Nice car. Yet once again what is missing is the Diesel engine option for North America. Subaru has an awesome direct-injection Diesel and has been selling it in Europe since 2008.
I know all the reasons they tell the press: "low-sulphur Diesel availability" - not true for the most part any more. "Dealership staff not trained properly" - that one gets me angry. I was actually talking to a sales person at a dealership and they did not have anyone going to be trained, and not even anything scheduled for that. They are not intending to do it. And true enough, if there's no mechanic at the dealership who knows about Diesels, they can't sell them.
Clearly, people on this continent are set to be milked for their $$ to buy gasoline for a while. And looking at dumb ads promoting 30mpg cars as "fuel efficient". Laughable.
The same is true for Ford, General Motors, Toyota and all the others who have the most wonderful small-displacement Diesel engines up and running in Europe but just won't offer them here.
Let's all buy VW TDI's. That'll wake 'em up.

Torque figures? Fuel consumption of the XT? 27MPG for the standard is far from impressive. Nice look Subaru, shame it's not more frugal.

I agree with BeWalt. It is a pity that the consumer is apparently demanding larger vehicles, instead of more economic vehicles.

Why are all the designers sloping up the rear side windows? We need to see more when backing up, not less? I guess it's a bit of monkey see monkey do.
One of the sacred design principles of off road vehicles is great all round visibility. Even Range Rover seems to be forgetting their 'command seating' position. This visibility is great everywhere especially when parking in tight spots.
We need to build on what the earlier generations did. They knew what they were doing.

Correct me if I'm wrong,but don't know any other AWD that gets 32 mpg on the highway?
As for diesels how long does it take for payback after spending $3,000 extra and paying 50 cents more a gallon? In Europe fuel is at least twice the cost. Other drawbacks is they take forever to warm up and harder to start in cold climates.
Only 5% of VW's imported are diesels. Americans just won't buy them and with some good reasons.

Cars in Europe get ridiculous gas mileage. They aren't available in the U.S. because of the whole oil companies/auto maker in bed together situation here in the U.S., not to mention there's no real market for the diesels that get that mileage here. It's a niche market at best, and it would cost companies more money for ads, changes in model line-ups, dealer materials, etc. It would be like adding a new model to the line-up and all the hassle and havoc that causes, but on a mass scale. In the end, it's not worth the cost to pay off ratio, if you really think about it. But that's what it's all about, isn't it? The almighty dollar. But at any rate, I could be WAY off with this thought. Oh and by the way, 27 mpg highway is the rating for the current Forester with the regular automatic transmission. An AVERAGE of 27 and 32 Hwy for the 2014 is a pretty decent improvement....

chidrbmt
You are living in the 80's. Modern diesels start in all weather, warm up as fast as gas powered vehicles and last forever. They don't need emission testing (in my state anyway) so that saves me $75 a year right there. Diesel can also be stored indefinitely, so if (or when) we get a supply disruption, I'll be able to go anywhere within a 350 mile radius without needing fuel...

Subaru is a fantastic car I've had 2 of them one now is 21 years old and guess what! it has about the same fuel consumption! hahahaaha. It's that good old "all wheel drive" great for handling really,really, crap for fuel consumption. But I still love them 310,000 kms (193,750 ancient units) and still going strong.

if I follow the money, the corporation that profit from selling the gasoline will loose about 30% in income because diesel engines burn less and down on a road when they switch to produce more diesel the price of it should drop too. All that explanations are just politics witch puts America behind even Mexico and other poor country. Why Mercedes and Volkswagen can sell diesels here and Mazda can not, (having the best so far small engine that meets the environmental standards and is cheaper than Mercedes because don't need an extra burner, extra tank for UREA witch freeze up in cold weather and will leave some very small particles in your lungs from breathing that exhaust. Will you that easy give up your 30% earnings?

Subaru should have left the old model alone because it at least looked like what one would expect a Subaru to look like. They should leave the model wrapped with a sticker on it with the $5k discount offer to buy it sight unseen. Front end looks like an angry scarab with lines going everywhere. Suburu should have looked at the Buick Enclave or more squared BMW cross-over for proper cues. A giant Escalade looks properly proportioned. Even the usually conservative and clumsy Honda Crosstour with its giant yaw is more stylish. Take it to the stylists at Hyundai and call this one a 2013.5 version, instead.
Rich