Super Subaru: Stylish driving through traffic, floods & lahar

As a female driver, one of my greatest fears is to drive through floods and be stranded in it. But like other women, I also want to drive or ride a car that looks good. 

Most of us have been trained to think that style must be sacrificed if we want a versatile vehicle that can venture into harsher terrain or the rugged outdoors. The Subaru’s 2016 XV and Forester both prove that we can have it all—style, sophistication and resilience.

Last October 2, Tropical Storm Kabayan hit Luzon. On the same day, several other motoring journalists and I were scheduled to drive to the dirt roads of Pampanga for Subaru’s Eco Adventure Drive. While TS Kabayan caused classes to be called off in several parts of Luzon, I was skeptical about pushing through with our trip after taking one look at the XV and Forester that I was going to drive.

Sleek, compact, stylish and fuel-efficient—while applicable to the XV and Forester—are not the adjectives I would look for when choosing a car to drive out of town in the midst of a raging typhoon.

From the busy streets of Manila to the North Luzon Expressway to Clark Pampanga, the 2016 XV gave a smooth and fuel-efficient ride. A testament to the XV’s smooth and stable ride is the fact that my Philippine STAR Motoring Editor Manny de los Reyes finished an article while riding in the front passenger seat, and I got to take a nap at the back during my rest shift.

The real revelation was our drive to the dirt roads of Pampanga. With three men as my passengers, I drove the Forester through deep puddles of water, rocks, swampy and lahar-ridden paths. I would not even call them roads because there was none of those in the areas I drove through. My favorite feature is the Forester’s “X-Mode” which allowed the car to automatically give me what I needed under extreme road condition—Hill Assist on steep ascends, and Hill Descent Control on downhill slopes.

Since pictures paint a thousand words and the word count for my column is limited, I will let the photos tell the story of what the Forester and XV can do.

Most people might think we are asking for too much if we expect a car that looks good, is not expensive, and capable of surviving rough conditions. But Subaru’s XV and Forester prove that there are cars that can let us have our cake and eat it, too.

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Karen Jimeno is a junior partner at Jimeno Cope & David Law Firm and a law professor.  She hosts LegalHD on CNN Philippines Tuesdays at 9:30PM. She graduated from UP Law School and Harvard Law School, and is licensed to practice law in the Philippines and in New York.