The Subaru Forester facelift has made a quiet entrance into the Malaysian market, and is now open for booking. We caught up with this unit – a GT Edition – on display TC Subaru’s PJ showroom

The midlife refresh for the fifth-generation Forester first surfaced in June 2021. It’s a literal facelift, as in the changes are all on the front fascia. The headlamps are the easiest way to spot the FL – the eyes of the car are now much sharper; the new clusters have a deep cut on the inside end, with the main LED projector underlined by LED daytime running lights.

The lights point to a grille that appears to be bigger and bolder in both shape and insert. The border of the grille is in gloss black instead of chrome, and the chrome ‘wings’ for the logo are now very minimal – just two small lines instead of a full-width item cradling the Subaru badge.

The Forester’s bumper has been reprofiled to match. There are ’embossed’ sections below the headlamps for a more 3D effect (outlined by aftermarket black stickers here, see the original look), and the fog lamp surrounds have a three lines of chrome accents. This GT Edition gets more black bits to create a chunkier bumper effect, along with a full-width silver chin.

The facelift’s rear end is unchanged, as so is the GT Edition kit for the rear, save for extra black pieces just above the reflectors. Like the front, the lower portion has a wraparound silver trim piece with a cutout for a single tail pipe. The GT Edition rides on two-tone 18-inch wheels with 225/55 Bridgestone Dueler rubber.

Inside, it’s all very familiar, but the GT Edition comes with leather seats that have a quilted pattern on the centre and grey bits on the sides.

Kit wise, you get an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Bluetooth; eight-way powered front seats; keyless entry with push start; dual-zone auto air con; a 360-degree around view monitor; electronic parking brake with auto hold; and a powered tailgate with memory, among other things. Subaru’s Eyesight ADAS pack is included along with seven airbags.

No change under the hood, where you’ll find a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated boxer-four engine with 156 PS at 6,000 rpm and 196 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. The FB20 unit is paired to a Lineartronic CVT with seven-speed manual mode (and steering paddle shifters) and Subaru’s signature symmetrical AWD system, which makes the Forester more rugged than the average urban SUV.

There are plenty of drive modes in this SUV, such as X-mode with Snow and Dirt modes, along with hill descent control and active torque vectoring, plus SI-Drive which offers Intelligent and Sport drive modes. The 0-100 km/h sprint is dispatched in 10.3 seconds and top speed is 193 km/h.

Now open for booking, the facelifted Subaru Forester 2.0 i-S Eyesight GT Edition is priced at RM196,288 on-the-road without insurance.

GALLERY: 2023 Subaru Forester facelift, Eyesight GT Edition

GALLERY: Subaru Forester facelift, Japan spec