Car and Driver: 2016 Subaru Forester Review: Get Your Boxer in a Box

[FeedBot]

-Overview: Four generations of Subaru Foresters have all adhered to the same basic design you see here in this inexpensive all-wheel-drive box. Like all Subarus, the Forester is powered by a “boxer” engine, in this case either a 250-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder or a 170-hp, 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four. (This boxer/flat design, also employed by Porsche, orients each bank of cylinders parallel to the ground, 180 degrees opposite the other, with the advantage of reducing the engine’s height, and thus the car’s center of gravity.) Subaru equips the Forester with standard all-wheel drive, and while lower trim levels of the 2.5-liter come with a six-speed manual transmission as standard, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is used in the pricier models—including every turbocharged version. The Forester is the veteran of a crowded compact crossover field that also includes the Honda CR-V, the Mazda CX-5, and the Ford Escape. It may not be as modern looking or stylish as the competition, but it’s a proven choice with legions of fans. For the purposes of this review, we drove a 2.5i Premium with the optional CVT, a drivetrain configuration we last tested in 2014 when it placed third in a comparison test against the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5. READ MORE ››

-

Read Full Article