Outside appearance upgrades include 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels with black finish, roof rails with integrated tie-downs, front, rear and side under guards with orange accents, and gloss black and orange exterior accents. The new Sport comes with the 182-hp Subaru Boxer engine, Dual-function X-MODE with Hill Descent Control, SI-DRIVE with Sport Sharp mode, and of course, Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive. So the all-new Forester Sport is basically an appearance package and gets “specially enhanced” standard equipment.

This will affect all global models as the 2.0XT, 2.0-liter turbo diesel engine and 6-speed manual gearbox are also being axed in European and Australian markets. Subaru Corp is streamlining the 2019 Forester lineup with one engine and one transmission. The manual transmission was only two percent of our Forester sales anyway, so it’s a lot of cost and engineering to cater for not a lot of people.” The XT turbos are nice to have, but the reality is we were down to selling 70 or 80 a month so it has not been a massive seller for us. Subaru Australia boss Colin Christie says, “Having only one engine and one drivetrain allows us to be very clear and very focused on what we are doing. The brand is focusing on global fuel-economy standards, (fuel economy in the 2.0XT w/ CVT was 27/23 city/highway mpg compared with the Sport’s 33 mpg highway), slow XT sales and engineering costs. There are three reasons Subaru Corporation discontinued the Forester 2.0XT. The Forester Sport model does come with a version of the Subaru WRX STI Intelligent Drive (SI-DRIVE) with Intelligent and Sport Sharp modes as upgrades. The 2.5-liter boxer will come mated to a Lineartronic CVT featuring a seven-speed manual mode with steering wheel paddle-shift shifters.

Subaru also discontinues the 6-speed manual gearbox in all Forester trims including the new Sport trim. It’s quite a downgrade compared with the XT’s 250hp turbo engine. The new engine produces 182 hp and 176 lb-ft of torque, versus 170 hp and 174 lb-ft in the previous-generation Forester. The new power plant comes with direct injection, higher compression, along with active valve control system (AVCS) on the exhaust side. All fifth-generation Foresters get the newly-upgraded 2.5-liter boxer engine. The new 2019 Subaru Forester Sport is powered by the standard 2.5-liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine. Also gone is the Forester XT’s fully synchronized 6-speed manual gearbox. The 2.0XT Forester and its 250 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine is gone and is replaced by the 2019 Subaru Sport with the standard 2.5-liter boxer engine. Here’s a detailed comparison on what Forester XT fans will be getting to replace it. It’s been replaced by the 2019 Forester Sport trim. Sorry XT fans, the turbocharged 2.0XT Subaru Forester is gone forever and it’s not coming back.

Subaru forester forum 2019 upgrades