Subaru Forester safety levels are impressive. It has been awarded a five-star rating by the Euro NCAP safety body with a score of 91% for both adult and child occupant protection. It also scored full marks for side impact protection and offers greater pedestrian impact protection than the previous-generation car.

Stiffer-framed seats than before promise to reduce the potential for whiplash and an array of airbags (front, side, curtain and knee) are standard. There’s no manual on/off seat for the front passenger airbag, instead it becomes active automatically only if an adult is sat in the passenger seat.

The Forester features an updated emergency brake assist system, which Subaru says can give the car ‘almost identical’ braking performance on both wet and dry surfaces. There’s also a Trailer Stability Control system which uses the car’s brakes and four-wheel drive system to help prevent trailers and caravans from weaving or becoming unstable in high winds.

This generation Forester is a little wider than the old one and has a longer wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear wheels), creating more interior and luggage space – there’s plenty of space for all the family thanks to generous head and legroom.

The rear seats fold easily in a 60:40 split and the rear seat belts are handily positioned in a guide channel to keep them out of the way so that they don’t become caught when the seats are folded. They fold completely flat and flush with the boot floor, which is great for loading and transporting big, heavy items.

XC/XE Premium and XT versions come with a powered tailgate as standard, which can be set to open to a pre-programmed height if you have a low garage ceiling, for example.

There’s no severe load lip to worry about when loading items into the boot and there are some cubby holes underneath the boot floor for stowing items out of sight. The tailgate itself is nice and wide and the parcel shelf can be stored under the boot floor. There’s a space-saver spare wheel as standard too.

A ‘clean sill’ design with seals along the bottom edge of the doors prevents mud from making its way onto the door sills, meaning you’re less likely to get mud on your clothes when getting in and out of the car.