Wheels Australia – August 2019

INFORMATION OVERLOAD IS

A CURIOUS QUIRK OF THE

OTHERWISE PRAGMATIC SUBIE

NEED-TO-

KNOW BASIS

MAY BE ON my own here, but I

always find it both curious and

pointless when the pilot of a

commercial aircraft insists on

sharing the flight plan with the

passengers over the PA: “Folks,

we’re going to take off in a southerly

direction from the eastern runway, before

hooking starboard over Wollongong, and

making our way down the coast...”

Is this really useful to anyone? Has

anyone ever piped up and said, “What?

Over Wollongong? That’s the long way,

you muppet, terrible choice...”

We all know where we’re supposed

to be landing, so surely that’s all that

It’s boxy because that’s the best way

to provide rear occupants with adequate

headroom. There are no thick, swooping

C-pillars because that would impede

rear-three-quarter vision. Likewise at

the front: the A-pillars are comparatively

narrow and the small, fixed front-quarter

windows reduce your chances of snotting

a pedestrian who may otherwise be

obscured by the Harbour Bridge pylons

used by other manufacturers.

So what about the EyeSight and

Driver Focus systems? Via dual

forward-facing cameras either side of

the rear-view mirror, along with a dash-

mounted infra-red camera pointed at

the driver, the combined system claims

to deliver both user-convenience and

driver-monitoring safety benefits.

I’m not sold on the convenience

thing, as the ‘benefits’ amount to it

displaying “Hello Ash!” as it adjusts the

seat and mirrors to my driving position.

There’s already a two-position seat-

memory button, so I’m calling this one

out as bloatware. But monitoring the

driver’s eyes, and giving a little

cricket-chirp alert if they stray from the

road, is genuinely useful. And useful

info in this over-info’d age is to be

applauded. Now, please return your

seat to its upright position; we’re about

to land ... somewhere.

ASH WESTERMAN

matters? As well as interrupting the in-

flight entertainment, it’s really just more

extraneous information in an age that

seems to thrive on over-sharing.

I’m reminded of this each time I

jump in the Forester. This may sound

trivial, but I reckon the info section

between the gauges and the separate

info display on the centre of the

dashtop could benefit from a serious

simplification overhaul. It’s a case of

excessive-info syndrome: too many little

icons, many displayed in a crowded,

unintuitive layout.

Meanwhile, the upper-centre display

provides no fewer than seven possible

pages of info, several of which have me

asking, “why?”. The ‘time and date’ page

is just one example of duplication. The

time is already displayed in the top left

corner, so why would I want to call up a

digital rendering of an analogue clock?

Further, the 6.5-inch colour touchscreen

is bright, clear and responsive, and does

a fine job of showing what radio band

and station I’m tuned to, so why do I

need the option to duplicate this info in

the display above?

It all feels a bit gimmicky, which is

out of step with the rest of the design

ethos that otherwise permeates the

Forester. This car feels refreshingly

unfashionable; a rejection of aesthetic

trends that compromise practicality.

REPORT

FOUR

I

@wheelsaustralia 107

SUBARU FORESTER 2.5i-S

Price as tested: $41,490

This month: 623km @ 10.2L/100km