Subaru Australia is saying nothing about the refreshed 2017 Subaru Forester, but in Japan it’s already available for order with a host of updated safety equipment.
MORE IMAGES OF the refreshed 2016 Subaru Forester have leaked online along with details of Subaru’s next-generation EyeSight. The new Forester is apparently available to order in Japan, although the car has not been officially revealed yet, brochures as you can see here have been…
According to the brochures, there will be two new colours available, although whether they’ll make it to Australia remains to be seen. The new colours are a dark blue from the Liberty colour palette and a bronze colour. On the inside, as you can see in the pictures, the refreshed Forester gets new materials and dials, borrowed from the Outback.
The headlights are all new, too. The naturally-aspirated models get LED headlights, while the Forester XT gets active LEDs for high- and low-beam which “bend” depending on steering inputs, while the next-generation EyeSight 3 will apparently get automatic high-beam which dips the lights whenever it detects a car in front or off to one side.
In Japan, at least, EyeSight 3 brings blind-spot detection, adaptive cruise control and sensors that can detect and apply the brakes if it detects a moving object when you’re parking or pulling out from a parking spot. Given the running developments with Subaru’s safety suite locally, it’s likely we’ll see the full freight EyeSight 3 available here soon.
According to our information, the refreshed Forester XT will borrow the torque vectoring system from the Levorg, with output, in Japan, hiked to 220kW and 380Nm of torque, which is up from 177kW and 350Nm of torque in the current local version. It’s been hinted to Practical Motoring that the CVT for the refreshed Forester XT will be reprogrammed and similar in nature to the one in the WRX; our source is quiet on changes to the naturally-aspirated engines, though.
Practical Motoring’s source has already ordered his new Forester XT, and here’s what he said: “For my XT 2.0 I added a couple of nice options: full LED fog lights, accents, Diatone sound system that should be just awesome, infotainement is totally integrated to the console offering a better experience. I added an STi package for suspensions, bushings, braces, exhaust (will arrive later) and front lip. The forester will be Dark blue, and have Silver metallic coated mirror covers”. It’s unlikely an STi package will be available in Australia.
As more information becomes available we’ll share it here.
So this will hit our shores around March 2016? Any news on the engine?. Will the current N/A 2.5 be direct injected or is there a chance the 1.6 DIT used in the Levorg will make it into the Forester?
Hi Tony, Subaru Oz isn’t saying anything about the new Forester, but we’d guess it’ll be here early-ish next year. We’re still chasing details on the NA engine. Doubt the 1.6 will feature. Cheers, Isaac.
That’s a shame, i think american buyers would love the 1.6L DIT engine. Offers more perceived power(via low end torque) while getting the best fuel economy.
I’m buying a new car next year, the hyundai tucson 1.6T is currently the one i’m eyeing, but i would rather have a forester.
More power. Manual transmission in turbo model. That is all I ask for.
The cvt tranny is nice for gas mileage but I’d much rather be able to tow something bigger than a golf bag…
CVT tows fine, we have the current XT and it pulls a big tandem trailer with no problems.