"A perfect vehicle for those who don't intend to go off-road. Mileage has been mid twenties. AWD has been unstoppable in the snow/ice.

"I have had my Forester for 1.5 years and have had a ball in it. I had a Scorian lift kit installed in it after about 6 months to improve ground clearance. We take it every where other larger 4wds will go with little or no problems."

"Overall, I am very pleased with the Forester. I only have two complaints. First, the 5-speed transmission is occasionally difficult to shift smoothly, especially when cold. the clutch sometimes engages very abruptly, making smooth shifts difficult. Second complaint: the Bridgestone tires are quite noisy, but at least they seem to be wearing well. the vehicle handles exceptionally well, and the ride continues to impress me every time I encounter a rough patch on the road. Acceleration is also good, and the mileage has been excellent. I'm averaging 27 mph city and have goten as high as 35 mph highway."

"My only problem that has required repair was a piece of trim on the center console that came loose. All repairs and maintenance have been handled promptly and courteously by my dealer."

"Our Forester has been everything that was promised by previous reviews and research. ABS Brakes work like a charm, stopping fast in straight line on gravel or wet roads. Cruises comfortably, and has plenty of power to zip around slower cars at highway speeds. Handles much like a sports coupe, but has good (not great) carrying capacity. But the roofrack is always there for the long trips or for outdoor activities like kayaking and biking We've had it offroad over a weekend on the Outer Banks, driving in some nasty soft and rutted sand. Lack of clearance was really the ONLY thing to look out for. With the S, the Geolanders have a pretty good treadwidth to start with, so I only dropped them to 19psi all around. The car went EVERYWHERE the big boys went. And yes, I stayed out of the deep ruts hear most of the time, but even when I got into them, I did not or feel (or see) any really bad "surfing" by the bottom of the car on the hi-center. I've spent lots of t!
ime driving jeeps, vws, etc on bad soft beaches, but the one thing i really liked about the Forester was the ride: It smoothed out the ruts and bumps like no truck every could. However, I would strongly suggest replacing the plastic "skid-plate" under the engine with a steel one and I upgraded the stock lighting system (pretty poor) to H-4 bulbs with a new wire/relay/bulb kit. But this Forester does seem solidly built, the leather seats feel, smell, and look great, and I'm getting an overall 27mpg in city/highway combination driving. No complaints from this Subie owner.

To those of you who don't belive the Forester is an off-road vehicle,, i got news for ya!!

Contact: cmasonnos@aol.com