With the rear seats up, there’s plenty of space for adult passengers in the rear, and our colossal rear-facing child seat fits no problem. I do wish the 60/40 split was reversed, with the larger folding section on the driver’s side so that maximizing cargo space with three passengers didn’t require left-side loading and unloading the kid. However, seats up or seats down, the Subaru can haul just about everything.
Nits to pick: the seats don’t fold exactly flat, the material pegged onto the back of the folding sections is going to snap its tabs and be flapping around within a few year’s heavy use, there doesn’t appear to be sufficient cargo area lighting if you’re unloading in the dark, and the rear cargo privacy cover is as flimsy as a three-dollar umbrella. Even so, where cargo-carrying is concerned, the Forester gets top marks.
  2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited. Click image to enlarge |
While this is merely an overnight camping trip, we stuff the Subaru with enough gear for a week as a dry run for a longer voyage planned later in the summer. That means: enormous tent, fresh-water container, folding table, folding chairs, tarps, blankets, one suitcase of kid-stuff, rolled sleeping bag the size of a hay bale, cooking gear, folding table, first aid kit, enough clothing to outfit a polar expedition, camp stove, teapot, an assortment of buckets filled with who-knows-what, extra shoes, extra lamps, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh yeah, and mosquito repellent.
Loaded up with gear, as well as two adults and a kid, we hit the Sea-to-Sky, en route to Pemberton. Immediately, the heavily laden Forester shows a polarizing issue.
For fuel-economy reasons, Subaru has installed a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) as the automatic option for their small crossover (a six-speed manual is still available in base models). Most automotive reviewers hate the idea of a CVT, and if I’m honest, it’s hardly my favourite. Give me a Mazda CX-5’s six-speed automatic any day.
However, if driven gently, a CVT can actually be quite nice. Stomp the throttle and up comes the engine noise in a somewhat tuneless roar. Glide into the throttle as if, for instance, you have a baby on board, and the Forester smoothly picks up speed, the tach cresting up towards 4,000 rpm and then tailing back down again. Very civilized.
At speed, the wind noise from the large side mirrors is very evident, and there’s a bit of tire roar as well. Mind you, compare current refinement levels to the frameless windows of Subarus of yore and it’s like flying business class compared to having your Sopwith Camel shot down by Snoopy.
The steering is a bit overboosted, and particularly numb when the wheel is dead-centre. However, winding up the highway along Howe Sound, the Forester settles into a pleasant rhythm, rolling a bit more than sportier CUVs, but tackling the curves very nicely.
 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited. Click image to enlarge |
Popping into Squamish for our lunch, we pick up a swing-top bottle of ale from the must-visit Howe Sound Brewpub and then elect to take a less direct way out of town, perhaps swinging past the Brackendale Eagle viewing area. Two wrong turns later and the paved road disappears, leaving us looking at a lengthy, pockmarked stretch of wet gravel that’s so full of potholes it looks like an enormous brown cheesegrater. Drat. The kid’s just gone to sleep.
Here though, the Subaru impresses. Like, really impresses. I recently drove a CX-5 on rumpled roads like this and with that vibrato memory fresh in my head, the Subie’s gliding performance is all the more surprising. It really shouldn’t be though, this kind of stuff is what Subarus were born to do.
Back on the 99, we sail up through Whistler, where summertime mountain-bikers are thronging the hill, and then beyond. Past Whistler, the Sea-to-Sky changes from its Olympic-grade four-lane expressway to its former snaky self. While neither the steering nor the soft suspension particularly impresses, the decent front-end bite does impart a certain amount of confidence. As you’d expect with a Subaru, it feels very planted.
