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Subaru Forester glimpse at Show

Forester is firmly established as Australia's best-selling compact sports utility vehicle, says Subaru Australia MD Nick Senior.

The Forester S-Edition concept builds on the turbocharged following of the existing Forester XT.  It is powered by a turbocharged 2.5 litre boxer engnie with 193kW of power, which is 24kW more than the XT and produces 347Nm of torque, up 27 Nm.

Other features are paddleshift five-speed automatic gearbox, revised sports suspension, Variable Torque Distribution (VTD) all-wheel drive, STI 17-inch high lustre alloy wheels, alcantara seat trim with S-Edition logos, drilled alloy pedals, luminescent instruments with centre design unique to the model and S-Edition badging and styling accents.

The bonnet wing mirror on the display model is only for Japan which will not get to see the vehicle for another month.  Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior says it is an honour for Fuji Heavy Industries to unveil the vehicle in Sydney.

"It points towards an exciting development in our Forester range early next year,'' he says.

"Forester is firmly established as Australia's best-selling compact sports utility vehicle, with the most recent addition to the range being the diesel variants that are proving a sales winner for our all-wheel drive brand.

"There's no denying Forester's appeal to Australians in both urban and rural environments, so we think this concept will only add to the huge interest."

Since going on the market in June, diesel variants have represented 29 per cent of Forester sales.  The S Edition will have a $4000 premium over the XT.

Senior says the high value of the Australian dollar had not affected Subaru prices as they deal in the Yen which has been as strong as 106c in the past year.

The Subaru stand is also showing the recently revised widebody WRX and WRX STI, including the newly introduced sedan variant and paddleshift auto.  Senior commends the one Australian motor show per year concept.

“We will see more world reveals with one show on the calendar,” he says.  “We will also have some exciting displays at Mebourne next year.  Maybe not a world first; but instead of five new things we will have one big thing.”

He suggests July as a better time to stage the show.  “You just come off the high of June sales and July and August are a bit of a hangover, so a July show would put more spark into sales.”