Subaru's new Forester SUV scooped

The curse of the leaked brochure has struck Subaru’s fourth generation Forester.

Not due to be officially unveiled until late October, the latest iteration of Subaru’s popular compact SUV is now being splashed across the internet courtesy of a Japanese brochure first published on the website Carscoop.

The new Forester is due here in the first quarter of 2013, when it’s expected to mount a strong challenge for sales leadership in the compact SUV class, as its predecessors have done since the first generation launched in 1997.

The brochure images depict an attractive tidying of generation three’s boxy exterior style, with sleeker headlights and a more prominent grille.
The published measurements indicate the Forester has grown in every important dimension, with boot capacity up from 450-litres to as much as 505-litres.

Under the skin the Forester will continue to be closely related to the Impreza small car, which along with the XV cross-over has clearly also provided inspiration for the interior.

One of the cars featured is powered by what looks to be the Impreza’s naturally-aspirated 110kW 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer engine, while the other is an XT, powered by a 206kW 2.0-litre twin scroll turbo-petrol engine, which the brochure suggests can be specified with Subaru’s multi-mode SI-Drive.

The XT is shown with aggressive styling that includes a unique front bumper with side inlets.

One new feature the Forester will be available with, at least in Japan, is Version 2.0 of Subaru’s EyeSight technology, incorporating adaptive cruise control, automatic pre-collision braking, lane departure warning and vehicle sway warning.

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