subaru forester

Really depends what your needs are. More information on its intended use would be helpful.

I have a MY02 Forrester XS. Great little city car and capable on tracks, sand etc. When genuinely off road I take the Land Cruiser as it is definitely more capable and less susceptible to damage etc. Plus it carries more.

Have a look at the Subaru Club www site. That will give you an idea of what these guys put them through.

Those little Forresters,,, WOW what a car !
My friend, Mazz and hes 13 Y.O. son Jonty took theirs ,, I took my Navara
Just got back from 1 month doing a loop from across the plenty Highway, the Gem Fossikers track in the Hart Ranges, back down the Old Ghan Chambers Pillar, and finally to Dalhousie, and out Via Oddnadatta,,
Some little machine,,,, performed flawlessly, although a new spring pak will probably be needed,, It went everywhere we did
Well Done Subaru ,,, but for God's sake get a lift kit for them !
Cheers Bucky

Hi, I am Maz as reffered to by Bucky. I am so impressed by my little car. It did everything asked of it. Even went over Big Red. Travelled the 4WD traks (a bit slower due to low ground clearance) and the corrugations and sand and everything. It was economical (8k per litre on average). It is a 1999 Forrester. It still had all of the original suspension which is going to need looking at. I expected that though. I was carring a lot of weight , probably a bit too much. This was my first trip so took more than I needed. Will know better next time an trust me there will be lots of next times.

thanks fella,s thats great help

We have an 02 Forester XS.

I can't get the wife out of it with a crow bar. It's great to drive on the highway and around town, and for what I've done with it off road it's performed flawlessly.

Tows the boat and the camper really well too.

They are well optioned as standard - the only thing we added to ours was a cargo barrier and a tow bar.

We bought new as at the time that's the only way we'd get the 2.5ltr - it had only come in a few months earlier, and the manual has a reasonably usefull low ratio (about 1.4:1)

The only thing I don't like is the hillhold feature which is great most of the time is a pain when trying to reverse a trailer slowly down an incline, eg boat down boat ramp. You are constantly trying to juggle acceleration against the automatic braking feature designed to eliminate handbrake starts when going forward.

Good little jigger.

I've seen one do the Corryong-Pinnibar-Tom Groggin-Omeo loop that I did the trip notes for in the Treks. It had a 40mm lift kit and was only dragged up a couple of steep pinches where another gear lower would have been handy. (A side effect of a pseudo low ratio) An admirable effort.

Dave