Subaru Forester review

Well the performance, or absence thereof, is notable in a car of this class. But hey if it were a one-litre supermini, you'd just enjoy getting on and wringing the last drop of acceleration out of it. The flat-four engine doesn't have the thrummy charisma of the old Impreza units, but even if the note is less interesting it is at least free of harshness up to the conservative 5,900rpm red-line.

Indeed it's pretty quiet at low to middle revs, and that's usually where the CVT (there's no alternative transmission) likes to be. Revs arrive when you floor it, but only after a pause while the CVT gets its act together. Luckily it has paddles to select artificial steps, so you can drop the ratio ahead of your right foot hitting for the floor.

As for the hybrid motor, on occasions it will dribble along in a traffic jam with the engine off, but mostly it works as a little background helper with the engine running.
If you're loaded up or towing (it’s rated at 1,870kg tow weight) you're really going to be working the engine hard.

Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the rest of the drive?

Yes. The Forester is affably soft and comfy, but still well controlled in its steering and of course has loads of traction. It changes direction with more enthusiasm than tubbier rivals and doesn't pitch onto the outside front tye like many. It's benign and safe-feeling so you can take advantage of the speed you've gained at such effort.
It's stable at motorway speeds, holding its lane well. Tyre noise, even on the top-spec 19s, is mostly kept in the background, but there's a hiss of wind noise beyond 60mph-odd.

Brakes are progressive and confident too.

What about driver assist?

Subaru makes a great play of its 'Eyesight' suite of helpers, and it is indeed pretty comprehensive. The lane departure system has a permanent icon on the touchscreen, which is good as you'll want to turn it off on the winding rural roads where Foresters are often found. Adaptive cruise control with lane centring works well, and side alert and 360-degree parking cameras are also standard.

But we had a right mare with the driver attention system. The sun was ahead and low in the sky on the motorway section of the drive, so we had our eyes screwed up. Deciding we were about to fall asleep, it elevated the DEFCON, squawking every few seconds and flashing warnings across the instruments and bright red LEDs under the windscreen. You can switch the system off, but it's a few clicks into the menu. At least there's a facility to record a profile for several drivers, so with luck longer exposure would have taught it to behave.