Used Subaru Forester 2008-2013 review

Tough and dependable, if a little rough round the edges: this is the best way to think of the Subaru Forester. It flies in the face of over styled rivals that promise all sorts of off-road credibility by looking tough and bulky, but lack the hardware for them to venture far from the beaten path. Fortunately, the Forester isn’t like that.

For a start there is permanent all-wheel drive; this means that you should be able to go anywhere in your Forester, all year round, especially in petrol versions with a manual gearbox, as they get a low-ratio gearbox. It isn’t available on all models, mind you, which is probably for the best considering that you’ll achieve better fuel economy without it, since you aren’t carrying round a weighty piece of engineering all the time.

On the inside you’ll find plenty of cheap-feeling - no, scratch that (and you probably will), rugged plastics that might be easier to wipe clean, but are nowhere near the same quality as the ones used in the Foresters rivals such as the Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V.

The Forester hits back with its handling. Granted, the steering is a bit too light to instil any real confidence, but since the ‘flat’ boxer engine used in the Forester can be mounted low in the car, the Forester’s centre of gravity is lower than most SUVs’. Combined with the all-wheel drive system, this means the car has lots of grip in corners. It isn’t exciting, but it never feels anything less than utterly safe and secure.

The payoff for this is a rather stiff suspension setup that causes the Forester to bounce and jolt on bumps around town. The ride improves as the speed increases, but never smoothes out completely – and at speed, you start to notice the wind noise that comes from the Forester’s boxy profile.

The petrol engines used in the Forester aren’t particularly well endowed with torque and can make the car feel slow. The diesel fixes this, feeling somewhat quicker than its performance figures claim, but it’s rather gruff, especially when allied to the CVT automatic gearbox.

Space inside the Forester is excellent with plenty of head and legroom front and rear. The boot is usefully shaped and has a low loading lip to help make, for example, getting a child’s push chair in or out of it, a relatively easy task. The doors open nice and wide, too, which helps if you need to put a child in their car seat.

The Forester, then, is a flawed beast – but if you are in the market for a genuinely rugged off-roader with a practical interior, it’s worth a look.

Prices for early Subaru Foresters with a diesel engine and lots of miles start at around £5000. Spend a bit more and you will find plenty of low to average mileage petrol examples for between £7500 and £8000. Subaru has a loyal following which helps to keep the values of late, low mileage examples high. A last-of-the-line 2013 diesel model in top-spec XSn spec is £13,000.

Subaru servicing can be expensive so it is worth checking with your local dealer to find out as a rough guide how much it might be.

The day-to-day running costs are also not cheap if you go for the 2.0-litre petrol engine, because the lack of torque means you need to thrash it. That means that even though it has a combined average of just 37.7mpg, in the real world, you’ll most likely get even less.

If you need reasonable fuel efficiency, then, the diesel is the way to go. A combined average of 47.1mpg is much easier on your bank balance.

Road tax is rather high for petrol Foresters at £280 per year, whereas the diesel is a bit more reasonable, though still not the cheapest, at £190.

Your choice is limited to just two engines, but if you like having money in your account at the end of the month and you need to drive a lot, you’ll need to go for the diesel. It feels a lot faster than the petrol version and it is by far the most popular engine.

Standard spec on all models is good, and includes climate control, cruise control, self-levelling suspension, six airbags and stability control.

X spec cars miss out on roof rails, but XC gets those along with bigger alloy wheels, a sunroof and parking sensors. XS adds luxury items like leather seats and XSn has sat nav. XS and XSn aren’t worth paying too much more for over an XC because those leather seats don’t sit well with the cheap plastics used throughout the interior of the Forester, and you’ll probably find your phone has a better sat nav system than the in-built Subaru unit. Stick with XC for the best value.

Our favourite Subaru Forester: 2.0D XC

The Honda CR-V has a comfortable ride, practical five seat layout (it’s wide enough in the back to take three child seats) and a smooth, efficient 2.2-litre diesel engine that can return better fuel economy than the conservative official average figure suggests.

The Toyota RAV4 again has low running costs and good fuel economy. Reliability is also on its side too. You will have to put up with a boot door that is hinged along one side, rather than at the top as it is in most rivals. This means that you need more space to open it between your car and the one behind, which can be rather awkward at times if you have parallel parked in town.

The Mitsubishi Outlander is surprisingly good to drive for its size and it even has the option of seven seats. It does have a noisy diesel engine though.

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