CarBrandLogos archive · Subaru · 1997

SubaruForester

An estate on stilts, launched before anyone had agreed what a crossover was.

Photo: Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Subaru history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Subaru Forester, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Subaru already knew that raising a car and giving it all-wheel drive found buyers, because the Outback had proved it. The Forester of 1997 took the idea further by starting with the Impreza platform and building a taller, squarer body on top rather than modifying an existing estate. The result sat higher than a car and lower than an SUV, with a boxer engine keeping the centre of gravity down and no separate ladder frame anywhere.

06-08 Subaru Forester 2.5XT Sports · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

That put it several years ahead of the compact crossover boom, and the Forester's advantage was that it drove like the car it was based on while offering the visibility and rough-road ability that buyers were beginning to want. The upright glasshouse made it genuinely easy to see out of, a quality that later generations grew steadily larger without abandoning.

2005-2008 Subaru Forester XS wagon · OSX · Public domain

In production

Japan got turbocharged versions with real pace, including the STI-developed variants, but the Forester's long life has been built on being useful rather than quick. It remains in production and has become one of Subaru's core products, along with the Outback that suggested it.

2002 Subaru Forester Limited wagon · OSX · Public domain

At a glance