It wasn’t even that long ago that I made a video about the teased Subaru Forester Wilderness.
And now we see it here and our boy Sofyan at Redline Reviews is out testing it right now.
So you can probably drive one home by Christmas…or Hannukah…or whatever you’re doing in December.
It’s no secret that there’s a huge surge of interest in outdoorsiness and we largely have big daddy Rona to thank for that, but also with our increasingly screen dominated world people are looking for ways to get out of the city and away from their phones for a while.
So what do you need? A vehicle that will take out to a forest or trail or something on the weekends and still be nice to live with on your commute during the week.
This is the beauty of the softroader segment.
We cover a lot of hardcore offroad stuff here at Downshift and that enthusiast group leans to the extreme end of the spectrum sacrificing things like ride quality and fuel economy for something that can go anywhere.
These vehicles are typically body on frame, old tried and true powertrains and 4WD.
BUT then there’s little Subaru. And I can’t think of any other brand better suited to serve the weekend warrior.
All Subarus come standard with their legendary symmetrical AWD which is nice for 2 reasons.
1 – you don’t have to pay extra for the AWD version.
2 – symmetrical matters – this is like the 4×4 systems found in the hardcore offroaders.
It’s not a FWD system that CAN send power to the back, it’s equal torque front and rear .
This is perfect for something like the “hardcore” wilderness trim that’s focused on getting you off the pavement.
All Subarus are also unibody construction which means they’re lighter, have better ride quality, and get better mileage than the hardcore offroaders.
Again, perfect for someone who needs this to be everything every day.
Ok, but none of the stuff I just said is specific to the Forester Wilderness so what do you get with this trim.
Well, like every Forester it’ll get the same 2.5 boxer 4 N/A engine, it’ll get a CVT transmission and it won’t be fast.
But the wilderness brings added goodies like the specific blue paint.
Added protection and cladding under the body .
9.2 inches of clearance – over half an inch more than Bronco Sport.
The front fascia is more black plastic, but also while the headlights arent changed the face is different.
You get gold accents all over the place just like you had orange accents on the sport .
Blacked out wheels wrapped in Yokohama Geolandar AT tires.
On the interior you get gold accents where the orange was on the sport too.
You get an updated EYESITE system and hopefully the bluetooth works on this one.
Upgraded water resistant interior materials.
Starting MSRP $32,820.
So what does all this mean?
Well you actually get a pretty capable little offroader for not that much money.
Something like this is perfect for someone just getting into offroading or overlanding.
It’s going to be tough competition for things like the Rav4 TRD Off road and Bronco Sport.
And while Paolo and I didn’t love the Forester Sport, the things we did like about the forester definitely makes me feel like the Forester is much more at home in a Wilderness trim than a sport trim.
I really hope we get a chance to test this thing for you guys as it starts to go on sale in November.