Used 2011 Subaru Forester 2.5X Touring Crossover SUV Review & Ratings

It would be reasonable to say that the Subaru Forester has been around for a long time, fifteen years to date, which has to be some kind of record for a crossover SUV.

When launched in 1997, principally based on Subaru's Impreza platform, the Forester has always drawn Subaru's highly functional all wheel drive (AWD) system. Subaru's design concept with the Forester was to offer a crossover between a sports utility vehicle (SUV) and a family station wagon, although with considerably larger cubic capacity, making for a comfortable ride for five passengers, whilst offering superb handling both on and off road.

Subaru had obviously done their homework before launching the Forester and their predictions soon proved to be spot on with the Forrester, with the combination of a rugged SUV and a roomy station appealing to a very broad sector of the market according to all reviews.

For their Series One version of the Forester, Subaru went with their standard 2.5-liter, 165-hp flat-4 engine making it the most powerful that could be found in a mini-SUV during the Noughties and one of the reasons why the Subaru Forester was the undoubted market leader during the decade. Reviews raved about the Forester's high levels of interior comfort, tremendous storage capacity, engine strength, relatively impressive fuel economy and notable safety statistics. Backed up with such reviews, the Subaru Forester rapidly dominated the Crossover SUV market, leaving traditional rivals such as Toyota and Honda well behind, both in sales and customer appreciation. When the Series two Forester began to hit the Subaru dealerships in the mid Noughties, reviews still remained positive although there were few major upgrades to be excited about, with upgrades to the interior and an increased engine torque being the most that there were to talk about.

While the Forester still remained among the leaders in the market place, there was a general feeling that Subaru were becoming increasingly dependent on the vehicle's reputation for solid performance and that the design was beginning to stand still in a highly competitive market.

That was to change in 2011, with the launch of the Subaru Forester 2.5X Crossover series three models, including a touring version. Launched in the USA in late 2011, the Subaru Forester comes with some fairly major updates, with the most significant being its FB engine. The FB engine, powered considerably more powerful than its predecessors, is the first to Subaru engine to be released in almost twenty years and the Touring version of the Series Three Forester will be powered by the 2.5 liter double overhead camshaft FB25 version.