Subaru Forester to the Test

The voice on the other end of the phone is measured, calm - and authoritative.

"Take the press car up to the Flinders Ranges," it says. "Maybe Wilpena Pound or something like that. Drive it on some dirt tracks, take some pictures, then drive home."

"Sounds good," I reply. "Spend a week up there?" I add hopefully.

"Nope; no time for that. Up and back as quick as possible - two days... maybe even one."

"Yeah, right. It's a thousand kay return trip. And what is this car? A V8 Commodore, a 3.5 Magna, an Audi A6? It's a bloody long way...."

"Er, well, no. It's none of those, actually. It's a four wheel drive."

"Really? Well I could hack a Lexus LX470 - V8, cruise, CD... in fact thatdda be pretty nice."

"No, it's a fair bit more downmarket than that."

There was a pause.

"It's a Subaru Forester....."

Now I've got no problems with Subarus - in fact I have very favourable memories of the Liberty RS I once owned. But I do have some reservations about off-road 4WDs. For cars that invariably seem to spend the vast majority of their time shuttling kids to school - rather than battling the Birdsville Track - they're inefficient polluters, sucking fuel at a stupid rate and posing an accident danger to other, more sensibly-sized, on-road vehicles. And while the Forester is sure not a trad 4WD truck, the concept of 'crossover' vehicles (take a normal all-wheel drive wagon; jack it up, put on some trucklike bumpers and high profile tyres with white writing on the sidewalls, then sell it as something it isn't) doesn't do much for me either.

And here I was supposed to drive this pseudo-macho thing one thousand kilometres in as short a time as possible, all so I could take some photos of it in its pretend-normal environment of Outback Australia. To live the lie, so to speak. I wasn't impressed. But they were the instructions...

An Impezzive Base?

Based on the Impreza platform, the Forester is available with either 92kW or (in GT guise) 125kW, the latter provided by a turbo version of the all-alloy 2 litre flat four. When fitted with the lower spec engine, the car can be bought in two trim levels - the plain-Jane Forester and the up-spec Limited. All models are available with a four-speed auto or five-speed manual 'box. Making the trip much more palatable would have been a GT equipped with the 5-speed; what we actually had was the $29,740 (+ ORC) base model 92kW tied to the auto. With an unladen mass a touch under 1400kg, it's not surprisingly performance is woeful. In fact we measured a 0-100 time of 12.3 seconds (factory claim is 12.0) and a standing quarter close to 19 seconds. This was gonna be a fun, fun trip... don't think.

As you'd expect from the upright cabin shape, the insides of the Forester are airy and relatively roomy. There are numerous storage spaces scattered around the cabin - the brochure says there's 20 of 'em but I can't count that high with my socks on - and the interior detailing is good. The door trims, for example, are heavily moulded with hidden recesses built into the armrests, good-sized pockets and two-way splits nicely integrated. In fact, the quality of the interior fitments is higher than in the twice-as-expensive cousin STi WRX!

The steering is light and direct, being controlled by an airbag wheel that looks like it should be leather-bound but isn't. With three turns lock to lock, it immediately feels far more car-like than off-road 4WD; that initial impression is one that stays for the entire trip. In fact, I reckon if you swapped the 205/70 15 Bridgestone Dueller H/T tyres for some decent low-profile rubber, the steering would be superb - there's just a touch of sidewall movement on the initial steering inputs. Er - swap these tyres for low profiles? Ooops, forgot for a moment that I'm in an all-road vehicle that's gonna meet big rocks distributed all over the track...

The ride is unexpectedly sporty and firm, being damped to the extent that in urban conditions you wonder if it isn't in fact a touch too firm. But the ride never crosses that line, and now as we head out north along the dual-lane highway to Port Wakefield, the higher speed means that bitumen filler strips become just a vague bump thump - the jolts have gone. The lack of power is hammered home every time the mass needs to be accelerated; however, much more surprising is the way in which the Forester can maintain speed once it's up there. With a frontal cross-section larger than a normal car of the same plan area - and with a wake just as big as that cross-section - the overall aero drag must be huge. Yet the car drifts along on minimal throttle openings, the tall 0.694 overdrive fourth and short 4.44 diffs combining to give a relaxed 2700 rpm at 110 km/h.

There's a gusting crosswind - the synoptic chart shows a cold front coming through and the sou'westerly is blowing as hard as 20 knots. Teetering high on its elevated suspension, slab-sided body exposed to the wind, buffeted by passing trucks.... the Forester is stable and secure. The excellent steering feel makes any minor corrections automatic; wind noise is surprisingly absent. You need to look at the bending trees and avoid the balls of spiky vegetation being blown across the road to realise what conditions are like outside.

The seats are good. The driver's is adjustable for height (front and back of cushion separately) and armrests fold down on the inner side of both front seats. With height-adjustable steering and the large, upright windscreen, a driving position with good visibility is easily found. The auto trans can be moved without a detent from D to 3^rd, but dropping it back to second gear (or lower) requires the pressing of the button. Unfortunately there is no display of gear lever position on the dashboard - a problem because to get the most out of the engine, you need to frequently select the gear manually. There are two additional transmission controls - a Power button that causes the engine to hold gears longer and kick-down earlier, and a Hold button that can be used to allow (for example) the manual engagement of second gear when moving off in very slippery conditions. The kick-down can be a bit reluctant to operate; instead the trans tends to hold the gear and let the 184Nm (at 3600 rpm) do the work. The GT has 30 per cent more torque, achieved 400 rpm lower in the rev range... that'd be nice we think, as I row the box.

In these sorts of freeway conditions, the cruise control works smoothly, but only once it is active. Not so good is the drop in speed that always occurs when it is first engaged and you take you foot off the throttle. If you work at it, you can get this speed dip to be barely noticeable, but such tactics shouldn't be necessary when other cars' cruise systems are seamless in their transitions.

The double lane ends and we're faced with the need for overtaking. Any car with a 19 second standing quarter ain't gonna be fast when making passing moves - and the Subaru isn't. I start the manoeuvre well back, winding up in third gear before venturing the bluff nose into foreign road space. The speed only gradually increases, tacho and speedo needles moving in slow synchronisation around their respective dials. The other car creeps towards us, draws alongside, then falls back behind in an agonizing slow-motion replay. Might wait for overtaking lanes next time...

A red body-kitted VN Commodore has appeared behind us, snuffling eagerly at the tailgate. Ahead is another car following a truck, ahead of that appears a passing lane. I deliberately tuck left, letting the Commodore overtake me and the car and the truck - I've been in the Commodore seat too many times to want to demonstrate with an obstructive pass how macho my s-l-o-w 4WD is ... The Commode whistles off, and I move out and overtake the other car and truck. The Commodore hasn't slackened off - he's obviously going to sit well above the limit. A radar-breaker is just what we need, so I give chase. A downhill stretch is serendipitous - soon we've got the speedo needle hovering high. As speed gathers I'm watching the road and the Commodore; when I look down at the speedo I'm staggered. We're doing 160 and the Forester is utterly settled, tracking without a hint of aero float or instability. The high gearing gives a tacho needle position far away from the redline; noise is pleasantly suppressed. Here is an on-road competence far, far away from most pretend macho off-road machines.

But the Commodore owner doesn't much like having a Subaru Forester behind him and starts performing stupid overtaking moves. No point in being involved in his accident and so I settle back to 120 km/h. But the incident has been an eye-opener - Subaru's high-speed test track has obviously been the home to more than just the Rex.

The Ranges

Highway 1 ends for us at the turn-off to Horrocks Pass, the shortcut through the Southern Flinders Ranges to the tiny town of Wilmington. There it's time for a dismal exploration of the takeaway food available on a Sunday afternoon - (Any hot food? Yes, we have a potato pie. A slow visual exploration of the shop's interior looking for alternatives. There aren't any. Mmmm, I'll have the potato pie, thanks.)

We head towards Quorn, finding in what was once Australia's bustling central rail junction a single petrol station. The fuel level's below half now, so the lad pours in 35.2 litres. With 380km down, the Forester's been averaging 9.3 litres/100 km - not wonderful, but a long way better than most vehicles with an off-road capability. The fuel consumption's good news - especially since we're now distant from most other traffic and so cruising speeds can rise. Police cars out here are more likely to be Toyota Landcruisers with bush recovery gear than white Commodores bristling with aerials and speed detection equipment. The road is wide and smooth blacktop, afternoon visibility excellent. We run with the Forester's lights on, and up the speed to 130.

The plain that we're travelling across is bifurcated with creeks. Dry except after heavy local rains, the road doesn't use bridges. Instead it simply dips down onto concrete causeways across the narrow channels, a change of road elevation that has the ability to upset some cars when they're travelling at speed. In fact, when I lived locally, I well remember driving my '77 BMW 3.0si fast along this road, the car wallowing and weaving as it roared through these crossings. At a slower speed the Forester is utterly unfussed; it also gives the very strong impression that at the same pace as the Bee-Em it would still be happy. How times change.

The scenery in the late afternoon is magnificent, the reds and the browns of the arid, angular cuestas softened by the green vegetation flourishing after recent rains. I feel alert, comfortable and relaxed.

Wilpena Pound - a huge natural basin once the lowest part of the landscape and now the marooned highest - is home to a small resort village. Unfortunately, it turns out that all accommodation is booked, as it also is at the nearest alternative. Hmmmm. We use up some time photographing the Forester in appropriate environments, drive to some local sites through creek crossings that don't have causeways (once brushing the engine sump guard against the rocky ground) then consider our options. Just under 500 kilometres from home, I still feel fresh and alert... may as well drive home again.

Heading South

It's dusk, the time for kangaroos to be out and about. In this National Park the roo population numbers probably tens of thousands; we see a couple of former inhabitants of that population lying dead by the side of the road. Hitting a roo in the Forester would cause major damage to the car and so we keep our eyes peeled for their grey/brown furry presence.

As darkness falls it becomes obvious that the headlights of the Forester are appalling. Here is a car pitched at those who like to get away from it all, at people very likely to be travelling long distances at night. So why fit the car with shocking headlights? Even more ironic is that the blanks in the front bumper are for optional foglights rather than long-range driving lights; gee, I must have been asleep when the climatological change blanketed most of Australia with cold, foggy conditions....

The low beam is barely acceptable; the high beam a feeble yellow glow that's pushing to illuminate even roadside reflectors. Seeing the road itself becomes impossible; looking for the white lines and posts becomes the only way of navigating. With a pair of good driving lights these roads could be cruised at 130; with the glow worms of the Forester I am often down well below 110. Sure, the locusts that we've been hitting have smeared the lenses a little, sure the light rain that is falling is causing some scattering of the beams - but these are real-world conditions that owners will face. The plastic lenses of the headlights also mean that cleaning needs to be done carefully lest the lenses be scratched - glass is better.

Rather than take the same route home, we are heading down the centre - Wilmington, Gladstone, Clare. The road is windy, the surface frequently changing. Blind corners suddenly appear; reflective yellow signs depicting trucks falling over jump out of the darkness. The front wipers have only one intermittent setting, the rear none at all. But the chassis remains settled and competent - deep puddles on the left-hand edge of the road don't cause any steering twitch or body yaw; the car tracks straight and true as the conditions worsen. The airstream has become more southerly and we're now reaping the results of that maritime air mass. The rain varies in intensity, the blackened, wet road surface a light-absorbing felt. Gawd, I miss my own car's Hellas...

Clare arrives and it's time for some more fuel. The tank takes 44.6 litres and the LCD dual-mode trip meter is showing 450km - that's 9.9 litres/100 km. This tank has included the higher speed running and butting into the headwind for the last few hundred kays. After 830 kays I'm starting to feel a little tired - time to discover all of the weird and wonderful AM radio stations able to be drawn in at night. We trawl our way through the frequencies - the Clarion AM/FM cassette head unit has a station on every single one of the 9 KHz AM splits. We stop and listen to a young woman talking incomprehensively about apprentices and racehorses, then move on to the local AM easy listening station. That keeps us company 'til we reach Gawler, a town just north of the Adelaide metropolis. KFC brightens us again; an hour later we're home.

In eleven and three-quarter hours we've travelled 991 kilometres at an average speed of 84 km/h, including all stops for toilet, food and photography. We haven't deliberately hurried; instead all driving has been at a speed to match the conditions. The Forester has proved itself to be a stunner - simply enormously competent, not putting one wheel wrong in the entire trip.

Thoughts

For many years Subaru have made the point that their traditional 4WD cars are all-road machines, rather than off-road devices. The sort of car where the 200mm ground clearance and better-than-car approach and departure angles can be used for careful negotiation of creek crossings, of sandy tracks, of corrugated and rutted dirt. Without a centre diff lock, get one wheel spinning and you'll be sunk anyway. But much more important than the in extremis off-road behaviour is how well the car performs on bitumen - travelling around the city as a practical and roomy family car, or putting the kilometres behind it to get to that special - possibly remote - spot.

And in those environments the Forester is simply exceptionally good.

The ability to tow a small boat up a slippery ramp, the capability to ford small streams, the high seating point vision afforded to the driver - they're just bonuses. For here is one 4WD that has nearly none of the conventional drawbacks of those who seek a car with more than normal terrain abilities.

www.subaru.com.au

Share this Article: 

Digg this story

Seed Newsvine

Post to Reddit

Save on del.icio.us

Email