Check out the Subaru Forester

If Subaru didn't invent the crossover sport utility vehicle, it was right there at the category's dawn.

In the 1970s, the Japanese manufacturer made a discovery: It's engines lent themselves to four-wheel drive cars.

Subaru had been dedicated to the horizontally opposed engine, or boxer, in which the cylinders lie flat, feet-to-feet, on both sides of the crankshaft. Meanwhile, many automakers configure their engines to stand up or lean, in conventional in-line or V formats.

Some consumers were familiar with boxers because they had been used for decades in Volkswagens and Porsches. Subaru developed the boxer after VW abandoned it. One advantage was a lower center of gravity because of its flat profile.

The discovery was that it could be easily adapted to four-wheel drive because it was a relatively simple matter to take a front-drive Subaru and run a driveshaft off the back of the engine to the rear wheels.

Soon, Subaru was producing four-wheel drive cars, station wagons and even a little pickup truck called the Brat.

At the time, four-wheel drive vehicles usually were trucks, Jeeps and Land Rovers, although American Motors produced a four-wheel drive station wagon in the 1980s called the Eagle.

Unlike other manufacturers, Subaru kept at it, but concentrated on cars. That's where the crossover experience comes in. Crossovers are car-based, while SUVs are based on trucks.

Even as the SUV craze took over, Subaru stuck to its guns. In 1997, it became the first brand in the U.S. to make all-wheel drive standard on all models.

To ride with the SUV craze, Subaru jacked up its Legacy and Impreza models and called them Outbacks. Then, in 1997, it brought out the Forester, still a crossover but one that looked more like a boxy SUV.

Now, with consumers fleeing from thirsty SUVs, Subaru's fealty to crossovers begins to look prescient. Yet there's an anomaly. Even as buyers flock to crossovers, they apparently want them to look more rugged-in other words, more like truck-based SUVs. At least that's what Subaru claims its customers said.

The 2009 model is the third generation of the Forester, and it comes at an opportune time. Forester sales, which had held steady between 50,000 and 60,000 a year, dropped to 44,530 in 2007.

Subaru says its existing customers-and, it is hoped, future ones as well - value usefulness and dependability above all else. Many keep their Foresters a decade or more.

So the designers took pains to make the new vehicle even more user-friendly. It is based on the new Impreza platform -- itself a larger and much improved car. The wheelbase -- the distance between the front and rear axles -- has been stretched by nearly four inches, and the increased length has gone into better rear-seat knee room and front-seat travel.

Overall, the Forester is slightly longer than its predecessor. But it's still shorter, by less than an inch, than the Impreza sedan. Inside, it has 102 cubic feet of passenger space -- about the same as a mid-size sedan -- but 34 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat, or more than double what you'd find in a large car.

In addition, the designers kept the Forester's boxy orientation, making the stash space even more useful. They built a box that measures 4 feet 4 inches long, 3 feet 3 inches wide and 2 feet 4 inches high. With the back seat folded flat, the box slides easily inside, and the tailgate closes.

But the box doesn't fit into either the Honda CR-V or the Toyota RAV 4, two of the Forester's main competitors.

There are seven new Forester models, starting with the 2.5X at $20,660. That includes all-wheel drive with a five-speed manual gearbox and a high level of standard equipment: stability and traction control, antilock brakes, electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist, side air bags and side-curtain air bags, active head restraints, air conditioning, remote locking, power windows and cruise control. A four-speed automatic transmission is $1,200.

The base engine is Subaru's venerable 2.5-liter boxer, which delivers 170 horsepower. It powers the four 2.5X models and the 2.5X L.L. Bean Edition. With a turbocharger, the same engine is rated at 224 horsepower, and it comes on the 2.5XT and the 2.5XT limited models. Both come only with the automatic transmission.

The test car was the 2.5XT Limited, which is the top-of-the line, with such amenities as leather upholstery, automatic climate control, a tilt-and-telescoping steering column, a power driver's seat with power lumbar support, 17-inch alloy wheels, a six-disc CD changer and pre-wiring for either XM or Sirius satellite radio.

It has a suggested sticker price of $28,860 and, with a navigation system, topped out at $30,660. That's competitive with other crossover SUVs in the compact class.

On the road, the Forester handles competently, thanks to its relatively lower center of gravity, although the steering feel is somewhat vague. The ride is comfortable, the seats supportive and the turbo engine has more than enough power, although a five- or six-speed automatic transmission would be welcome.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)