Even with the road twisting and turning, there’s time to check out the interior further as the kilometres roll past. It’s much improved over the old car, but still not quite what you’d call nice. The fake metal trim is just that, fake, and while the soft-touch material on the dash is decent, there’s plenty of very easily scratched plastic scattered throughout the rest of the cabin. We hit a bump, and despite the pliant suspension, something rattles in the dashboard. Oh Subaru. Don’t ever change.
The onboard entertainment system is halfway between being old-school outdated and refreshingly simple. I like the chunky air-conditioning controls, but the dash-pod mounted rear-view camera is far too small.
  2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited. Click image to enlarge |
Reaching our camping spot at Nairn Falls, I’m somewhat relieved to leap out and stretch my legs, even after such a brief jaunt. The Fozzie’s seats aren’t really all that comfortable, and are a little on the hard side. Some fiddling with the lumbar controls improves things to a degree.
Heading slightly further up the road to Joffrey Lakes for a hike, we slot the Forester between an old two-tone Legacy Outback and a newish Toyota Highlander. Our car is far more like the latter than the former, but really, that’s no bad thing.
 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited. Click image to enlarge |
Coming back down for the evening requires putting the Subaru through a series of steep, twisting switchbacks. Just as I’m thinking, “I must come back here in a Porsche or something,” the brake pedal goes extremely mushy. I wasn’t really hustling the Fozzie along, but the combination of steep grade, braking to a crawl from speed, and onboard mass seemed to heat up the brakes until they went all porridgey – certainly something to consider when evaluating towing capacity (the Forester is rated for 1,088 kg (2,400 lb) of hauling across the board).
Back in camp, the Forester’s standard factory-mounted roof rails provide a much-needed attachment point for our tarp, turning the Subaru into part of our campsite. As we scurry about, slapping away at the mosquitoes, a brief summary is easy.
If you’re in the market for a small crossover, there are many strong plays for your dollar, and the argument could be made that the new Forester is a bit unrefined and lacks the fun-to-drive character of its rivals. However, it is a Subaru, through and through, great at the rough stuff, easy to drive, capable of hauling all kinds of gear, confident and planted in the wet. It’s also as safe as driving around in a Bank Vault, being the only small SUV on sale that passes the new small-overlap frontal collision test.
Better yet, if you can get past the quirks of a CVT, it now even has the fuel efficiency necessary to keep up with the competition at 7.5 L/100 km city and 5.5 L/100 km highway. You’ll get more like eight litres per most of the time, but it’s a marked improvement over the outgoing model.
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It’s a Merrell hiking shoe rather than a wingtip or high heel or Nike runner. Really though, what else would you wear camping?
Pricing: 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited
Base Price (2.5i): $25,995
Base Price (Limited): $33,295
Freight: $1,650
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $35,045
Crash Test Results:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
