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Couldn’t get the 1960s anthem out of my head. It invaded my mind via a collection of oldies-but-goodies radio stations on a weekend drive along some moneyed back roads in Fairfax County:

“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. . . .”

Yeah, the song got that right. I was driving the 1998 Subaru Forester L, a work of motorized ambiguity. I couldn’t tell if it was wagon, sport-ute or car, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s official designation of the Forester as a “small wagon” was just too lame.

I decided to call it a “wuvvie,” short for “wagon utility vehicle.” The acronym has warmth, sparkle; and it embraces the Forester’s complete personality. “Wuvvie.” Hmph. I like it.

Background: Let’s get something straight. The recently introduced Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 are not wuvvies. They are small sport-utility vehicles – a k a “sport-utes,” or “suvvies” — based on small-car platforms. They share a box with the small but more truck like suvvies, the Kia Sportage and Suzuki Sidekick/Geo Tracker.

By comparison, as a wuvvie, the Forester is in a category unto itself. It has none of the truckiness of a Sportage or Tracker, and none of the off-road pretensions of a CR-V or RAV4. People who buy the Forester most likely will view the forest from a well-paved road, which will be just fine with them, assuming that Subaru of America Inc.’s market surveys are on target.

Those surveys reveal an exploitable niche — people who want neither cars, nor sport-utes, nor vans, nor traditional station wagons, nor sport-utes designed to ride like cars, vans or traditional stations wagons.

These contrarians, Subaru’s marketers say, want a small, attractive, wagon like vehicle with a rugged personality designed to do routine family hauling at an affordable price. They want an all-wheel-drive vehicle, not to climb mountains or travel rocky paths, but to safely get to and from work during modest snowfalls.

To address those needs and wants, Subaru borrowed the engine and other driveline components from its mid-size Outback Legacy wagon and put them in a modified version of a compact Subaru Impreza body. The result is the Forester, which feels like a sedan that isn’t afraid of doing some heavy lifting.

The Forester is equipped with Subaru’s 2.5-liter, 16-valve, double-overhead cam, horizontally opposed (boxer), four-cylinder engine rated 165 horsepower at 5,600 rpm. Torque is rated 162 horsepower at 4,200 rpm.

With the tested four-speed automatic transmission, the Forester weighs 3,120 pounds; and it weighs 80 pounds less with the standard five-speed automatic — all of which means that the power-to-weight ratio in this vehicle is ideal.

The Forester’s standard all-wheel-drive system distributes power equally to the front and rear wheels during normal operation. But it transfers power, via a viscous coupling device inside the transmission case, from slipping wheels to gripping wheels to keep the ve hicle moving safely through inclement weather.

There are three Forester trim levels — base, better-appointed L and spiffy S. All employ power front disc/rear drum brakes. But the L and S get standard antilocks.

All three versions come with dual front air bags and fully adjustable lap belts and shoulder harnesses. Get real. Use the belts.

1998 Subaru Forester

Complaints: You’ve gotta watch the speedometer in this one! It looks like a box, but runs like a fox. You just don’t expect it to move as fast as it can move.

Praise: An overall neat package; and judging from favorable street and shopping mall reaction, there’s definitely a market for this one.

Head-turning quotient: Cute in a cuddly, small and ugly way. People really liked the thing.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Excellent in all three categories; and you don’t have to worry about tippy stuff attendant to most sport-utes. The Forester has a high ground clearance, 7.5 inches; but, largely because of the layout of its boxer engine and related driveline components, it has a low center of gravity. It’s well balanced, and it brakes well.

Mileage: Impressive for its mission. About 23 miles per gallon (15.9-gallon tank, estimated 353-mile range on usable volume of regular unleaded), combined city/highway, running with one to three occupants and light cargo.

Capacities: The Forester can seat five people, tow up to 2,000 pounds and carry up to 64.6 cubic feet of cargo with the rear seats down.

Sound system: Four-speaker AM/FM stereo radio and cassette installed by Subaru. Adequate.

Price: Base price on the tested Forester S with automatic transmission is $22,995. Dealer invoice price on that base model is $20,636. Price as tested is $23,490, including a $495 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: You can save money by buying the Forester Base at $18,695.