Forester Wilderness Edition (merged thread)

What this does is provide an "out-of-the-box" modified Forester and - as mentioned by Zach - allows Subaru to get some of that income. It is a need that was met up by many in the aftermarket and now the manufacturer is getting in on that market. That's happened plenty of times before.

Many of those modifications can be and have been done - even Eyesight, as I know a few people with highly modified Foresters that still have their Eyesight functionality. Whether the Eyesight system worked without issue or it was recalibrated to work with the new height, I don't know.

But this gives another Subaru Forester to the masses that also shows what can be done. For many years, there was nothing ever at the dealer's lot showing what could be done. Then just after the SK was introduced and so many in the aftermarket started offering up products, you started seeing some modified (lifted, whatever) Foresters on dealer's lots, done by the dealer and warrantied.

Seanyd78 said:

I really like the looks of it. A much more aggressive and trucky look. To me, it gives off a bit of a 4Runner vibe, which is a very good thing as 4 Runners are the king of off-road ready SUVs.

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Is the 4Runner really the "king" of off-road ready SUVs...? I'm not quite so sure.

While it could be argued that not all Foresters are "off-road ready" (even though technically they are with good ground clearance and standard AWD for all trim levels), it can be said that not all 4Runners are off-road ready either, with the most models starting off with 2WD with 4WD being optional, with the exception of a few models. The Forester also outsells the 4Runner by a fairly wide margin (over 176000 vs just over 129000 for 2020, over 120000 vs under 95000 for 2021). That's 25% more in 2020 and about 20% more for 2021.

While the 4Runner certainly LOOKS the part of the off-road king, so does the Jeep Wrangler. And the Jeep Wrangler trounced the sales numbers for both in 2020 (201000) and gets beaten by the Forester (with just 118000 units). Mind you, that includes both 2 door and 4 door models. I don't think the Wrangler is offered with 2WD any longer.

Now with the Wilderness Edition model, right off the lot you can get a very off-road ready (in features and looks), but I can agree that it would not be as capable as the Wrangler or some of the 4Runner models, but meet the needs of most of it's buyers.

Of course, for a truer comparison, it is the Toyota RAV4 and the Jeep Cherokee that we'd need to compare and contrast.