At the recent 37th Bangkok Motor Show, Motor Image - the exclusive distributor of Subaru vehicles in the Southeast Asian region - approached the newly launched Forester with a spanking new campaign "Is there Anything You Can't Do?", allowing it to be aligned with families and drivers who have a 'never say die' attitude.
While the tagline may sound as if it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, it proves to be relatively accurate and credible for the Subaru Forester - which also explains the remarkable number of bookings of over 400 units in Singapore at the moment.
At the launch in Bangkok, Thailand, where short test drives were arranged in accordance to three different courses, the sporty SUV demonstrated agility, dynamism and fun, as proven from the way it behaved cheekily around the heavily gravelled circuit.
Interior has been upgraded a notch, too. Piano black plastics now adorn the door panels, with a premium head unit as well as a LCD Cluster display taking centre stage. Design changes, like its cabin, are subtle to the untrained eyes, but when parked side by side, you'll notice the significant differences from its brand new grille, taillights as well as 18-inch design rims.
While we only managed to get our hands behind the wheel of the 2.0-litre Boxer four-pot normally aspirated (NA) Premium variant of the Forester, which sports 150 horses and 198Nm of torque, Singapore will be getting both the NA as well as the turbocharged variant. The latter comes with a 2.0-litre direct injection turbocharged Boxer engine that will spit out a stronger 240 horses and 350Nm of twisting force.
Costing $11,000 more than the NA variant, the turbocharged 2.0XT will have extra features like electric seats with memory function, a bigger infotainment screen, auto rear tailgate as well as an extra Sport# Mode, which tweaks the engine to respond directly to the accelerator for more powerful driving.
Prices as of press time (exclusive of COE)
Subaru Forester 2.0i-P (Premium): $113,800
Subaru Forester 2.0XT (Premium): $124,800
