The XT originally came from
The XT originally came from the Subaru Vortex, but hey, it's for the marketing droids, but, at the end of the day it's about the specs. A Subaru isn't a Subaru unless it has a horizontally opposed engine, and a Forester isn't a Forester unless it has permanent 4WD (AWD, whatever), both legendary with Subaru. As much as manuals are cool, they are getting more and more uncommon (this is automobiles right across the board), but I'm sure they will do the limited release with 6 speed manuals.