Subaru Forester Review (2012)

This generation Subaru Forester was introduced into the UK in 2008 and has long been a favourite of ‘country folk’ who enjoy its symmetrical all-wheel drive capabilities, combined with a low ratio box.

Over the years it has been given a number of makeovers and revisions.

The Subaru Forester is a crossover, a blend of car with SUV capability; it competes with the likes of Land Rover’s Freelander and the Nissan X-Trail.

We tested the middle of the range Forester 2.0i XS priced at £27,120 at the time of testing.

There is a choice of a 150ps (147 bhp) petrol engine or a 147 ps diesel, both are 2.0 litre ‘flat’ boxer engines.

Subaru sent the 150 ps 2.0 litre petrol with a five-speed manual transmission for us to test. The petrol unit is capable of 0-60 mph in 10.6 seconds (12.3 automatic) and a top speed of 114 mph. The official NEDC - fuel consumption figures are quoted as 37.7 mpg combined with CO2 emissions of 173 g/km.

On the motorway we were always left searching for a sixth gear - whilst touring we were averaging around the 33 mpg mark - this dropped to 29 mpg with more urban use.

We liked the grunty noise from the engine but the Forester is not particularly quick - but in summary apart from the lack of a 6th gear there is nothing really to complain about.