The awards are flowing freely for Subaru’s Forester this month, as it received the inaugural AA Driven New Zealand Car of the Year Awards Best in Class Medium SUV honours tonight.
Subaru of New Zealand Managing Director Wallis Dumper accepted the Forester’s award at a cocktail event in Auckland tonight, after its class win was decided by a panel of judges drawn from the country’s motoring journalists and the AA.
The Driven and AA Motoring judges had high praise for the family-friendly Forester.
“The latest Subaru Forester promises to ‘upgrade your fun’ and it delivers on the boast. Decent 220mm ground clearance and expanded cross-country ‘X-mode’ ABS and traction control software will confirm its continuing appeal to Swandri-wearers. City drivers will also find that this is a medium SUV that has a permanent All-Wheel Drive powertrain, has been revitalized by a new 136kW engine.”
It was only a week ago that the Subaru Forester was named the New Zealand Car of the Year by the New Zealand Motoring Writers’ Guild on prime time television programme Seven Sharp.
Mr Dumper knew there was something special about the new fifth-generation Subaru Forester when he first saw it in Japan before production commenced and is not surprised with the accolades that have been heaped on it in New Zealand.
“The Subaru Forester is the brand’s number one selling model globally for a reason and Kiwis have really embraced our all-new medium-sized SUV since it arrived here in August. This packed with technology, genuinely capable Subaru has class-leading safety features and we see it as moving closer to our super popular large SUV, the Outback, in terms of sales success,” Mr Dumper says.
For AA Motoring Services General Manager Stella Stocks the awards given out tonight, mark the culmination of a lengthy and comprehensive voting process.
“Each of the top 10 finalists vying for Car of the Year was put through its paces in a comprehensive trial both on the road and at the Pukekohe Park Raceway with all judges scoring from the driver’s seat. The results speak for themselves giving buyers the definitive answers they’ve come to expect from the AA,” Stella said.
Catherine Pattison
Public Relations
Subaru of New Zealand
M +64 (0)27 44 55 389
E catherine.pattison@subaru.co.nz
subaru.co.nz