Just sold my A8 today, a bad day in terms of realisation of depreciation, a few months ago I was keen for an Impreza wrx, but i now fancy something more 4X4 like, anyone into Foresters out there . the all weather one is the one i fancy a bit concerned it may be undepowered, drove the dealers demo today, but it only had a few hundred miles so difficult to tell. (I realise this is not going to be in the impreza league !)

Thoughts welcome

 

Get an import Forrester STI. Search for threads in this forum on it.

 

My good lady wants a Forester at the moment. We've looked at both the uk models, the X and the XT.

The X IMHO is a bit underpowered. I think it produces about 125bhp. The XT is around 177bhp and a lot more drivable. I think you can get a PPP for it at about 2 grand bringing it up to around 200bhp.

The Sti is IMO the mutts but is is a JDM car.

Chris

 

http://www.litimports.co.uk/subaru/forester.html

 

I had a Forester Sport and then two Forester S-Turbos (old shape) before switching to my pickup. The normally aspirated Foresters are practical, comfortable to drive and have good driving "feel". With the Turbos you get all that and a lot more overtaking ability and better brakes (discs all round). Plus if it's important you can have the leather if you want and the sunroof is standard.

Basically, the NA Foresters are good practical family cars but the Turbos be it in S-Turbo (old shape) or XT (new shape) are even better. Having owned and driven all types of Foresters I'd go for a turbo every time (perhaps even over an Impreza). If you pick the right model year you can get the PPP pack to go on it which makes them an even more impressive vehicle.

One of the other appealing things about Forester (Turbos) is that they are much less "in-yer-face" than Imprezas but have abilities approching that of WRXs. You're not likely to get the Corsa and VTR kids wanting to take you on.

If you're looking for new. Subaru are doing 3year's free servicing on Forester XTs at the moment.

 

Get a JDM Forester and you ARE in the Impreza league (or even better !!!!)
JBL

Forester T/tb

 

How much does a standard forester t/tb push out?

 

depends on the year. 97-98's were 250ps , 99+ were 240ps out of the factory.

Then of course you start the mods.....almost everything is straight swap from the equivalent Impreza MY.


Steve

2001 JDM S/tb

 

Truckboy/others
thanks for the comments, how are the turbos on mpg ? did you ever take yours off road, I do like the idea of a bit of gentle off roading !

The turbos dont get the low ratio gear box.

Looking around at prices, boradspeed look good.

Going back to the impreza i noticed on the lichfield website that they have new myO5 impreza for 16995, the new dash looks better. it makes the one local dealer has in for 18990 look vert expensive (even with 3 yrs servicing).

 

I averaged 24.7mpg over 14.5k miles in my first Forester S-Turbo and then 27.3mpg over 14,7k miles in my second S-Turbo. Ran the second one in much more gently and it payed off big style. Saved almost £200 on fuel over the time I had the vehicle. My driving style didn't change greatly either between the two vehicles.

As to off-road, they're not really built for serious off-roading in the same way that a Land Rover or Shogun, etc. are as the ground clearance isn't huge but they're fine for muddy fields and tracks.

Power both both old and new shape Foresters is 177ps. If that's not enough PPP are available for both old (99my) and new (03my) shapes taking power to 195ps and 213ps respectively. Details here :

http://www.prodrive.com/uploads/99MY...ster%20PPP.pdf
http://www.prodrive.com/uploads/03MY...ster%20PPP.pdf

If you choose to go for a PPP you should also factor in the cost of a set of larger (17") wheels as these are definately recommended to cope with the extra power. Things can get a bit "squirmy" otherwise!