Subaru executives were carrying themselves comfortably in Guangzhou, whilst other Japanese executives were looking slightly worried about the paths their own joint ventures were going to take over the next few months. Subaru has nothing to worry about, as its own JV plans for the Chinese market were denied by the Chinese government several months ago, which will leave Subaru as an importer into the Chinese market. It seems that Subaru is not all that fussed, its ramped up production in America and will likely export American goods back to China to avoid the high priced Yen. American imports such as the Jeep Compass are priced very competitively with Chinese made products such as the Honda CRV, so perhaps there is no need to produce in China as long as the support network is there for your products.

The 2013 Forester has two faces, the more aggressive face is worn by the flagship 2.0T and the more down to earth face is on the naturally aspirated models. Consumers are likely to opt for the looks of the turbo model if they had to choose, but pricing is likely to push people towards the naturally aspirated model as well. Both models have a CVT gearbox that comes with eco, sports and touring mode. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced but imagine something from 250,000RMB to 300,000RMB when launched.