Subaru Forester Sport 2.5 XT

June 13, 2007 - We're normally not fans of Subaru's Forester. In addition to being the vehicle of choice for ladies more manly than we are, Subaru's uber-boxy wagon has always seemed like it was trying to be something it wasn't. When the SUV boom hit in the late '90s/early '00s, Subaru - long-time maker of all-wheel drive utilitarian vehicles - wanted in. But Subaru has never offered a "real" truck (Brat fans - be quiet), so it "butched" up an Impreza wagon and spent several years calling it a SUV. Even with the growing SUV "backlash" and growing popularity of the "crossover" market, Fuji Heavy Industries' passenger car department is still insisting on calling this vehicle a SUV. And as we all know, it's hard for us to get behind a SUV. But one day we stumbled upon an STI-tuned Forester on Subaru's Japanese website. This wannabe SUV, lowered and rocking a much more aggressive front fascia, actually looked good. With the still-increasing popularity of Subaru's WRX STI, we couldn't help but wonder why Subaru wouldn't release this car in the USA. Well, two years on, we still don't have a STI-tuned W4W wagon here in the U.S., but the new Forester Sport 2.5 XT looks as if it may be the next-best thing. At its core, the Forester Sport 2.5 XT is a re-skinned WRX. The two cars share the same basic platform, the same 224 horsepower 2.5 liter turbocharged "boxer" four, the same five-speed manual transmission and the same sub-six second 0-60 time. The Forester Sports 2.5 XT also ditches its L.L. Bean duds and borrowed some "gear" from its WRX sibling in a successful effort to look at least 50-percent cooler than the regular Forester. Our Sport XT test car was sprayed in a bright and beautiful Subaru Rally Blue and sported a functional hood scoop, a more aggressive front fascia (similar to the one found on the JDM STI) and some 17-inch wheels. Pink STI badges, sadly, were nowhere to be found.