Review: 2011 Subaru Forester

With gas prices climbing back to the $3.00 per gallon levels, the days of the Goliath SUV appear to be all but over. The automakers seem to be content with this fact, and the continued XUV market conversion is in full swing. Subaru hopes you want a little form with your function with the all new 2011 Subaru Forester Touring model.

2011 Subaru Forester

Soon after the highly revised 2009 Subaru Forester arrived in 2008, it took top honors in our Frugal Five comparison. A few months later, we crowned it our 2009 Sport/Utility of the Year.

Last year, however, its luster began to wane. We again compared the Forester against other cute-utes, and it finished dead last. Why? In a nutshell, we were disappointed with its less-than-frugal powertrain, composed of a languid 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter flat-four and archaic four-speed automatic.

Fast-forward two years, and a new, naturally aspirated flat-four cylinder motivates our top-tier 2.5X Touring, though it still has a four-speed auto. At 2498 cc (versus the older 2457 cc), the boxer is truer to its 2.5-liter-displacement designation. Bore shrinks and stroke grows, while compression increases to 10.5:1 (from 10.2:1) and an overhead camshaft is added. (Both cams are driven by chains rather than belts.)

The result is a 170-horse engine with 174 pound-feet of torque (available at 4100 rpm rather than 4400 rpm) that returns an EPA-rated 21 mpg city/27 mpg highway for automatic and manual gearboxes; up 1 mpg city/highway.

Read the full review at MotorTrend.