not the full-time use kind in a Kia Carnival, but more like the temporary kind to get drunken uncles home from wedding receptions. Unfortunately, Subaru’s only seven-seater, the Ascent, is made in Indiana, USA - and they don’t cater for right-hand drive markets. And Subaru HQ doesn’t think Australia or other RHD markets like Japan or the UK warrant the investment into putting the steering wheel on the correct side.
No built-in roof rails in the Forester, unlike its Outback sister, means you need to buy aftermarket roof racks if you plan to put things up top like tents, luggage pods, bikes etc. As for towing, Forester is limited to 1800kg for a braked trailer, and a 180kg towball download limit, which is good, but I’m only putting it in the ‘dislikes’ section because it’s not the 2000kg limit of the new Outback, or the current Mitsubishi Outlander (which is much cheaper).
There is also a distinct lack of storage places to put your various crap when you get in. My Android phone hangs out of the centre bin and can impede your forward motion of the transmission selector into ‘Park’. And my phone isn’t as big as some, so consider this in your assessment of day-to-day function. The door bins are a reasonable size; they’re not massive, but a phone does sit vertically in there (out of view) without toppling over too easily.
I think cabin storage could be better in Forester, although it’s not a write-off. There’s enough, but could be better.
And there are no sunshades for the back seats, which means you’re gonna be visiting AutObarn for a tailored set, or pulling a MacGyver by fashioning your own from a muslin wrap, towel or the shirt off your own back. Come on, Subaru - you’re supposed to be the outdoor adventure brand.
Also, while some people might love the rumbling Boxer engine, it can be a bit much when you’re tired or the novelty has worn off and you just need the car to be a car, because not everybody wants to play rally driver (kinda like the dog with its mucus-layered tennis ball). It would be nice if normal ‘i-drive’ mode in Forester would hush things, but this would be an expensive addition.
Power. In a ‘Sport’ model, you want a bit more grunt. But unfortunately, you pay a premium over lesser model grades while getting the same amount of power, which is an adequate amount, but in an 1800kg SUV, isn’t exactly potent. Yes, it does the job. But, against a similarly priced, slightly lighter, more luxurious and exciting 2.5 turbo in the Mazda CX-5, the Forester just isn’t as punchy getting onto the freeway or overtaking. And CX-5 has (on-demand) AWD too now, so, yeah.
If you pay more for a ‘Sport’ model, it needs to be sportier. This can be achieved with software nowadays. And Subaru knows how to do sporty cars. But at the moment, the much sexier CX-5 is also sportier. And let’s face it: more people buy and SUV for the ‘S’ part than the ‘U’. An extra 5 per cent more power is all it would need to make Forester that much more compelling.
On the whole
Essentially, Forester has a lot working in its favour, particularly the all-wheel drive system which will benefit regional and rural owners.
And don’t let people tell you AWD offers you extra traction or magical grip. It’s actually a more even distribution of power to the road. All four wheels are driving all the time, which I see as a good insurance policy, long-term - you don’t get to choose the driving environments.
Put simply, power is split between all four wheels, rather than two. Meaning each wheel uses less power to push the vehicle forward. You’re using 25 per cent of the power through each wheel, meaning it’s far less likely to get wheelspin by overwhelming the tyre's available grip.
It’s a very safe vehicle, with a very smooth adaptive cruise control, great ergonomics, good crash testing scores, very good visibility and a well-behaved driving manner.
It’s not the sportiest utility vehicle you can buy, but it does get the important things right on the reliability, capability and use-friendliness criteria.
Everything you need is where it should be and there’s plenty of space and functionality to do the wide variety of tasks you’re likely to require of it as a family car.
It might need a bit more power from a performance perspective, but if you do poke it with a stick it can still sink its teeth in.
What else would you like to know about the Subaru Forester or the ‘Sport’ model in particular? Let me know - I can even help you get a discount.