New Car/Review

Subaru Forester

By Matt/Bob Hagin

SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price              $ 22,595
Price As Tested                                    $ 24,746
Engine Type              SOHC 16-valve 2.5 Liter H4 w/SMFI*
Engine Size                                 150 cid/2457 cc
Horsepower                                   165 @ 5600 RPM
Torque (lb-ft)                               166 @ 4000 RPM
Wheelbase/Width/Length                   99.4"/79.3"/175.2"
Transmission                           Four-speed automatic
Curb Weight                                     3207 pounds
Fuel Capacity                                  15.9 gallons
Tires  (F/R)                           215/60R16 mud & snow
Brakes (F/R)                          Disc (ABS)/disc (ABS)
Drive Train                    Front-engine/all-wheel-drive
Vehicle Type                       Five-passenger/five-door
Domestic Content                                        N/A          
Coefficient of Drag (Cd.)                              0.40

PERFORMANCE

EPA Economy, miles per gallon
city/highway/average                            22/27/25          
0-60 MPH                                       10.0 seconds
Cargo capacity               (rear seats down) 64.6 cu. ft.

* Sequential multi-point fuel injection

(Subaru is one of the world's smallest car companies, but it's 
developed a secure niche for itself, according to Matt Hagin. Bob Hagin 
says that he would have bet against its survival in 1958.)
    
BOB - The first Subaru I worked on was the minuscule model 360 that 
was imported here in small numbers over 40 years ago. Consumer Reports 
magazine reviewed it at the time and labeled it the most unsafe vehicle 
on the American road. But Fuji Heavy Industries, makers of Subaru 
automobiles, learned many lessons since then and has honed the image of 
the line into one of offering rugged no-nonsense, go-almost-anywhere 
family vehicles. The new Subaru Forester is a good example. Although 
it's thought of as a sport/utility vehicle, it rides more like a sedan
than a true off-roader and that it's meant to be a family car is a 
foregone conclusion. It was never intended to be a desert racer or to 
claw its way through boulder-strewn creek beds.

MATT - The Forester is one of the "alternate breed" of sport/utility 
vehicles. Traditional SUVs are built with a relatively large engine up 
front that drives a solid rear axle which may or may not be mounted on 
archaic leaf springs. Very few of them provide full-time all-wheel drive 
and the chassis is almost always a truck-type ladder frame. They're very 
much at home in rough country where there's no road but less than five 
percent of them are ever driven off the pavement by their owners. On the 
other hand, the Forester is built around a passenger car platform. It 
uses independent suspension front and rear that is controlled by 
long-action MacPherson struts. It's built on the same platform as the 
Subaru Impreza, but the wheelbase has been stretched. The Forester looks 
like and rides like an upright, compact station wagon.

BOB - Subaru promotion is heavy into the technical expertise that it 
has put into the Forester, as well as all the vehicles in its fleet.
The engine in the newest Forester is a flat-opposed four cylinder with 
two cylinders on each side. While Volkswagen was the original pioneer of
this style of powerplant design, I think that the Subaru can trace its
roots back to the water-cooled German Goliath of the late '50s. This 
year Subaru replaced its complex twin-cam 2.5-liter engine of last year 
with one that has the same displacement and horsepower but uses a single 
cam on each side. Subaru literature claims it's more flexible than the 
engine it replaced, but I couldn't detect any difference. Subaru is 
heavy into the high-tech side of all-wheel drive and with its four-speed 
automatic transmission, our Forester had a load of "trick" stuff in its 
drivetrain. Under normal driving conditions, the front wheels do 90 
percent of the work, but if the front wheels begin to slip on ice or in 
the wet, the system transfers a greater part of the power to the rear 
wheels until the front wheels regain their grip. Under acceleration, 
more power is applied to the rear wheels to equalize the "bite." It's 
all done electronically and the driver just has to point and steer, but 
this fancy technology isn't cheap. The automatic is an $800 option over 
the normal five-speed. Even with the extra charge, I'd still take the 
automatic over the five-speed.

MATT - If its driver chooses to take Forester into the rough stuff, 
there's nearly eight inches of ground clearance and the approach and 
decent angles of 23 degrees are enough to get it up and down some pretty 
steep embankments. The front seats have built-in heaters, as do the 
outside mirrors. The windshield wipers even have a de-icer system built 
into them. Subaru is into the outdoor lifestyle and gives support to the 
Forestry Service's "Tread Lightly" program. It's the official vehicle of 
the American Canoe Association, the National Ski Patrol, Professional 
Ski Instructors of America and the International Mountain Biking 
Association as well as being affiliated with several other "outdoorsey" 
organizations. Maybe Subaru will let us have this Forester again once 
the ski season gets going here in California.

BOB - If they do, you and your brothers can make that trip. In cold 
weather I don't want to get any closer to the snow than to see it out 
the window of a first-class ski lodge.