Subaru Driving Experience: Forester

Saturday, 25 April 2009. It was a bleak and dreary morning and the skies opened up and was pouring buckets. This morning Subaru was due to have an event to let people test drive their cars at a karting track in Shajing, Shenzhen. My first thought was: Oh no, its going to be cancelled. Happily, I got a call from the salesman asking me to come on over. "Isn't it raining heavily?" I asked. "Even better! Then you can really see how good Subaru cars are. Come on over!" came the reply. Now that's the spirit. I needed no urging to drive over for a go.

Shenzhen Xtreme Speedway kart race track in Shajing is quite small but it is able to accommodate small scale tests of road cars along with the regular schedule of kart training courses and races. Thetrack is small but tight with plenty of turns as befits a kart track with a short straight in front of the viewing gallery.

On arrival, the rain had abated somewhat and had settled down to a steady drizzle. And on arrival I acquainted myself with the day's programme. They had only two cars available, the base Impreza and the base Forester, and a team of rally race drivers from Team Subaru on hand to coach. There were 4 stages to the programme. The first three segments are centered around basic driving skills - 1. quick lane change under emergency ABS braking, 2. quick direction changes making use of the Subaru's VDC, and 3. slalom. The last segment is a couple of quick laps around the circuit. All this naturally depends on the time available. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, everyone arrived at about the same time and that left insufficient time to go through the entire programme.



We only managed to do the quicky lane change and the slalom. As I was more keen on the Forester, I opted to do both the programmes using the Forester and did not get to try the Impreza.



These are my quick impressions of the Forester base model with a 2 litre naturally aspirated engine after having had a chance to do both the programmes as well as a quick spin round the circuit.

• Getting into the Forester, it was apparent that Subaru has got it right this time. If you ignore the cheap plastics, the cabin is decently appointed and sensible and nothing gets in the way of the driving. It was easy to get a comfortable driving position within seconds and the driving controls feel very intuitive. Many people complain about the cheap finishing but I personally think that if it means cutting some corners in the engine department, I would rather get used to the budget interior.
• Ride comfort is excellent. Moving off, the base model shows off a well sorted suspension with comfort levels aimed precisely at the mass market and yet retaining a little of the sportiness (not a lot, unfortunately).
• To say that the base Forester is under-powered for the event is an understatement. The 2 litre engine barely had enough grunt to make the exercises a challenge. Then, again, if you look at day to day driving, the 2 litre engine was adequate with a just enough zest to overhaul the average Toyota Corolla.
• Handling-wise, the improved ride comfort proved the Forester's undoing when it came to quick turns, although I must admit the Forester was decent on the slalom if you did not take on the cones above 60km/h speed.
• The four-wheel drive that is Subaru's pride and joy did well in the wet and from the way the Forester handled, I could hardly tell that it was wet and soggy all round.

Overall, after attending the event, I had a few random thoughts that crossed my head:

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• Subaru makes good cars but they are certainly not doing themselves any justice by not showing off their best cars. Showing off their best cars seems to me to be the best way to upsell their cars to current owners as well as to potential customers. I suppose there is a logic in showing off base models since that is where the bread and butter volume is. But in doing so, they reduce their chances of recruiting more die hard fans in the hopes of going mainstream. The big question in my mind is, would Subaru be best served going mainstream or remaining niche?
• The event was not well organized and very casual. Perhaps that is what should characterize a Subaru community. But if Subaru wants to go mainstream, perhaps they should run the event with the professionalism and precision expected of a mainstream brand. That is the conundrum that Subaru faces and has faced over the past few years. Each time, it appears the answer Subaru came up with was one that was neither here nor there.
• Not enough thought was given to the actual programme either. The distance given to accelerate for the quick lane change under emergency ABS braking was clearly insufficient for the base models to gather enough speed. As such, if one applied the brakes correctly to trigger ABS, you would stop before you even hit the cones that formed the obstruction. Also, the briefing did not clearly explain the entire theory behind this and it seems like the rally drivers were not thoroughly grounded in their theory either. In contrast, in an Audi event which I attended, their professional drivers were able to clearly explain the entire process properly so that everyone was able to grasp the entire process before proceeding to try out. The coaching process in the car was also a lot more helpful and precise. While coaching was not the goal of the event, the main point Subaru needed to deliver was that Subaru cars are a lot safer and easier to control and they were going to show participants how to make the most of their cars to stay safe. This message was not delivered well.

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Overall, I thought it was reasonably enjoyable and a decent start to hopefully better run events by Subaru in the future.