Auto Channel

Forester in Outback clothing

Last year, all eyes were searching for the then all-new WRX but our carparazzi also came across a cobbled-up Outback. Our spyphotographers thought nothing of it, until they ran into the same test mule today. And all of a sudden it clicked, this is the all new 2009 Subaru Forester. Don't let the Outback body fool you, it has been chopped, extended, widened and welded and best of all, our sources say, the underlying car is the all-new and larger Forester.

The current Forester has a 99.4 inch long wheelbase, but this mule measures – give or take a tenth – a whopping 108.5 inch wheelbase, that is within half an inch of the Tribeca wheelbase and over 3 inches longer than the Outback. Another result of the measuring expedition was that the mule measures about 2 inches wider than the current Outback, showing that the Forester will grow in both length and width. Subaru remains deadly quiet on the topic, but we expect the new Subaru Forester to arrive next autumn for the 2009 model year.