T
he Subaru Forester is
soon to be replaced by
a new model boasting a
more modern platform
and hybrid engines. Until it arrives,
however, how strong a case does
the current version make for itself?
Build quality has long been
one of Subaru’s strengths, and
the Forester feels very well put
together throughout. That’s in spite
of the dash design being a bit dull,
presenting you with a lot of dark
plastic which in places feels hard
and even brittle to touch.
Overall, the impression you get
is of a thoroughly worthy cabin but
not one that’s going to wow you.
The controls all work well and feel
convincingly stout, but the media
screen is on the small side andhas rather a last-generation vibe
to it, with average graphics and
smartphone pairing that’s miles
off the standard set by the best in
the game.
Similarly, the leather trim on the
seats and steering wheel looks and
feels qute hard and slippy. There’s
nothing much wrong with it, but
it’s not particularly plush and even
though the seats are well sculpted
they don’t grip you very well.
There’s plenty of room in
the cabin, however, with stacks
of space above your head even
when the Zehicle is fitted with a
panoramic roof (as ours was), and
the controls are all easy to see and
reach from the driver’s seat. The
waistline is quite low, too, so even
though the cabin materials are darkthere’s plenty of light coming in to
illuminate them.
Rear-seat passengers are well
looked after for space, too. The
seat-backs are recessed and soft, so
it’s no problem if your knees press
into them a bit – and unless you’re
at least a six-footer and you’re sat
behind someone just as big as you,
they won’t even touch.
If you’re that tall, your head will
just brush the vehicle’s roof lining
in the back. That’s with a panoramic
roof, too. It might not be the car
you’d choose for a four-up journey
to the other side of Europe, but it’s
certainly very well above average
for an SUV of its size.
The boot is a decent size with
the seats up, however it has a hard
¾oor which is Zery useful if you’relobbing wet sports gear or grubby
dogs on board. It does, however,
mean that if you’ve just loaded up
with half a dozen bags of shopping
from Tesco, their contents will be
up against the tailgate in a jumbled
heap by the time you’ve made it to
the end of your parking space.
For bigger cargo, the rear seats
fold down at the touch of a switch
on the wall of the boot. They don’t
go completely ¾at, but they get
close enough and, though there’s
a moderate step to slide things
oZer, the capacity you get is fine.
The tailgate is nice and big, and it’s
electric powered, though we found
it pretty baf¾ing to operate as it
didn’t seem to do anything half the
time whether we used the key fob
or the button on the tailgate itself.ON TEST Forester 2.0i XE Premium Lineartronic
28 | AUGUST 2019 4x4
DRIVEN
SUBARU FORESTER
Medium-sized SUV is due for replacement very soon. Should you wait for the new one, or
does the current model still have something to offer?