Review and photos by
Chris Chase, Autos.ca
In the compact crossover set, the manual transmission plays hard to get. Many of the big names, like the CR-V, RAV4, Rogue and CX-7, come only with automatics. The ones that can be bought with a stick, such as the Tucson, Sportage and Ford Escape, force compromises on the buyers, such as limiting the availability of a manual transmission to models with front-wheel drive, in a class where many shoppers place a high priority on all-wheelers.
2011 Subaru Forester 2.5X Touring
This is where the Subaru Forester is a unique choice among its compact crossover competitors: it comes standard with all-wheel drive (naturally) and can be fitted with a manual gearbox: gearheads rejoice!
The Forester, of course, is also unique in its competitive set for Subaru’s dedication to horizontally-opposed (or boxer) engines, and for 2011, the Forester gets a new version of the company’s 2.5-litre four-cylinder. The changes aren’t revolutionary. The only mechanical update that might interest the casual consumer is a move to a chain-driven twin-cam valvetrain, in place of last year’s belt-driven single-cam set-up, a change that eliminates the need to replace a timing belt every 100,000 km or so. (more…)
