RoadTest Subaru Forester: Can you remember the last time a coffee shop simply offered two choices: with or without milk? How about a sandwich bar that only stocked white or brown bread? Or a petrol station that didn't offer cooked dinners?
Everybody's looking for an edge, a little bit extra to entice the customer. The car industry is no different, with so-called crossover vehicles flooding the market of late. Part people carrier, part off-roader, part saloon car, these vehicles aim to be all things to all men (and women).
It would seem that such automotive crossbreeds are a phenomenon of the noughties; nothing of the sort. Take the Forester for example. Subaru introduced this part estate/part off-roader back in 1998. It suited the soccer mum audience in the US but with the added bonus of Subaru's acclaimed all-wheel-drive system and remarkable low-ratio pulling power.
For the average Dublin motorist its benefits are often lost, but if you happen to live in the snowy climes of the mid-state US or Scandinavia - or even up the Wicklow mountains - such technology quickly proves its worth come winter.
With the Forester you get a relatively rugged vehicle with proper grip and impressive towing capabilities, while at the same time the spaciousness of an estate and a little bit more.
While the suburban set coninue to opt for soft-roader SUVs, those who actually need the off-road ruggedness in their daily lives frequently turn to this Subaru. And rightly so.
For years the secret to Subaru's success has been the quality of its engineering and its rugged practicality. It's also remarkably supple on the road, offering the handling of a regular saloon car. While the suspension has been revised in this latest version, the secret to the Forester's success in handling terms has been down to one engineering feature - the so-called 'boxer' engine.
Without sending you into an engineering coma, it means that instead of having the pistons moving vertically, if you put them horizontally it removes a great deal of the height from the heavy engine block. That in turn means that more weight is located closer to the ground and the closer the weight is to the ground, the lower the centre of gravity. So, when you take a corner at speed, there's less chance of you losing balance. And in a car, losing balance at 100km/h in a tight bend can give you more than a grazed wrist.
Aside from handling, the revamped suspension offers excellent ride and the car was continually complemented by both front and rear passengers for the smooth comfort it offered.
Though the 'boxer' principles remain the same, the new Forester does get two reworked engines. Performance from the 2-litre unit has been improved and it now offers 156bhp - up 32bhp - and a 0-100km/h time of 9.7 seconds - down from 11.1 seconds in the previous version.
A 227bhp 2.5-litre version is also on offer, with a 0-100km/h time of just six seconds, though it's an extra €10,000 for this more performance-orientated version.
Our 2-litre test car featured Subaru's latest automatic transmission and we found it rather slow to react in comparison with many of the automatics on offer these days. We would advise buyers to opt for manual, with its slicker short changes and seemingly better ratios.
Even with the 2-litre version the Forester is no slouch and it certainly has the beating of many of its soft-roader competitors in terms of performance and driving pleasure.
Internally, the Forester trim has been upgraded as well. There's been some criticism of Subaru's cabin trim in several motoring publications, but for us the Forester has always been eminently practical with a touch of opulence in the right places. This latest version even comes with a higher level of standard specification than its predecessor.
True, it's not exactly a warm comforting cabin, but it's not the high-tech wonderland others try to create, nor is it simply an upgraded version of a Massey Ferguson tractor. Practical and well designed would probably sum it up best, though it's not as spacious as some of its newly revamped rivals.
There is no escaping the external appearance, of course. Many of the modern crossovers are attempts at taking the drab boxy look from the functionality of estates and people carriers. The jury is out on whether any of them actually manage it, but the Forester doesn't even try.
The press releases on the new Forester details "a bolder, more dynamic new look that offers greater road presence". It wasn't hard. While testing the new car we passed several of the older versions that looked extremely dated. So in that regard the design team has done well. However, they didn't have much to work with if the plan was to keep the changes evolutionary rather than give the Forester's image a much-needed radical overhaul.
In design terms there seems to be no happy medium with this marque - either it goes wild with the likes of the Impreza ST or it becomes interminably bland with the likes of the Forester, Outlander and even the regular Impreza.
Subaru is rightly very proud of its engineering heritage, and that's a great comfort to current and potential owners. Design, however, seems to be something of an afterthought. In the company rankings, the designers seem to be rated just above the office cleaners in importance.
Some new concepts recently released suggest things are finally changing. If they can match their engineering ethos to some sleeker designs the brand may finally break out of the niche market it has occupied for so long. Subaru deserves to be a much bigger player than it is. In the end, if you care more for practicality than image then the Forester would be our soft-roader of choice.
One day Subaru will wake up and realise its potential. For now, owners in the know like the idea of driving a well-built car that's above the usual marque snobbery. In Irish car parks today, "tell me what you drive?" can often be deciphered into "tell me your current income bracket."
Say you drive a Forester and you leave them guessing. That alone is worth its weight in gold.
