NEW MODELS | 2022 Subaru Forester lands in SA

In 2022 Subaru is celebrating three decades on SA soil. Inaugurating this anniversary is the new Forester, which is available at dealerships from January.

Meaner look

The biggest exterior design changes have taken place at the front of the vehicle. A larger, hexagonal grille takes centre stage with a more compact headlight design. The grille and front bumper now incorporate more use of black elements around the redesigned headlight and fog lamp clusters.

The reworked headlights now include an array of LED bulbs for improved driver vision, comprising adaptive headlamps and high beam assist features. On the Forester Sport, the fog lamps are six-bulb LED units within a black housing where the Premium Forester’s fog lamp housing includes three chromed horizontal pieces.

Further along the flanks of the Forester, the mirror caps, A and B-pillar covers as well as the rear spoiler and tailgate finishes have all been enhanced. On the Forester Sport, the mirror caps and rear are finished in a geometric textured material, where the Premium Forester is finished in chromed mirror covers and a high gloss black cover.

The new Forester sits on redesigned 17-inch alloy wheels on the base model or 18-inch alloy wheels on the high-specification models. The new 18-inch wheel design on the Premium Forester is a new five-spoke, dual-tone affair. This is in contrast to the all-black multi-spoke wheels on the Forester Sport. The roof rails have also been strengthened and redesigned to allow for a higher load capacity, to ensure the safe use of rooftop tents for instance.

Additional tie-down locations have also been integrated into the rails as have two additional utility hooks been added to the roof of the rear cargo area.

Varied hues

A new Cascade Green Silica colour has been added in place of the Jasper Green Metallic.

This new colour joins the rest of the colour palette of: Crimson Red Pearl; Crystal Black Silica; Crystal White Pearl; Horizon Blue Pearl; Ice Silver Metallic; Magnetite Grey Metallic and Sepia Bronze Metallic for the Premium derivatives. For the Forester Sport, the colours remain unchanged as: Magnetite Grey Metallic; Ice Silver Metallic; Dark Blue Pearl; Crystal Black Silica and Crystal White Pearl.

A minor note about the orange theme of the Forester Sport: gone are the splashes on the air vent surrounds. You will still find orange stitching on the water repellent seats, however, contrasting with the grey of the upholstery.

Same engines, improved chassis

As before, buyers have a choice of two normally aspirated, petrol power sources with four cylinders. First up is the 2.0-litre, producing 115kW and 196Nm. The 2.5-litre serves 136kW and 239Nm. Both engines are paired with a continuously variable transmission. All-wheel drive is standard fare.

The front suspension has been tweaked to improve steering responsiveness, ride quality and handling by reworking the coil springs and dampers. To further improve the noise, vibration and harshness levels, the Forester also receives new aluminium engine mount brackets.

X-Mode, Subaru’s all-terrain programme, has also been updated with improved hill descent control speed management. The revised system allows for manual acceleration on descent, with the system re-engaging hill descent control when the driver stops accelerating.

The revised X-Mode also has the ability to re-engage at speeds of 35km/h or below, after the system has disengaged beyond that speed. This tweak allows for less intervention by the driver to continually re-engage the system if the all-terrain environment requires it.

Improved Eye Sight

A more advanced version of the Eye Sight driver assist technology is introduced to the model. There is a new dual camera system with a much wider field of view. Together with improved software, the system is faster and more intuitive, working to deploy the myriad Eye Sight safety functions such as adaptive cruise control, automatic pre-collision braking, lane departure and sway warning with better precision.

The system now works with better efficiency at intersections, where accidents frequently occur. The system incorporates steering input as well. Active lane centring in tandem with the lane departure prevention function keeps the vehicle between the lines. Autonomous emergency steering, meanwhile, can steer the vehicle to avoid an accident, be it a pedestrian, another vehicle or a cyclist.

Eye Sight-equipped models (denoted by the ES acronym) also include blind spot detection technology with lane change assist and rear cross traffic alert as standard. Reverse automatic braking is also included on Eye Sight-equipped models, a system which uses sensors to detect objects and can automatically stop the vehicle if the driver does not take evasive action in time while reversing.

Pricing:

2.0i CVT: R486,000
2.0i-S ES CVT: R564,000
2.5i-Sport ES CVT: R599,000
2.5i-S ES CVT: R649,000