2003 Subaru Forester X from UK and Ireland - Comments

No faults on delivery

No faults to report at first (1000 mile) service

Too early to make any other judgment (car is 6 weeks/1150 miles old)

This is the new 2003 Forester X. Ours is base model - the UK specification is 2 litre engine, manual gearbox, no turbo,15 inch wheels, climate control and hill holder clutch.

We ran a 1998 Forester 2litre manual for 5 years and liked it. The new Forester keeps all the good qualities of the old one, and has a much improved interior. The climate control and heated wiper blades worked well in very cold weather in the weeks after we got the car, but its been too cold to know how the aircon will perform in hot weather. Instrument layout and seat comfort is good, but a few minor switches are still scattered in awkward positions.

The car is nice to drive. The engine felt very stiff when new, and at 1000 miles is just beginning to loosen up. Too early to judge fuel economy, but a 160 mile trip running on main road at steady 50 - 70 miles per hour gave 33 miles per gallon (US readers remember that's the bigger imperial gallons!) That's probably not very representative, but looks a good start.

The radio/CD player is better quality than the previous model Forester, but the controls are awful. Tiny push buttons and incredibly small lettering -very difficult to do more than a simple channel change when driving.

This is a preliminary report after only 6 weeks/1150 miles of ownership. First impressions are very good.

UPDATE BY ORIGINAL AUTHOR.

We have now completed a fuel consumption test, carried out accurately by measuring from a brim full tank to brim full tank. Results are.

Miles traveled 638 (1026.73 Km)

Fuel used 101.4 Litres (22.30 Imperial Gallons)

(= 26.79 U.S. Gallons)

This gives a consumption of 28.6 Miles per imperial gallon or 23.8 miles per US Gallon.

About 300 miles were at more or less constant speed of

50 - 70 miles per hour on long distance running, and the remainder were journeys of about 3 - 4 miles where the engine hardly got warmed up. It also includes several mornings of freezing conditions, where the car was left running while stationary at our house for 10 minutes to warm up. The car has done less than 2000 miles since new, so the engine is still fairly tight.

Taken all together, this is probably a fairly harsh test for fuel consumption, and is likely to report worse figures than may be achieved in normal driving. However, the best figure achieved on steady long distance running was about 33 miles per imperial gallon, so a fair reckoning would be to say that the new Forester X will deliver an average consumption of about 29 - 33 miles per gallon depending on driving conditions.

There are no other comments to add to the original report. The climate control continues to work well ; - the sensors change the fan setting and direction of heat to suit conditions, and seems efficient. The only slightly unusual feature is that sometimes when the sensors decide the car is too hot they blow a little cold air from the vents, until the temperature comes down. It feels a little odd compared to simply having the heater on full all the time on a cold day.

Very good write-up. Thoroughly useful insight. I have the '97 JDM Forester. Been thinking of upgrading to the newer model. Your comments further bolster my decision.

Thank You.

I have had a Subaru Forester AWP since new (approx. 2500 miles ago). I would agree with all previous comments except that:

1. on its initial run of 460 miles (mainly on motorways at 70 mph and using cruise control, but still,--- with a brand new engine!) I managed 38.6 mpg (imperial) and

2. over the next 854 miles of mixed driving in Derbyshire and then back home to Scotland the car did 33.7 mpg.

3. I have continued to monitor the fuel consumption on my general use (many journeys of less than 10 miles) and, so far, have averaged 28 mpg.

All of these tests were done from "brim of tank" to "brim of tank".

UPDATE BY ORIGINAL AUTHOR.

Our Forester is now one year old. It has only done 7900 miles, but nothing went wrong during the year. The climate control worked well during a hot summer. The radio is still as awkward to use as ever.

The car got its annual service today, plus the year 1 anti corrosion re-treatment. Only routine service parts were needed and the total cost, including tax, was £233. The 12 month service interval is certainly a saving compared to our previous Forester, which had 6 month service intervals.

UPDATE BY ORIGINAL AUTHOR.

The car is now 3 years old, and has done 22800 miles. It had just had its annual service and MOT test (the annual British Government safety test for all cars over 3 years old). Total cost of service + MOT = £305.

In the past three years NOTHING has gone wrong with the car.

The tyres are still OK, but all four will need replaced at around 25K - 27K miles.

Hi.

I have a 2003 X AWP, I use it for everything, touring, tip and shooting, great car if a trifle expensive to run, cruises at high speed, comfortable on long journeys, astonishingly capable off road if usual precautions taken wrt approach angles etc (avoid deep mud), nothing has gone wrong in 50k miles All 4 WD vehicles are a compromise between on road and off road and I feel this is about the best.

UPDATE BY ORIGINAL AUTHOR.

Car is now getting on for 5 years old and we are trading in for a new car.

Mileage 35,000. During the last 5 years nothing has gone wrong with the car, and it has only needed routine servicing and replacement of consumables such as tyres, wiper blades, light bulbs, etc.

One complaint - a few weeks ago, we had to replace the front sidelight bulb (first time ever had to do this). Price of bulb 50p. Price to fit it from our local small garage £35. - to replace a sidelight bulb on a Forester you have to remove the front grill, remove the headlight cluster, replace the bulb, refit the headlight cluster, check the headlight focus, and refit the grille - a crazy and unnecessary design fault.

Anyway, the new car is going to be another Subaru Forester - our third in a row. Will write a review in a few months time. We spent some time over the choice of replacement, and it came down to a Honda CR-V (last of the old shape) a Honda CR-V (the new shape) or another Forester. The new CR-V was ruled out quickly after a test drive, but it was a close decision between the other two. The old shape CR-V is bigger, feels more luxurious; the Forester has better all round vision and the better 4 WD system.