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Boys im in the market for a forester for trips to our farm (3hours from Sydney, Safalla, Bathurst way)

There is a fair bit of dirt road, gravel road, tarmac and last of all a smallish river crossing.

Now my question is, what engine gearbox combo would best suit this.?

Im thinking in order of preference.

1. gt or xt in auto (turbo)

2. XS or similar (non turbo)with 5MT and dual range.

3. XT or GT in 5MT (turbo)

4. XS or similar (non turbo) in auto.

Im also looking to fit a 2 or 3 inch body lift and fit bigger rubber to factory tyres.

Opinions and experiences appreciated.

just brought a auto xs and have a manual forester. the manual is much better for offroad then auto but the auto is much better on the longer trips cheers

thunder039 wrote:just brought a auto xs and have a manual forester. the manual is much better for offroad then auto but the auto is much better on the longer trips cheers

I agree with you, as long as the engine in question is the N/A one. The manual transmission comes with low range, which is much more handy than anything the automatic can provide you with...

Move over to the turbo engine and the story is a bit different. In that case, the manual transmission doesn't come with the low range and the auto starts looking more appealing! Granted, you don't get engine breaking ability going down-hill, but in return you never ever run out of oompf going up. It is just sensational!!

Pedro.

your first option is proberly the best, but go with the xt the 2nd gen foresters are already higher then the 1st gen (gt) to start with