{"id":21604,"date":"2022-05-06T09:04:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T13:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=21604"},"modified":"2022-05-06T09:04:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T13:04:06","slug":"subaru-solterra-forester-wilderness-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=21604","title":{"rendered":"Rekindling the love with Subaru | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUCKEYE, Ariz. \u2014 When I was getting ready to get my driver\u2019s license in the late 1990s, I was obsessed with the first-generation Subaru Outback<\/a>. I already had a thing for wagons, it appeared, and an all-wheel-drive wagon only seemed cooler. I ended up with my sister\u2019s S-10 Blazer<\/a>, and later an XJ Cherokee<\/a>, but my heart would still skip a beat when I saw those big windows perched on top of a layer cake of sheet metal and plastic cladding. It was in love.<\/p>\n

I finally got my Subaru<\/a> fix in the form of a 2004 WRX<\/a>, which I purchased new in 2003. I owned it for about a decade and a half before I reluctantly sold it. I freaking loved <\/em>that car, and even though I was tempted to update my garage with subsequent WRX models, this one had everything I needed. But I grew up, and my family increased in population from me and a few cats to add a wife, a kid and a constantly fluctuating number of pets (the former of which now includes a large dog who might actually be part horse). Meanwhile, Subaru\u2019s product lineup had evolved, hitting a crescendo for my brand infatuation with the launch of the superbly fun BRZ<\/a>. A few years after our first child arrived, I decided to part ways with Sarah Michelle Gellar (yes, the WRX had a name, and that<\/em> was it). At the end, that car was mostly sitting unused, as the fun but increasingly aged and impractical-to-me compact sports sedan took a back seat to the cars I needed to review for work.<\/p>\n

Other Subarus I had driven in the interim hadn\u2019t provided me with that same spark. I liked them just fine, and there were moments when I felt an inkling of what I\u2019d felt before \u2014 an exceptionally exciting corner at Thermal in the STI Type RA<\/a>, catching an enormous drift on a frozen lake in a BRZ with studded tires<\/a>, the first quarter mile after the pavement ended in the 2020 Outback<\/a>. I\u2019d get flickers of that sensation I used to feel all the time when driving my WRX or walking a Subaru lot as a younger adult. The lineup for the past 10 years just hadn\u2019t tickled my fancy the way it did back then.<\/p>\n

Then, this spring, I drove the 2023 Subaru Solterra<\/a>, and really felt, despite the amount of Toyota baked into it<\/a>, that it fit into my previous vision of what the Subaru brand was. The electric motor\u2019s instant torque was the cure for any sadness I\u2019d felt from the disappearance of turbochargers from the Forester<\/a> lineup, and its all-wheel drive and mild off-roading capacity was still what I\u2019d expect from anything but the BRZ. That drive stuck with me, and brought back memories I\u2019d had test-driving older Subarus and of doing silly, happy things in my WRX.<\/p>\n

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A week and a half later, I landed back in Arizona with a Forester Wilderness<\/a> for a week, and it was like that second date after a really good first date. I didn\u2019t want it to end. I was excited from the moment I saw it. The color<\/a> was great, for one (Subarus look good in blue), but its knobby tires, extra ground clearance, anti-glare hood, prominent badging and tasty accents looked just like something I would have done had I bought a Forester or Outback<\/a> instead of a WRX sedan back in 2003. Those interesting looks carried over inside, and the yellow accents and stitching, as well as the Wilderness logos looked considerably more exciting and cohesive than the odd mashups of colors and textures I\u2019d seen in the likes of the Forester Sport.<\/p>\n

The extra ground clearance was a treat, too. While Subaru used to call the Outback \u201cThe world\u2019s first sport utility wagon,\u201d this Forester Wilderness seems spiritually closer to the AMC Eagle than that original outback ever did (and, yes, I\u2019m still hoping I get to try the Outback Wilderness<\/a> soon). While I was with my family most of the time I had the Forester Wilderness in Arizona, I did steal some alone time to explore some of the rural highways and their offshoots around Buckeye. This Wilderness felt right at home as the pavement turned to gravel, then to rocks, then to pure, flat desert trails leading to clandestine target shooting spots and who knows what else. I didn\u2019t take the Forester so far that I’d need use of the skid plate, but the all-terrain tires made adventuring just a little further possible, stretching out what time with the car I could before I\u2019d get the \u201cWhere the heck are you?\u201d phone call.<\/p>\n

The Forester Wilderness is quite noisy, though. Back on the highway, the roar from the tires \u2014 and the tires of the cars around you \u2014 make their way into the cabin. In a car where character is a big part of why you love it, a fault like that is just more character. My WRX \u2014 and every other car I\u2019ve loved \u2014 have had flaws that I haven\u2019t just overlooked, but have conceptualized as part of the car\u2019s individuality. If it were mine, I\u2019d already have plans for when it retired from daily driving duty and entered the project car phase of its life. Maybe a suspension lift and bigger tires? \u00a0Heck, maybe even pop the doors off of it and do something really stupid.<\/p>\n

Since driving the Solterra and the Forester Wilderness practically back to back, I\u2019ve been thinking about them and other Subarus considerably more than I had been in a long while, and with a fondness I hadn\u2019t felt in ages. That ache in my heart where I used to hold a place for Sarah Michelle has grown sharper, and I find my gaze following even the more modest Subarus as they pass by on the road. All it took was a couple drives in some of the brand\u2019s newer, quirkier cars \u2026 ones that seem to point to where Subaru is going, and it feels a lot like where it came from. It\u2019s only going to get worse (for me) when the Solterra starts making its inevitable way into Ann Arbor driveways.<\/p>\n

If Subaru decides to make a Solterra Wilderness, I\u2019ll be in trouble.<\/p>\n

As an aside, I ask you, dear reader: Have you had a similar relationship with a brand, or even a model? Is there a car or a carmaker you loved that fell off your radar, only to boomerang its way back into your heart. If so, I\u2019d love to hear about it, if just to know I\u2019m not alone.<\/em><\/p>\n

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