I Get Why People Buy Subaru Foresters Now

Subarus have some sort of spark, some sort of extra something that compels people to like them, yearn for them, buy them, and love them. There has to be because, on paper, these cars don't make strong cases for themselves. It was with this in mind that I took a Subaru Forester Wilderness out for a week, and I hate to say, I got hooked.

Let me begin by ragging on the Forester in every way appropriate.

The first thing is probably the fuel economy. If you buy a different five-seat crossover other than a Subaru Forester, you will spend less on gas. I drove a base model Kia Sportage shortly before spending a week with this Forester. Not even the hybrid Kia. Not even on better tires; the Sportage was on A/Ts just like this Subaru. The Kia easily cleared 30 mpg. The Forester spent a week at 24 and 25.

The second thing has got to be the interior. Again, I didn't really like that Kia as a complete vehicle. But I will say that it was nice to be inside, feeling and looking like a more expensive car than it was. Other than a completely incomprehensible overlapping music/climate-control touchscreen, it was easy to use and live with. The Forester, by contrast, was ugly inside, with a protruding center stack that made the car feel less roomy than it was. And the quality of all the touchpoints was low. The shifter, for instance, looks and feels like it belongs on a gaming rig.

I also have to point out that while this is not an exceedingly small vehicle, it only seats five. There are no jump seats built into the back, like you get on a Mitsubishi Outlander. That Mitsubishi also has a nicer interior than this Subaru.

Then there is the specter of reliability. Toyota sells hundreds of thousands of RAV4s a year under the premise that its five-seat crossover won't startle you with repair bills. A Forester, by contrast, is a head-gasket repair waiting to happen, one that will cost significantly more than its rivals because Subaru remains a steadfast devotee of flat engines. Its four-cylinder has twice as many head gaskets as rivals' four-cylinders, rivals that use a mainstream inline layout for their engines. Does the flat layout make for any appreciable difference in how the engine performs? In how much power it makes? Even in how it sounds? Not really, based on this brand-new Subaru.

(If you are curious, the 2.5-liter FB25D makes 182 hp and 176 lb-ft of torque to push around the Wilderness Edition's 3620 pounds, and it does it through a CVT. This is not a fast or spritely car, though I found this CVT to be relatively unobtrusive. The Forester drives fine. It is not in any noticeable way more sporty on the road than, say, a Chevrolet crossover.)

Every time I drove this Forester, I thought about how I could be in a different car. One with a better interior, one that costs less to fill up. This particular Forester, a Wilderness Edition, was optioned out to $35,795 including delivery. A Base model runs about 10 grand less and comes with normal tires, not all-terrains in 225/60 R17 99T. Certainly, you could get a base model and throw some Methods and A/Ts on there yourself, but you will miss out on the Wilderness Edition's gold trim inside and out. I will also point out that the Base model weighs 166 pounds less than the Wilderness, most of which I assume to be made up of plastic cladding. (It's perhaps more to do with the wheels, tires, front skid plate, and transmission oil cooler.)