Jaybud's 2015 Subaru Forester XT

2015

Subaru

Forester XT

Dark Gray Metallic

Touring

I found the car in Texas with only 21,000 miles, bought it and had it shipped up to Michigan. According to Carfax, it sat on a Subaru new car lot until late 2016 before they finally sold it. I'm the second owner, and the car was bone stock, and pretty much perfect when I got it.

My intention right from the start was to lift the car and put some meaty tires on it for off-road adventures. But once I got the car and started driving it, two things happened. First, it became quickly apparent that my 125lb American Bulldog ("Johnson type"- look it up) couldn't easily get into the back seat. It's not the jump up, it's how small the bottom of the back door opening is- there's not a good step for him to use to get in. And second- driving a Subaru Forester XT reminded me of the VW GTI's that I used to race around in back in the 80's and 90's. So my plans completely changed within a week of owning the car. Up to this point, I had spent hours on websites and subaruforester.org researching the offroad modifications that I was gonna do. But by necessity I did an almost immediate 360 and started looking into lowering the car and making it more street-worthy. Pretty awesome that a Subaru Forester can go either way!

Invidia Q-300 exhaust. I've got some factory warranty left before I can make any other changes.

I found a JDM part on eBay that makes the removable fuse door panel (lower left below steering wheel) into a hinged change (or whatever) compartment. You can get this in two ways- a cheap Chinese one, and a more expensive version. The only difference between them is there's a fuse panel sticker on the pricier version. Other than that I've only added parts that were missing from my car, like the little top tray inside the console, and the cargo area security cover. I'm tempted to add the leather interior trim parts that are available, but I've watched the installation videos, and so far I can't get myself to commit.

I've only done a few things to the exterior. I bought a urethane front spoiler-lip from a company on eBay, and had it painted at a body shop to match the car. It looks good. Then I added Subaru brand side window air deflectors- they are functional and keep the rain out when the windows are cracked a bit, but they also change the 'lines' of the car, making the slightly 'too high' roof-line look a little sleeker (to me anyway). For some reason, Subaru didn't offer a fender flare for the 14-15 Forester, but I've been told that the factory fender flare made for the 16-17 model will fit well with one area trimmed at the front part of the front wheel wells, so I'm planning on adding those soon. They will also be painted to match the body color.

Stock Harmon Kardon system.

O.Z Racing Hyper GT HLT wheels- Star Graphite color- 18x8 with a +45 offset. This lines the wheels up nice and flush with the wheel well and body. Zero poke (maybe 1/4" inset), and hopefully the bearings will survive. I agree with "pay to play", but I'd also like to get some healthy miles out of my car! My tires are Sumitomo LSH, some of the cheapest tires you can buy, but they came with the car- brand new on the stock XT wheels- and after reading a ton of reviews about the tires, I decided to run them for a season. The biggest complaint about them online was that they're loud, and I really don't care about tire noise. They look a little stretched on the 8" wide wheels, but they're working just fine, and I'll get some expensive tires next summer and be blown away by how much better they are (or not).