Executive director of Tan Chong International Glenn Tan has announced that the Tan Chong Group will assemble the Subaru Forester in Malaysia starting in April next year. This will make it the SUV the second Fuji Heavy Industries CKD model, after the XV.
Pricing and specifications have not been confirmed, although Tan said that it will be comparable to other locally-assembled SUVs on the market – this might mean that the variant chosen would be similar to the current 2.0i-L with a naturally-aspirated flat-four to keep costs competitive, rather than the turbo mill of the 2.0 XT. The existing standard safety kit such as seven airbags and stability control could also be retained.
Also not revealed was whether the CKD Forester would be the current car or the facelifted version introduced at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show last month. However, we have seen spyshots of the refreshed model on test on Malaysian roads, so we’re placing our bets on the latter.
To recap, the facelifted Forester gets new head- and tail lights, bumpers and grille, along with new wheel options. Inside, there are new trim materials, a colour LCD multi-info display as well as new features such as an SD navigation system, rear seat heaters and memory function for the driver’s seat. Under the bonnet, the 2.0 litre NA mill has been updated to improve fuel consumption to 16.0 km per litre on the JC08 cycle.
GALLERY: Subaru Forester facelift at Tokyo 2015
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CKD the XT price at $170k would be nice.
NA subaru? I rather drive CRV
2.0 litre NA only. Shud price lower
whose wanna buy forester 2.0 when we can buy x-trail or cx-5 2.5 at the same price?
Good news. So far, TCM has done well with their Subaru and Mitsubishi CKD partners. Both the XV and ASX have sold quite decently. Hopefully, they will consider adding more CKD models in the future.
As far as I’m concerned, TCM is the best CKD assembler in Malaysia. Can’t go wrong with them.
Have to agree that TCM make good CKD, but look at XV, they removed the multi-info display and other equipments. D:
Yeah, they are a bit cheap (XV still only has 3 airbags), but I honestly don’t blame them. They know what their customers what (cheap, reliable cars), and historically, TCM’s cars have always lacked in the ‘extras’ and even safety department. But it’s only because they want to keep pricing as low as possible, and arguably, most of TCM’s cars are excellent value for money. They know their cars are a bit barebones (except the Sylphy and Teana with their top notch safety), so they dare not price them too high. UMWT on the other hand… hmm. Honda MY is probably the most balanced of the lot.
Does it mean that we will have no more Forester XT in future? but Forester XT is the best selling variant in Malaysia!
Nuking the Turbo 4 in the Forester is to remove the only reason to buy the Forester.
Not quite sure what Subaru is thinking. Must as well save a bunch and get the XV.
B4 they start to ckd, let us kno how much savings are we going to get 1st…
Oi! CKD the Forester XT lah! That’s what we want!