Cruising to Hat Yai in the Subaru Forester

Some context is important here: We have taken on many trips from Singapore to Thailand before, but the furthest yours truly has driven outside of Singapore is IKEA Tebrau in Johor.

So, when the opportunity to do another one of these drives in the Subaru Forester - a car well regarded for its spaciousness and wide sweep of safety features - I naturally had to jump on the opportunity to discover what the roads are like beyond our neighbouring Malaysian state.

Little did I know what I had signed up for.

We meet our steed all fuelled up and ready to go in the wee hours of the morning

Early morning

It's 2:30am and my alarm stirs me from my slumber. It's still a little too early for the day's activities but all this is deliberate. I've yet to pack any of my essentials.

So, a quick raid of the wardrobe and the clean laundry hamper is necessary. Praise be, there are fresh pairs of boxers to free from their Uniqlo packaging. You might think that I'm taking things in a rather nonchalant manner, and you're right.

I would find later that I've forgotten to bring along a water bottle, and, as a further mark of my inexperience, a power adapter. The former is not a great indicator of overall preparedness when you're expected to cover close to 1,000km in the day ahead.

The Forester's adaptive cruise control gets put to good use as we head into the the hinterland of Malaysia

But in some ways, minimal preparation is really demanded at this point. The Subaru Forester has always been considered as a capable family SUV. And this new full hybrid model, complete with more power and promising increased drivetrain refinement to boot, should be able to chew through the miles with little trouble, right?

It's now a little past three. I chow down a quick McDonalds breakfast and a quick safety briefing at the Subaru showroom later sees Mattheus and myself kicking things off with a slow cruise towards Tuas checkpoint.

We did draft behind some of the heavy vehicles that shared our route, but fatigue quickly saw us opting to set our own pace for the rest of the journey

Sunrise

Reaching the border this early on a weekday morning means there's little congestion as we make the crossing. And sunrise sees our little convoy, comprising of three examples of the new Subaru Forester Hybrid supplemented by a few support vehicles, making our way into the heartland of Malaysia.

But we aren't driving close to the 110km/h speed limit that is adopted on most of the North-South Highway. Because this isn't a simple run for the Thai border.

Subaru Singapore reckons this new Forester hybrid is now more ready than ever to take families on whatever adventures they envision thanks to its new full hybrid drivetrain. And to highlight this fact, we have thus been asked to test it for ourselves, to see if it is reasonable to claim that this new SUV can cover a total of 1,000km (that is, just a touch more than the distance to the Thai border) on one single tank of fuel.

The Subaru Singapore team kept tabs on the fleet's fuel consumption throughout the journey up to Thailand

But that's not all. We have been rather ambitious with our previous fuel economy runs, but Mattheus and I have decided to take things easy for this one to see just what a regular family's chances are of accomplishing the same.

So, there's no weight loss programme for the Forester (in fact, Mattheus insisted on bringing along one of Subaru's big plastic containers to showcase the car's generous boot space on video). There's also no taping up of the car's panel gaps and we left the air-conditioning on at whatever temperature felt comfortable throughout this drive. 

We made a quick stop at Ayer Keroh just moments before to check on the range indicated in each car, but unlike the economy runs of before, there's no refuelling here. All this has already been settled by Subaru the day before. On to Tapah.

The 11.6-inch infotainment system (complete with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) and generous outward visibility of the Subaru Forester makes tackling long journeys easy even for the inexperienced

Midday

The first stop at Tapah sees us averaging a fuel economy of 19.2km/L with an estimated remaining range of 920km. No prize for the first section of the fuel economy challenge then. We have been keeping our speed close to the 70km/h mark for most of the drive so far, slowing down only for the traffic around Kuala Lumpur, and for the sake of safety as the occasional downpour brings visibility to a minimum.

But a surprise awaited us as we approached Perak. The message from the Subaru team reads as follows:

"As you guys approach R&R Tapah, the next challenge awaits! Head over to the Subway - where we have prepared lunch for you guys. The challenge starts as soon as you arrive in Tapah! This means you can either take your meal on-the-go and conserve your fuel or have your meal in-store and take on the time attack! First to reach R&R Sungei Perak is the winner for our Time Challenge!"

After crawling along the North-South Highway from the past few hours it's apparently now time to see just what that hybrid drivetrain can do at speed. And what an appropriate time for just such a challenge: We are about to head onto the winding roads that snake through the hills of Ipoh!

A host of safety systems and some good brakes offer additional needed assurance as we met many road hazards on the highway and a sizeable heavy vehicle population at the Thai-Malaysian border

Evening

Our Forester performs commendably here - its increased power output over its predecessor proving noticeable as we make our way through Ipoh's many limestone hills, and its reassuring brakes proving their worth as we spot a speed trap along one of the many bends along this section of the drive. Not that we were driving beyond the speed limit of course.

Ipoh offers up some of the best scenery of the entire drive, and as we approach our rest stop at Perak (also the end point of this time challenge) we are welcomed with one scenic view of Perak's hilltops all covered in approaching mist.

But there's also disappointment ahead. Despite our best efforts, another Forester is already waiting for us at the cloud-kissed carpark. No prizes for the Sgcarmart team once again for this section of the drive. Onwards to our next scheduled stop.

The convoy of Foresters (and their weary drivers) finally get a chance when we arrive at our hotel - but there's still enough fuel in the cars for another day of activities

Sunset

It's strange to me how the geography of Malaysia can change so dramatically, even though we were not driving along at the typical pace that most on the North-South Highway. In contrast to the hills of Ipoh, the views out of the generous glasshouse of the Forester are instead dominated by flat fields as we make our way through the states of Penang and Kehah.

Still, these sections should prove beneficial to our fuel economy. Or so we thought.

As we approached the final fuel check in Malaysia (located at Gurun), our car posted no change to its recorded economy: 19.2km/L, with 330km of range to spare. It isn't too shabby a result, however, when you consider that this result also now includes that short sprint though Ipoh.

And our rivals for this section of the drive have managed to post better figures of 19.6km/L and 20.4km/L for the other two cars. No prize for the Sgcarmart team yet again.

We only refuel the cars on the third day, and our Forester shows an impressive 1,060km of range, even though we didn't do particularly well for fuel economy on the way up north compared to our rivals

Night

The sun has already long set when we approach the Thai border.

There's quite a queue this time, and our crossing gets further delayed because yours truly cannot even fill up an arrival card without making errors.

Short delay aside, the road ahead from the border to our hotel in Thailand is practically drama free, save for one incident where the Forester's EyeSight system warns me about a container lorry that comes to a stop to make a right turn. The sodium-vapor lamps that line Thailand's arterials here are barely enough to keep me awake at this point. Still, we make a short detour for dinner and by the time the Forester (and its crew) manages to get a rest its already approaching midnight.

Ready for your own adventures? The Subaru Forester is waiting

And as expected, the Subaru Forester performed admirably throughout the drive, even with someone so inexperienced when it comes to foreign roads behind the wheel (I've yet to discover that Thailand's power sockets are not the same as Singapore's remember?).

Its smooth hybrid drivetrain and comfortable seats proved great boons when you've got miles to cover and are going to spend the next few hours stuck in the same seat.

We don't bring the fuel economy on our car any lower from its 19.2km/L score, losing out against our rival cars even for overall economy through the entire route. 

But there's still plenty to be learnt. To start, the new hybrid drivetrain of this Forester is quite the accomplished thing. We were doing mostly highway miles, of course, but some careful management of your acceleration will see you achieving a decent fuel economy (and one that's better than the car's own claimed economy figure). And all this can be done, without the need to sweat it out in your car.

But more interesting to note, perhaps, is the fact that we managed to arrive at our hotel with just about less than a quarter of fuel still left in the tank - which is plenty if you're planning on making the trip yourself and want to visit the many sights around Hat Yai. The Subaru Forester is (and always has) been a car for the adventurous after all, and this new hybrid iteration clearly continues to build on that legacy.

Oh, and a power adapter is needed if you're going to stay in a hotel in Thailand.