Subaru Forester 2002 test drive - 2005 SUV

Lung. Sparkling. Off -road

In Europe, to move on something slightly off-road-fashionable. If the anti-globalists who for some reason hate Suv'y do not throw curses in your back. In Russia, it is simply convenient for them - you stop noticing what exactly the well -being of Moscow and other bosses is based on the incomplete of asphalt into the canvas. Moreover, the car has no need to be the size of a small bus: the city SUV storms not bumps and swamps, but puddles and borders, so that the road clearance can also be sufficient for these purposes with smaller dimensions. Proof of this is Nissan X-Trail and Subaru Forester.
Car journalism consists of stamps. The idea of \u200b\u200bpeople about cars is from the same. Both tested cars are usually called the heroes of city jungle. In this they really are similar. But the rest of this pair of light SUVs is a vivid example of how differently you can spend approximately the same amount of money on goods of the same category. Yes, in general, the very origin of cars is diametrically opposite.
WASHING. Subaru, that is, Fuji Heavy Industries, has long been known that it produces cars with all -wheel drive, which the Japanese are no less than the Germans from Audi with their Quattro. Moreover, a few years ago, the all-wheel drive from Subaru did not even mean any claims for non-resistance: it simply knows that four leading wheels give advantages even on perfectly smooth, but wet asphalt. But in the nineties, the Japanese, in order to keep up with world fashion, wanted to expand the model range due to conditionally off -road cars. So the Legacy Outback and Forester appeared. How to make a reliable all -wheel drive transmission, Subaru engineers knew without extraneous tips. Compared to this, the task of increasing the road clearance to 190--195 mm looks just funny.
Forester turned out to be an incomprehensible car. It is incomprehensible in the sense that the class to attribute it to. And it is difficult to call a jeep, and it does not work with a station wagon. When we took the test car to the sink, the young man with Kerher's stick in his hands carefully examined the car before asking: Is it an SUV or not? We set off into long discussions about the difficulties of classifying machines with all -wheel drive, until we were torn in a half phrase: okay, pay like a light, after which the washer handed us a check. A Subaru Forester Nissan X-Trail, who drove after the Subaru Forester, cost us a quarter more expensive, but still cheaper than cars from the most prestigious, according to car wash workers, category, which was not the type of body, not the purpose of the car, but specific models-Toyota Land Cruiser and Mercedes Gelandewagen.
Well, the benefit is also - to look like a jeep, that is, by Russian standards, with a demonstration of prosperity, and pay at a preferential non -road tariff that when buying a car, on the sink.
Fontanka. The history of the appearance of the Nissan X-Trail is completely different than that of Forester. When Nissan began to create it, he already had vast experience in the production of classic SUVs - large, heavy, frame. Those on which you can safely go to the ends of the Earth. The designers took a fashionable package that retains all the sexual characteristics of the obstacle conqueror, while leaving only those technical solutions that are really in demand by a typical buyer - a city resident who was more likely to dream about how he will take a walk in his car to the forest, which actually spending the weekend there. Therefore, the X-Trail by default is just a large front-wheel drive car. It is recommended to connect complete only when moving on relatively smooth off -road, wet or slippery roads. At the same time, Forester has a constant all -wheel drive. We generally got on the test the latest and most extreme Forester, presented this fall in Paris. The gearbox is only manual, without options. One mode of work of the transmission. And a fire turbocharged engine with a volume of 2.5 liters. 210 horsepower. Eight seconds to hundreds. A very flat characteristic of the torque - this chancellery understands that the car always goes when you press the gas pedal. Stand on this Forester in a traffic jam is flour. He needs scope. Only a high center of gravity holds from very sharp restraints, which in terms of driver’s excitement is compensated by excellent acceleration from any speed combined with characteristic jerks with rapid gear shift. For the uninitiated - almost a sports car. Honesty in communication with the driver adds the lack of a stabilization program and even an elementary anti -wings system: for a car worth more than $ 40,000, this is an exceptional case. Therefore, on the wet grass, Forester can be twisted in place, lifting the mud fountains into the air - its flight, like the flight of your imagination, is not limited by anything.
Not such a Nissan X-Trail. He is a boy from a decent family who is trying to seem like a bully to like in a thieves company. Nissan’s motor is the same as on Forester, behind the absence of a turbine, it gives out 165 horsepower, which the automatic transmission conceals. X-Trail is also found with mechanics, but the most popular option came to us for a test, in which the driver, even if desired, cannot intervene in the transmission process. There is no manual mode, but automatic is not always predictable: with a sharp press on the X-Trail pedal, based on some of its ideas about the need to accelerate, switches to the lower gear. Or does not do it.
At the same time, at a speed of 130 km/h, Nissan manages to keep the momentum in the region of 3000, as if hinting that if you promote a tachometer to the red zone, it will go 260. Do not believe. He deceives you, trying to please you. And you know, he succeeds - until the driver begins to nervously trample the pedal in anticipation of miracles of acceleration. But it is known that the SUVs are measured, who is cooler, not on the 402-meter path of the drag-racing, but on a simple country-on the classic last 200 meters to the mother-in-law.
SMOKING AREA. The test of off -road properties of cars happened by itself. At first we stopped on the side of the highway. We saw the congress down to the dirt road. Someone here clearly descended to us on cars-traces were printed on clay. The first to move out X-Trail. He moved out without any problems, the only thing that remained to regret was that there was no lowering series in his transmission. According to the rules, it is necessary to descend from the hill not on the brakes, but on the transmission: on the machine, the car runs down too sharply, however, like Subaru with mechanics. In addition, Forester was slightly poked with a bumper in the sand. The fault of this is too large overhangs. To make it clearer: if his fashionable front bumper with lawls of fog lights are smaller, this would deprive the owner of an additional reason to contact the insurance company. We did not break anything on Forester, but most likely because it was during the day, the speed was minimal, and the man from the side watched the descent process. At the same time, the hill was not at all extreme. Judging by the characteristic garbage, which accumulated at some distance from the road-packages from condoms and wrappers from fast food-people come here often, and is unlikely exclusively on jeeps.
The road back was much more interesting. It turned out to be impossible strictly upward. Forester was the first to go - and again poked a bumper with a sagging bumper into the ground. We decided to apply cunning - they tried to storm the hill at an angle. And then I had to recall the words from the vocabulary of off -road travel lovers. The suspension turned out to be too short -handed - Forester lifted one paw and tried to wander the other wheels. Alas, despite the all -wheel drive, only two wheels spun: one, as already mentioned, hung in the air, the other, for an unknown reason, simply stood still. In general, for the pleasure to eat on the sidelines, the owner of Forester would pay not cheap - at least giving a bottle a truck driver who would agree to drag a car on a tie.
There were no doubts about Nissan. It is taller and overhang to be smaller, and in the cabin there is a switch with a 4 WD Lock mode - especially for driving in conditions of serious off -road or other extreme conditions. At right angles, X-Trail also did not rise in the hill: the risk of damaging the bumper was too great. And on the slope in the same way as in the case of Forester, there was a diagonal hanging: one wheel was cut off from the ground, unacceptable efforts of the rest of the wheels shod in a toothless standard rubber, there was not enough for the rise.
It ended in the fact that we went to look for a detour. The owner of any passenger car could count on the same thing - slightly hooking the soil with a bottom and a bumper, sliding down without hope to rise back.
Experiencing expectations. Nissan - he is not one. The central location of the devices is surprising, but not shocking: we saw, we know. Is it more convenient for the usual scheme? Yes, it is unlikely, although the advertising booklet is not lying: such a concept completely excludes that in some of the positions of the steering wheel you will block the instruments with a rim. In the X-Trail, the need to get used to the central shield is compensated by the creative use of the vacant place. From above, where simple machines that do not exceed expectations have a visor that closes the devices from the sun, an additional niche is made in Nissan. In such gazelle drivers are added overheads and lamps for gasoline. Nissan in his company avenue offers to place a card or mobile phone there.
Finding the mirror control key on Nissan during the first acquaintance is not easier than finding a second slippers in the apartment. The keys are there, at the very bottom, next to the hood handle. The second mystery becomes an algorithm for including long-range light: two spotlights can be mounted in the roof of X-Trail. It is impossible to recall in a week exactly how we activated them, but the effect is unforgettable: the inhabitants of the house, which rested on the projector’s ray, probably thought that they would now show them a movie. Right through the curtains.
Without deceiving expectations. The one who created the interior of Subaru Forester did not want to surprise anyone with his originality. You know, there are hotels where the hair dryer is hidden on the upper shelf of the clothing cabinet along with the robe, and in order to finally turn off the 33 lamps, you have to walk on the number before going to bed, pulling the switches, and then, breaking your legs, get to the bed in pitch darkness. Forester - he is not like that. Here is the steering wheel. Behind him are devices. You don’t have to think, where is the electronics button? Where it should be. Everything is in its place, but at the same time it was surprisingly hutly. Here is a receiver with a CD player. You look and see in front of you a panel of a very high -quality music center, the design of which is relevant today and is unlikely to seem tasteless tomorrow. Therefore, it is made simply and with visible quality, which is confirmed to the touch.
 
Subaru is slightly less practical: there is no armrest on the second row of seats, but in terms of the luggage compartment-that with the rear seats lowered, which with raised-Forester is slightly inferior to the X-TRIIL.
But in a different indicator, for which units of measurement have not yet been invented, visibility - Forester is unequivocally ahead. It is a pleasure to move in this aquarium in reverse, without any parking sensors. And sooner or later you will have to retreat before the obstacle. What to hide: on both cars it will turn out faster and more pleasant.

Text Valery Chusov, Sergey Sherestnikov, photo Andrey Danilov

Subaru Forester 2.5 XT
 
Gasoline engine with turbocharged Checklinder
Working volume (cubic cub) 2457
Power (L.S. at rpm) 210 at 5600
Moment (nm at rpm) 320 at 3600
The permanent drive is complete
Gearbox 5-speed mechanical
Length/width/height (mm) 4450/1735/1585
Wheel base (mm) 2525
Equipped mass (kg) 1445
Maximum speed (km/h) 227
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) about 8
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 15.0/8.7
Price in Moscow $ 41 510

Nissan X-Trail 2.5
 
The engine is gasoline in the next -head -cylinder
Working volume (cubic cub) 2488
Power (L.S. at rpm) 165 at 6000
Moment (nm at rpm) 230 at 4000
Front drive with automatically forced shopping off the rear axle
The gearbox is 4-speed
Automatic
Length/width/height (mm) 445/1765/1675
Wheel base (mm) 2625
Equipped mass (kg) 1490
Maximum speed (km/h) 178
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 11.1
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 12.7/7.9
The price in Moscow from $ 37,200, the tested car is $ 39,460

And outside and inside Forester demonstrates an excellent quality of execution. This fully compensates for the absence of any significant new ideas in design. However, the question is whether this is a serious drawback and whether the lack of at all.
The classic appearance is violated by moderately aggressive cladding with slightly frowning headlights and hexagon on the back door. And the devices drowned in the shield emphasize the sports style of the interior.

Nissan X-Trail looks very bright both outside and inside. Although in some places the wit of the authors of the interior goes too far: excessively design solutions seem not entirely realistic. In fact, the salon in X-Trail is simply amazing at practicality. For example, stands for glasses on the edges of the instrument panel are cooled by air from the air conditioner. The only serious failure is the mirror adjustment panel hidden on the left below.
 

A source: "Autopilot"