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Just got back from an extended test drive (5 weeks, almost 4000 miles) of a 2009 Forester. It's not bad for that type of vehicle, but having done this a few times with various Subaru models over the years, I'm starting to think the Subaru evangelists haven't spent enough time behind the wheel of a European automobile...
The big killer for this one is it's a 4 speed automatic combined with an engine with no low end torque (very peaky curve). The automatic fortunately has manumatic mode because the normal mode fishes constantly for gears (especially up any hill). Cruising RPMs are just a touch less than a c900 with 3 speed auto (ie in the 3000's), and fuel economy was the same (ie bad)! The reason is the gear ratios are poorly chosen such that 1st gear is useless (gets you to about 10mph) and 4th gear is gutless but still somehow guzzles fuel. Think of it as a 3.2 speed transmission... We have friends with a Forester with a stick, and it is somewhat better.
I also found the handling pretty weak compared to any of the Saabs I've driven and also vs the 2008 Legacy... the result of putting a tall vehicle on a short wheelbase platform (Impreza)...
Of course it goes without saying that the seating, ergonomics, and even hauling capability was nowhere near what I'm used to. The taller seating position did make the seats more comfortable than the Legacy we drove last year.
On the plus side, fit + finish is pretty good, there's tons of headroom, a huge moonroof, and nice roof rails (100x better than the old ones). It has a great AWD sytem + tons of clearance that would be great for those 5 or 6 big snowfall days in winter (unfortunately though, you'd have to live with the mediocre fuel, seats, tranny, etc the other 359 days). The engine design is nice with the weight way down, and historically, these things are very reliable...
Overall, although Forester wasn't bad per se, every potential Subaru customer needs to test drive a Saab! Of the many Subie fans who came up to me to ask about it, not one had ever even sat in a Saab. Saab needs to heavily promote the 9-3x to this very large market...
James...
posted by 216.59.23...
, Wed, 9 Sep 2009 17:05:21, Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:41:31
, Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:47:53
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