Subaru says it will debut the next-generation Forester to the public on November 13. The SUV goes on sale in Australia in February, but Carsguide will have the first drive report in a few weeks.
The new wagon has a new transmission, updated engine and changes to its high-performance turbocharged version. The Forester, launched in Australia in 1997 but an evolution of the first mass-production SUV of the 1970s, is Subaru's best-selling model in Australia. More than 169,000 Foresters have been sold in Australia to date.
Subaru Australia's managing director, Nick Senior, says the next Forester is a crucial vehicle for Australia. “This fourth generation Forester is the most significant we will have launched since the original back in 1997,'' he says. “There is more change - substantial technical change -- and innovation, than ever before. But above all, new Forester is an SUV that won't be confined to the suburbs.
“It's a vehicle that could have been designed specifically for the Australian lifestyle - it's all-road, all-conditions, all-seasons and this new one will go further than any previous Forester.”
Neil Dowling
Contributing Journalist
GoAutoMedia
Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting.
It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail.
He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out.
In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups.
He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally.
He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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