Just got back in today after spending most pf monday playing with a new forester , I'll post a full report later but let's just say it was nice, very nice, and shows how tired my old mondeo estate is geting....

 

Right, got a little time to write something now:

First the bad, not too many of these, as most of them are just little niggles, first I guess it must be the cost, at £25K it's a lot of cash but then again you do get a lot of car with all the toys. The fuel economy is not that great and i did find the gearbox a bit snappy taking up drive in the first couple of gears and it's not really much of a looker, apart from that it's not bad at all, the handling is pretty good, the brakes are adequate.

Now onto the good stuff:
The interior is good, the seats are very comfy, there's plenty of room front and back and the bum warmers are very nice on cold mornings.
The audio setup sounds good although the 6 disc changer is a bit noisy when swapping dics and is a bit fiddly to get to grips with it works well and looks good. The Sat Nav proved itself, although it can't tell the difference between a junction and fork in the road and would tell me to turn left or right when in facvt all I needed to do was follwo the road round the corner, still it got me to the pub for lunch so it's functional.
Now the really good stuff:
The performance is bordering on the frightening for this sort of car, bearing in mind my daily drive is a 115 bhp mondeo estate and the highest performnace car I have driven regualrly to date is my 140 bhp Mazad mx-5. The roar from the engine under acceleration is enough to make you turn the cd player off, and every time I got the surprised look as I overtook these so-called hot hatches brought a big smile to my face...

All in all although it is expensive it's a very much at the top of my wish list for a new car next year...

 

I've been reading good things about this car. The Wifes 2.0 XT is probably the best all round car we've ever had(including MY00 Wagon, 02 STI and my current WR1). Sure the scoobs do the fast and furious thing superbly, but if it's a day trip we want we take the Forrester.

Apparently theres a PPP under development, which should see the 2.5XT 0-60 dip under 6 seconds and should bring it to WRX levels. Which considering the weight and shape of the car is outstanding.

Whatcar have listed the best price 2.5XT as £23.6K so

 

Autobytel and broadspeed also have it with a minimum of £1K off list, WhatCar rated the 2.5 XT as 'the one to avoid' with the bog std 2.0X as best buy for the model range - go figure!

 

Probably down to fuel consumption. But compared to my WR1 it's positivley frugal

 

These were the comments I couldn't figure out:

scooby forester 2.5 Xt 210 bhp doing about 20-25 mpg, press comments revolve around "likes it's drink' ....'poor fuel conmsumption'...'expensive to run'
But take an impreza, evo, doing the same or less mpg the only comments are about the performance...such is life, I still like it - a lot!

 

Saw a very nice brand spank Forrester STI at TSL the other week it was ferking lovely!!!!!

 

Just had a call from Subaru confirming my 24 hour drive starting 11th Jan next year - can't wait! I haven't heard a bad thing about them yet. EVO called it their favourite SUV.

Do you recall which tyres were on the one you drove?

Cheers
Kav

 

As far as I know they were the standard fit 16" rims with the Yoko geolanders, can't see the dealer fitting different rims and tyres on their demo.

I did notice a little bit of twitch from the tyres, nothing major at all bit it could unsetle the car if you were 'pushing on a bit'. On the straight it's fine, I only noticed it on sharper cornering... Quite a few people have said the Geo's are a bit crap and the car reacts better on a larger rim with a smaller sidewall tyre.

 

Thanks mate - makes sense.

The EVO article said that to make maximum progress you do have to modify your driving style and use the torque and higher gears to crack on. Like you said, the alternative is to fit bigger rims, lower profile tyres and even a thicker rear anti-roll bar.

I heard this morning that my local dealer won't be getting their demo until mid-January. That's no bad thing - I didn't want to make any emotional decisions ahead of Christmas.

Cheers
Kav

 

I had one a couple of times as a courtesy car from my dealer and I loved it!

OK, so its like a slow jelly compared to the STi, but when you put everything into perspective for the type of car it is, its blisteringly quick and will leave most other road users wondering what left them!

But for me, the real wonderfull thing about the XT is the 2.5l engine. It gives a deeper gurgle sound compared to the 2.0l and you really feel all the extra torque pulling out of corners. I really really hope they start fitting that motor into European spec Impreza's very very soon

I think the fuel consumption is quite respectable given the size, shape and performance. My major fault would be ride is a little too sqidgy given the perfomance, so bigger rims and suspension upgrade are a must really!

If I needed practicality more than outright performance, then I would definately consider one over the Impreza! ...but for now I just like going fast

 

The 2.5 XT appeals on many levels but the two most important to me at the moment are it's practicality (room for my scuba diving kit inside and it's ability to handle the muddy track down to the lakes without any hassle at all) and the fact that it's quick, much quicker that it looks, and to top it off the insurance shouldn't be too scary

Now can anyone give me £25K for xmas?

 

I've just done a back to back test drive in the 2.5 and the 2.0 XT. I have to say that i really did prefer the smaller engined one.

 

can you elaborate?

 

Yup. For me the power delivery across the rev range was a lot smoother in the 2.0. I liked the initial punch of the 2.5 but i felt it lost its urge too soon.
Not too keen on the leather either, i was sliding around a fiar bit.

I will say that the 2.5 goes like stink though! Not really anything in it between that and a WRX.

 

The dealer I spoke to thought the opposite, the 2.0 is too raw and the power is in with a punch whereas the 2.5 is smooth with a capital SMOO...

HAve to have leather on something like this, easy to clean and heated seats too...!

 

The 2.5 XT sounds cool.
Have you thought of this for roughly the same price? Forester STI JDM

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

 

Moving from the 2.5XT to the STi has a few drawbacks:

Insurance for one would be much higher, provided I could find someone who knew about the model and would cover it in the first place, on top of that I think the car loses a lot of it's "sleeper" appeal, the STi looks like it should be as fast as it is. Apart from that I can only find very limited details on the interior and over specs/features, and I'm not wild about the 3 colour choices....

 

I agree with you on the insurance. I've not found anywhere that will cover the STI yet at sensible money.

Looks like i must have a different driving style to your dealer then!!

To be honest we're looking at it for my other half, so she'll have the final say in which one we go for and i was test driving without her.

By the way, did the blokes voice on the satnav get on your nerves after a while?

 

try www.confused.com

i got a quote for £450 fully comp for a sti type uk there a couple of days ago.
i'm 31 with full ncb if that's any help.

Chris

 

Cheers mate, i'll give it a go but the Forester STI is a JDM car. And my missus is 23...

 

We're referring to a JDM Forester STI (import) , not the impreza STI type UK, but thanks anyway.

The satnav on our demo had a female voice, not too intrusive, there are a number of different voices and languages you can configure in the menus

 

The salesman did tell me there were male and female voices but i didn't try and change it.

Can you remember what they called a roundabout?

 

No sorry mate, I didn't listen to her that much, although my mate did try to chat it up when I took him out for a quick spin....

 

lol