2009 Subaru Exiga?!

Remember that shot we saw that was supposedly the next-gen Subaru Forrester? We guess now it may not be. Spy mistress of the automotive masses Brenda Priddy claims she's snagged a working Subaru Exiga on her (or one of her minions) travails across the wilderness. Priddy claims we should see it as a 2009 model. Jeez — we haven't even seen this concept revealed yet — that's happening at the Tokyo Auto Show in just a few weeks — and already there's speculation it'll be built. Still, it's hard to deny the facts — there was an Exiga-looking thing traipsing around out in the open. Full spy report after the jump.

Running mule for the Subaru Exiga Concept!!

(Whatever the Exiga will evolve into – this test mule is based on that platform!)

Subaru is mum.

But my handy Stanley Leverlock tape measure doesn't lie!

We've been watching Subaru test a cobbled-up Outback for well over a year now, but we didn't think much of it. We didn't even photograph it until a few weeks ago.

This Outback shell fooled us for quite awhile. The sheetmetal has been chopped, extended, widened and welded! But it was (eventually) obvious that this was no regular Outback!

And although it was "way too large" – one of our sources led us to believe that this was in fact an all-new and much larger Forester.

The current Forester has a 99.4-inch wheelbase. So Stanley and I measured this mule – give-or-take a tenth under the extreme conditions – and came in a tad over a whopping 108-inches! It was within a half of an inch of the Tribeca's wheelbase, and over 3-inches longer than the Outback! (*The Exiga's specs were just released and show a wheelbase of 108.26-inches!!

Track-wise, the Forester has always measured in narrower than the Outback and Tribeca, but it appears Stanley measured this "Outback" wider than the "real" Outback , but not nearly as wide as the Tribeca. Our quick measuring session indicated this mule was about 2 inches wider than the current Outback – showing the Forester – or as the case may be – a running test mule for whatever vehicle will be based on the Exiga Concept – growing in both length and width as compared to the current Forester.

Subaru has been mum on the specifics, but we're expecting this to arrive in production form for the 2009 model year.

We should know more after Tokyo ...