A sportier Subaru Forester is coming to Australia

Subaru Australia has confirmed a sportier version of the top-selling Subaru Forester SUV is on the way, and it should be here by the end of the year.

Before Foz enthusiasts get too excited, the fettled Forester won’t be a legitimate performance model like the sought-after Forester XT of the mid-2000s.

It also won’t be anything like the Forester STI sold in other countries.

Instead, the next Forester to take on a sportier bent will use the same naturally-aspirated 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the current range, good for 136kW of power and 239Nm of torque.

Subaru believes a more athletic positioning will be achieved via improved suspension, added exterior elements to create a tougher look, and refinements inside the cabin.

According to Subaru Australia’s managing director Colin Christie, it’ll be similar to a model currently on sale in the US, where they call it a Forester Sport.

“It’s a car that’s available in the US now – or similar to the one available there,” he said.

“It’ll be just be a bit more of a fun sort of Forester.”

Asked whether he thought the boat had sailed on true performance variants of the Forester, such as the XT, Christie said “as far as we know, yes”.

Christie cited the condensed range of engine options from the Subaru factory – borne out of R&D dollars being reinvested into alternative drivetrains – as the main reason behind the absence of a fully-fledged performance high-rider.

“The XT was a fantastic car for us... an iconic car. If we could get one, we’d happily take it. But to be honest, we copped criticism about the reduction of the engine options [in the Forester range] and we couldn’t be happier with the response [in sales] since.”

Subaru is yet to confirm details and pricing on the future variant, but says it’ll arrive before the end of 2020.