Any advice on a Subaru Forrester ????
 

Hello Everyone,

I need some advice from anyone on here who has owned, or is an owner of a forrester,
The reason I ask is I need a vehicle with a big boot to fit a dog cage in it,plus other kit, ;)
Also I need the back seats for the kids etc etc,
The ones I have looked at have air conditioning, and I believe they are four wheel drive.

I see they come in a two litre version, and I believe it also comes in a two litre turbo version,

Are these vehicles painfully slow, drink petrol, prone to breaking down etc etc,
Also are they all imports?
I'm looking at spending upto £5000,

Cheers Kevin

Hi my wife had the forester s-turbo which is a UK edition with all the leather etc..... she did 145,000 miles before we sold it and it was still going strong. They are not as fast as the imprezas but can still go when you want them to.
Fuelk consumtion was better than the impreza. Never had any probs.

kevin,
Trawl the net a couple of months ago I bought a 2001 'y' plated forrester with 44,000 and full service history, unfortunately no aircon for only £4,000.
It's a 2 litre non turbo as the wife's daily driver and it convinced me to buy an impreza wagon. The Forrester is for transporting my 2 border collies and alsatian cross when we go walking and the impreza wagon for emergency runs to the vets with just one dog. Boot of Forrester plenty big enough for what you want. If you're not sure take the dog cage with you and try it. Anyone selling you one shouldn't object if its going to help them sell you their car!

Best of luck,
Dave

Cheers for the replies, I'm not particularly bothered about the speed aspect, just didn't want that struggling up a hill moment,

Cheers Kevin.

Hi Kevin
My Wife recently got a 2.5XT Forester MY05 and I have a Classic Impreza Turbo. There's plenty of room if you have dogs. The 2.5 turbo is quite thristy but so is the impreza, loads of grip but more body roll than impreza.
Plenty of power for towing. Very reliable

I'm very pleased with it.

Not sure if your budget allows for the 2.5 but should be plenty of older models that meet your requirements.

Cheers

Just check you are comfy in the seats - I looked at a 05 XT - loved the car hated the seats - just could not comfy - otherwise it would have been ours!!!

My Father in Law had a couple of turbo Forresters over the past 4/5 years used for taking the 2 dogs and the caravan,highly reccommend them.
Turbo is a bit of a sleeper and fun to drive.
Never experienced a non turbo.
Should prove a reliable car, just watch out for that FSH esp with the turbo version.
£5000 will get you a good turbo with a bit of haggling.
This would be for the 2L as the 2.5L are much newer and thus a bit more pricey.
There are some imports for sale, but the majority are UK cars, and set up for UK petrol. (Jap petrol a higher octane rating and turbo version would probably need checking its running properly on 98 octane).
The Jap turbo versions have a bit more power.

Lots of advice over at;

Europe - Subaru Forester Owners Forum

AS obi says, come and talk to the rest of us Forester freaks at s----f----.org, I have a very early (OK its IM groups original press car) SF turbo and I love it, total stealth so very few boy racers after you (unless you want them to!) and nice and practical and with a few simple mods (first is swapping the god aweful stock soft road tyres!) its very near as fast as a stock impreza, mostthe tuning applies as well.

Fuel economy, I average about 25mpg but my daily commute is 4 miles of B-road (grin time) and then 3.5 miles of urban crawl, so I'm pretty happy with that, it will do about 30 on the mway.

Simon

Can I assume the same rules apply to the Jap Import cars, as in they were built to take 100 ron petrol, so the usual melt down can be expected on the UK petrol ?

Should I try and buy a UK car with less power?

Kev

Speak to Ivan @ Foresters Subaru, he has imported 2 Foresters from Japan and would give you advice.

Forester Subaru - Subaru Parts, Subaru Spares, Subaru Breakers

Good Luck.


Regards.


Alan MaC