The Subaru Forester buyers can now get the crossover with a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine. Before you get too excited, the new offering is only available in Japan at the moment.

Internally, Subaru refers to the 1.8-liter mill as the CB18. The powerplant features dual overhead camshafts and direct injection In the Forester, it produces 174 horsepower (130 kilowatts) and 221 pound-feet (300 Newton-meters) of torque, which is the same output as in the new Levorg wagon.

Gallery: 2019 Subaru Forester First Drive

The 1.8-liter powerplant is available in the Forest Sport. The model also uses a CVT gearbox and all-wheel drive. Subie tunes it with specific damper and coil spring settings. The outside has a black grille and 18-inch wheels with a dark metallic finish. Inside, there's a mix of ultra-suede and leather upholstery.

The Forester Sport retails for 3,289,000 yen ($31,400.22 at current exchange rates) after Japan's 10 percent consumption tax.

Motor1.com reached out to Subaru of America to find out if there's any chance the company would bring this turbocharged Forester to the US. Unfortunately, the automaker does not comment on future products.

When Subaru introduced the latest generation of the Forester in the US for the 2019 model year. It adopted the Subaru Global Platform, but the automaker didn't bring the turbocharged engine over to the new model, like the previous one. The only powertrain choice was a 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder making 182 horsepower (136 kilowatts) and 176 pound-feet (239 Newton-meters) of torque.

The latest model has proven very popular for Subaru. As of September 2020, the company has delivered 134,082 units of the Forester in the US this year. This is up 2.0 percent year-over-year, which is impressive given the tough yearwith the COVID-19 shutdown.

Top comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
Comment!
Got a tip for us? Email: tips@motor1.com