Best Recreational 4WD

Australian’s passion for 4WD vehicles continues to grow and the Recreational 4WD class is winning the hearts of many buyers.

Recreational 4WDs are seen as offering the best of both worlds, providing user-friendly city transport with the ability to get out into mud, snow or sand.

Subaru’s Forester once again proved it was the best all-round package for this type of dual-purpose lifestyle.

Forester is now the only vehicle to have won its class every year since the Australia’s Best Cars awards began. Over the years, Subaru has updated the Forester to keep it fresh and ahead of some tough competition.

In terms of value, Forester scores well with a better than average level of standard features, and attractive ownership and operating costs.

Recreational 4WDs tend to spend most of their lives around the suburbs, and it is here the Forester’s car-like attributes come to the fore.

It has comfortable seats and well placed controls. Even though the cabin is not as spacious as some, the vehicle’s smoothness and quietness adds to the driving enjoyment.

The 2.5-litre engine delivers a good mix of performance and fuel economy, while well controlled ride and handling top off its above average on-road attributes.

Off-road, most people will be surprised by just how far the manual Forester, with dual range, will go. The determining factor is ground clearance.

Achieving above average marks in 16 of 20 criteria, the Forester was a clear winner, ahead of its stablemate, the recently upgraded Subaru Outback.

Although Outback was judged best in class for security, comfort, build quality, ride, handling and smoothness and quietness, it lost ground to Forester in value for money and off-road ratings.

Third place getter, the Honda CRV, scored well on space and practicality but fell behind in security, handling and 4WD ability.

Unfortunately, Toyota was unable to supply its new 2.4-litre RAV4 for testing, and the same company’s impressive new Kluger did not go on sale until nearly a month after our cut-off date.

Final Scores (Out of 5): Forester 3.81, Outback 3.70, CR-V 3.45.

Full Details: www.australiasbestcars.com.au.