Safety: 2014 Forester Gets Top Rating in Offset Crash Test

The 2014 Subaru Forester was the only one of 13 compact crossovers and S.U.V.’s to earn the highest rating in a new, more severe front crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The new Forester was rated Good, and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport received the next-highest rating, Acceptable.

The insurance institute, which is financed by the insurance industry, began conducting the new test, called the small overlap test, in 2012. The results are rated on a scale of Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor. Vehicles are rated separately for their structure, for how well the driver dummy is restrained and for potential injuries to the dummy. Those are combined into the overall rating.

Moreover, the redesigned Forester was the first vehicle of 47 tested to date to receive perfect scores in all of those categories.

“It’s what we envisioned when we were first developing this test,” said Joe Nolan, the institute’s vice president for vehicle research. “They addressed the issues of structure. They addressed the issues of keeping the occupant engaged with the frontal air bag; keeping the steering wheel in front of the driver; deploying the side curtain air bag. All of those things, when they work together, they work very well.”

Receiving an overall rating of Marginal were the BMW X1, Honda CR-V, two-door Jeep Wrangler, Mazda CX-5, Nissan Rogue and Volkswagen Tiguan.

Receiving the lowest rating, Poor, were the Buick Encore, Ford Escape, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Patriot and Kia Sportage.

Conspicuously absent from the latest tested group was the Toyota RAV4, which will not be tested until later this year. In a press release, the institute noted that Toyota had “asked for the delay” so it could make changes “to improve” the RAV4’s test performance.

The new small overlap test is intended to replicate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle, or with an object like a tree or utility pole. In the test, 25 percent of the car’s front end on the driver’s side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour.

Because the impact is to the car’s outer edge, it misses the main crush-zone structures that reduce crash forces to the passenger compartment, increasing the risk of severe damage to the structure that surrounds the occupants.

In these impacts, vehicles tend to rotate and slide sideways. This movement can fling the dummy toward the windshield and front door pillar. And it can push the steering wheel, which contains an air bag, so far to the right that the dummy can fall into a gap between the steering wheel air bag and the side-curtain air bag that is meant to protect the head.

In the Jeep Patriot, for example, the steering wheel moved up eight inches and to the right almost six inches, causing the dummy’s head to slide off the front air bag. And the side curtain air bag did not deploy.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 21, 2013

An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the overall vehicle ratings in crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. While the Subaru Forester was the first of 47 tested vehicles to get a perfect score, it was not the first to receive a Good rating in all tests. The Volvo XC60 was also rated Good in all categories, though it received a demerit because its side-curtain air bag did not provide enough forward coverage.

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Behind the Wheel | 2014 Subaru Forester: Subaru Forester: A Crossover Jostling to Fit in Showrooms Already Full

Not that Subaru is doing badly. Sales in the United States have increased in each of the last four years, setting records. But the Forester — last reworked in 2008 — has not been part of that growth, with sales shrinking some 10 percent in 2011 and stalling at that level last year.

The Forester has, in part, been a casualty of the brawl in the compact sport utility market in recent years, with automakers landing blow and counterblow by improving fuel economy while adding luxury, performance and safety features previously unseen in this class. Chasing market leaders like the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape, the major automakers are updating or introducing new models very quickly, said Tom Libby, senior forecasting analyst at Polk, the automotive data firm.

Now Subaru joins that melee with a Forester that offers more room, new features and better fuel economy, all based on the underpinnings of the redesigned Impreza introduced in 2011. Subaru’s two-pronged market strategy continues: there’s the standard Forester 2.5i and then the 2.0XT, a sportier turbocharged model.

Prices start at $22,820 for a 2.5i with a 6-speed manual transmission; a continuously variable automatic is $1,000 extra. The least expensive sport model is the 2.0XT Premium, priced at $28,820.

But picking the fancier 2.0XT Touring version and adding a package of high-tech features that includes lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control, high-intensity-discharge low-beam headlights and precollision braking can push the price past $36,000. That figure suggests high hubris, given that Foresters have never been considered prestige models, but a richly optioned Escape can also reach that level.

I tested both a 2.5i Premium, which had a sticker price of $26,320, and a 2.0XT Touring ($36,220).

The 2014 Forester is 1.4 inches longer and gets a new look — lauded by company officials — that drew little attention in two weeks of driving around northern New Hampshire, a prime habitat of Subaru enthusiasts. But settle inside and the all-around visibility is good; a huge panoramic sunroof, standard on many models, furthers the sense of openness.

Core Subaru values like practicality have not been forsaken. The basic controls for heating, cooling and ventilation rely on an increasingly forgotten and simple pleasure: large, easy-to-use knobs. However, an optional touch screen for functions like the stereo is frustrating, with tiny boxes best suited to dainty little fingers.

An important change is the addition of 3.7 inches more legroom in the rear, which Subaru justifiably felt was needed to attract families with children. That increase means the Forester now has more rear legroom than major competitors like the CR-V, Escape and Toyota RAV4. Behind the second row there’s a competitive 34.4 cubic feet of space (31.5 when equipped with a sunroof).

There are also important mechanical upgrades. The quaint 4-speed automatic that hobbled the previous generation’s acceleration and fuel economy is gone. It has been replaced with an utterly agreeable C.V.T. that offers a strong and instant response to the accelerator. Fuel economy is greatly improved, by up to 5 m.p.g on the highway and 3 m.p.g. in town.

A 6-speed manual transmission is standard on the two least expensive 2.5i trim levels, replacing a 5-speed manual. All other models get the C.V.T.

The entry-level engine is a 170-horsepower 2.5-liter flat 4-cylinder introduced in the 2012 Forester and then added to the 2013 Outback and Legacy models. With the automatic, it is rated at 24 m.p.g. city and 32 m.p.g. highway. Pick the 6-speed manual and the fuel economy drops to 22 city and 29 highway.

The other engine choice is the turbocharged direct-injection 4 rated at 250 horsepower at 5,600 r.p.m. Available only on the 2.0XT, it is making its North American debut. Mileage with the turbo engine is rated at 23/28, one mile per gallon less in the city and four on the highway than the 2.5-liter engine.

That 250 horsepower is up from the 224 produced by last year’s 2.5-liter turbo. However, that gain is offset somewhat by extra pounds. The 2.0XT’s curb weight of 3,622 pounds reflects an increase of about 172 pounds, in part a result of bigger wheels and brakes.

Subaru says the base 2.5-liter Forester will go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 9.3 seconds with the C.V.T. The turbocharged 2.0XT is 3.1 seconds quicker.

During two weeks of driving in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, what the 2.5i and 2.0XT proved to have in common was driving satisfaction, albeit in different amounts.

The electric power steering, new for 2014, is predictable and properly weighted, and for an all-wheel-drive vehicle the Forester is pleasingly quick to dig into a turn.

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