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On Wheels by Brooks Peterson Saturday, December 30, 2000
Subaru Forester is small SUV with much to offerPeppy sport ute with unibody construction, heated seats is driver's delight at gas stationLook: We've always been up front with one another, right? OK, then, I'm going to make a crushing admission here.
I have completely - I mean, completely - lost what little grip I had on the Sport Utility Phenomenon. No, call it by its real name: Sport Utility Madness. Just when you think you've gotten some kind of hold on the thing, here comes yet another permutation sneaking up on you. Here's the thing: We've gone from essentially three sport utilities - the Jeep, the old (and infinitely less flossy) Toyota Land Cruiser, and the Brits' indefatigable and endlessly quirky Land Rover - to a proliferation of pretenders, permutations, mutants and just plain phony-baloney vehicles that is enough to send even a passionate autophile right around the bend.
Happily, this week I don't have to sort out some bizarre new entry like the Pontiac Aztek or the Isuzu VehiCross. Rather, we have in our sights a little ute that, despite being on the market only since '98 or so, has found a niche and rendered honorable service therein. What it is, is something considerably more than a Cute Ute (see: Toyota RAV, Honda CRV), but a good deal short of what we have come to consider the mid-sized SUVs: your Ford Explorer, Chevy Blazer, Toyota Pathfinder, et al. Based on the Impreza platform, the Subaru Forester - like more and more SUVs, from Cute to Cushy- ditches the body-on-frame format that was once considered de rigeur for sport utes and adopts the Impreza's unibody format. Purists (Is there such a thing as an SUV purist? Can there be?) . . . purists, I say, may object, but those who use the vehicle the same way 95 percent or so of sport utes are used will appreciate the Forester's user-friendly demeanor. What's new since the Forester smoothly insinuated itself into the marketplace? Fine tuning, primarily: a new chrome grille up front (woo hoo!), beefy new alloy wheels with more aggressive rubber (on the upscale S model we tested) and a MONSTER moon roof that would be ideally suited to a Gen. Patton act, were you so incautious as to essay it. Likeable at the gas station There's some serious stuff, too: three-point seat belts for all five occupants, for one thing. (One peculiarity: Far as I could tell, there's no way to undo the shoulder belt for the middle-back-seat position if you want to fold the seat down for more cargo room. There may be a way out of this, but in the absence of an owner's manual, I was stumped.) You're also looking at front-seat side airbags if you pony up for the Premium Package, which goes for a grand. As before, the motive power comes from the 2.5-liter horizontally opposed four that propels not only the Impreza but most models of the larger Legacy line. With 165 horses, it's good for peppy - but not retina-detaching - performance. Now, don't go all down in the mouth on me: You're looking at EPA ratings of 22 city/26 highway with this little customer. In SUV-land, the Forester is like a teetotaler in a realm dominated by berserk (and thirsty) Viking marauders. The Forester is likable at all times; at the gas station, it's downright lovable. Loaded with personality
Subaru has done some twiddling down where the rubber meets the road - new spring rates and shock valving, plus a rear track that's a larrupin' .6 in. wider. I can report that the little ute remains a predictable handler and a (relatively) easy rider. As a long-time fan of Subaru - which I still consider the Japanese analog of Studebaker, a plucky little firm doing battle with giants (with one crucial difference of course: Subaru is not only surviving but thriving) - I'm pleased to report that the Forester, like its partners in the company's line, is not vanilla. These vehicles are loaded with personality, and during a wintry spell, few cars or utes are better company. Take those heated front seats, standard on the Forester S. Not only do they report swiftly for duty, they go about their work with astonishing gusto. Three or four minutes, and find you're experiencing a whole new depth of meaning in the term Fire Down Below. Click back to the lower setting, and you're admirably situated for a winter night's cruise: Heater and defrosting gear work every bit as expeditiously as the hot seats. Musical amenities
And how about that (standard on the S) six-disc in-dash CD changer (with cassette - not an insignificant point, since some manufacturers seem to be tending toward CD-only rigs)? If you haven't experienced it, you have no idea how much better this is than fishing around out back to shovel discs into a trunk-mounted changer. All of this, coupled with all-wheel-drive all the time, makes the Forester one of the vehicles that would be pretty high up on my list of candidates were I so situated that I had to drive in filthy weather on a regular basis. Now, if I could just figure out how to keep the power door locks from bleating piteously (and loudly) each time I use the remote . . . Maybe there's an answer in the manual, but endless attempts to improvise a strategy produced nothing but frustration. Getting around anomalies Finally, I learned that if I open the driver's side door with the key, there's no commotion. But locking? The only thing that works is leaving both left-side doors open, then swinging the front door shut and reaching forward from the back to lock the front manually. Then . . . well, you get the picture. The Subaristi are a resilient, resourceful and tolerant breed. They find a way to deal with such stuff, and so, no doubt, would I. And in any case, the good stuff far outweighs the, uh, anomalies. A colleague grouses that 25 thou is a lot for a little Subaru. Perhaps - but this is a lot of little Subaru. Don't sell it short. 
© 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved. |
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