Five extras you should fit on a new Subaru Forester
The Subaru Forester was thoughtfully designed to suit the lifestyles of adventurous families, with many helpful features included as standard. That doesn’t mean that there’s no room for improvement, however, as Subaru offers various add-ons to make a Forester even more appealing. We highlight five of these neat extras.
Seeing as the Forester is already packed to the brim with safety features, we decided to rather focus on cosmetic- and practical enhancements that can be applied to Subaru’s popular SUV. In compiling this report, we gathered some information on Subaru South Africa’s webpage, and picked the most useful extras on offer. Kitted out with these items, a new Forester will be even tougher than standard, as well as more useful. The prices for these extras will vary depending on your location, so enquire at your nearest Subaru dealer about availability and pricetags.
1. Deep cargo tray
An SUV is meant to be able to carry plenty of things in its luggage compartment, and the Forester’s practicality definitely helps it on this front. There’s 520 litres available behind the rear seats, but there’s also a downside to all this boot space: loose items may slide around on the carpeted floor, and sharp-edged objects could damage the luggage bay trimming as a result.
To minimise this problem, Subaru offers a cargo tray for the Forester, made of a waterproof polymer and featuring some corrugations for more grip. It also has a deep ridge right around its edge, to locate the tray securely and provide some protection to the side trim panels. As an upside further down the line, it will also improve on the Forester’s resale value, because the standard floor mat was properly protected all along.
2. Cargo Step Panel protector
Another resale value-improver is this bumper protector, which keeps the top ledge of the rear bumper free of paint damage. Anyone who’s ever taken a wheeled suitcase out of a car will be able to relate – it takes just a slip of the wrist to gouge an unsightly scrape into the bumper’s paintwork.
This resin protector will keep that from happening, because it acts as a barrier between the bumper (which forms the lower part of the boot aperture) and any errant cargo. It also forms a nice colour break in the Forester’s blocky rear-end styling, making it look just that little bit wider and more aggressive.
3. Mud flaps (Splash Guards in Subaru-speak)
It’s a bit surprising to see such a basic thing on the options list, but apparently the Subaru Forester doesn’t come with mud flaps as standard. In any event, the accessories on offer are partly cosmetic add-on and partly functional, and will help keep the side sills and rear bumper free of stone chips.
They will also help protect the car behind you from having a rock flung into their windscreen by your tyres, so getting these “Splash Guards” for your Forester is just good manners, really.
4. Rear seat Pet Protector
This pooch pouch isn’t listed on Subaru’s South African website, but can be ordered directly from Australia if you really want one. It just has to be on this list, though, especially if you enjoy adventuring with your dog.
Located like a hammock between the front- and rear seatbacks, and with zip-up flaps on the side to protect the door trims, the pet protector forms a neat “play pen” for pets, keeping them more secure behind the front seats and protecting the cabin’s upholstery.
5. Roof Cross Bars
Few people realise it, but the Subaru Forester’s roof rails are actually rated to carry some weight – up to 80 kg, in fact. But to secure anything from fishing rods to water skis on them, you’re going to need the cross bars to make them useful, and those are an aftermarket accessory.
These cross bars can easily be fitted and removed by hand, and present a secure mounting platform to carry rooftop boxes and bicycle racks. By the looks of things, they’re also designed to clear the sliding sunroof, although you probably shouldn’t open the sunroof when your mud-riddled mountain bike is strapped to the roof...
Related: Find out more about the latest Subaru Forester in our review of the 2019 model.