Test Drive, 2016 Subaru Forester 2.5i

Got a 2016 Subaru Forester as a dealership loaner as my 2014 BRZ is having some driver side wind noise issues following that crash and repair so many months ago.

So I got to drive a 2016 Forester for around 45-50 miles.
Visibility out the glass house is very good and makes the rear view camera redundant while reversing. I do wish the rear view mirror were larger so I could get some visibility out the rear most windows and not just the rear windshield.
Noticeable improvements over the 2014 Forester I test drove is less body roll and better damping.
In terms of steering wheel inputs I never had to go past 90 degrees of turn for right or left turns except in parking lot maneuvers.
In normal driving the paddle shifter less CVT transmission in this car liked 1300-2400 RPMs depending on how much acceleration you were demanding of it.
Acceleration was neither rapid nor pokey and the Forester accumulates pace well by the transmission keeping you solidly in the torque curve. This seemed well sorted.

If you did demand faster acceleration and stomped the pedal the engine would let you climb to 5400-5600 RPMs, still well short of the redline.
While not a particularly fancy model the driver seat at least was powered (I did not check the passenger seat) and the front seats were heated.
No dual zone climate control or other fanciness in this particular loaner though but you can option them last time I checked.
The head unit was marked improvement over that in both my 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited and my parents' 2014 Outback Premium.
As stated before the suspension seemed less upset by turns and hills than did the 2014. Also it handled bumps that in the BRZ can be described as a "crashy" or "lumpy" experience with very little fuss.
But this isolation comes at a cost. There is no front wheel feel from the steering wheel and very little information through the seat and my butt as to what the rear end of the car was doing.
Front seat was okay and seating position is very up right.
Because of the higher seating position I had the telescoping steering wheel fully into the dash to maintain my preferred hand placement.

Rear seating space seems decent depending on how tall your front passenger / driver are.

Audio and information controls both on steering wheel and on infotainment system were pretty intuitive and I had no need to consult the manual. Bluetooth pairing with my phone was a few on screen buttons and very easy.

Cargo space is useful but seems a bit high if you are going to load / unload a lot into it. Also a lot of vertical space, which to me is less useful than a more wagon oriented cargo area. I personally prefer to minimize stacking.
The dash was and interior was a mish mosh of semi squishy rubber, generic hard plastic, glossy hard plastic, and cloth. Parts would have looked better in a more upscale interior. The disparity was not jarring but also meant there was no cohesive aesthetic to be found.

Gauge cluster is a gauge cluster. The max speed might be ambitious.

The dash also has this little screen that is multi-functional and gives you fuel efficiency and other such information. 
While more sophisticated and refined than my parents' old (and now on to a new owner) 1999 Subaru Forester I really miss the first generations handling, communicativeness, and character. The 2016 Subaru Forester feels like a competent and good attempt at the every person's CUV / SUV but lacks any of what made the early generations fun and a compelling buy to me.

Good for Subaru's bottom line but not for an enthusiast like me.

Now if only they would give us a Forester STi, XT (with worked over suspension, engine, and good manual transmission), or a tS (tuned by STi) version... [all with a manual transmission and full feature list of course] then I might feel compelled to buy.