The Legacy represented a precarious journey upmarket for Subaru’s lineup, as well as being the springboard for the price point too-far SVX coupe (CC here). Breaking out of their small AWD Wagon niche for the first time, Subaru now competed directly with the midsize FWD sedan and wagon offerings of Toyhonissan. That turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. The Legacy struggled in that mass-market fwd role; its lasting legacy would be in its all-AWD future, as well as the Outback it eventually spawned.
The Legacy was the first offering from Fuji Heavy Industries firmly in midsize territory, with a 101” wheelbase and length of 177.6″/181″ for the Sedan and Wagon respectively. It was a solid car for its day, with most of the archived reviews giving it passing marks. First year sales in 1990 were 108k, with a roughly 45-55% split between FWD and AWD; by the end of the run they had declined slightly to 100k with a 40-60% split on the driven wheels.
The Legacy’s weak sales created serious questions about Subaru’s future in the US, and perhaps in a last ditch effort to reposition the brand, Fuji made the call to offer all future US-market Legacies, as well as all Subarus, as AWD only. That move really cemented the image and future of Subaru, one that would have lasting repercussions.
Like their Japanese brethren Subaru has succumbed to the same bracket creep that has made the current Civic and Corolla compact class vehicles. The current Impreza is almost identical in engine size & power, size and weight to this generation of Legacy. On the plus side fuel economy with the slush-box has improved from an anemic 20/26 EPA to a more respectable 25/33. Amazingly, a comparably equipped Legacy stickered for about $17,250 in 1990 dollars ($29,000 adjusted) versus approximately $19,800 for today’s comparably sized Impreza .
As the 1990s progressed, Subaru would muscle in on the Swedes’ traditional demographics and play a supporting role in the recent passing of Saab. The Legacy would dethrone the Volvo brick wagons as the car of choice for those engaged in liberal bumper sticker-shod left lane banditry while listening to All Things Considered en route to yoga or a farmers market. Later in the decade the Turbo’d Legacy and Impreza would come to evict Saab from the affordable turbo hot-hatch ecological niche until GM got all Isle of Moreau with the Saabaru 9-2. Similar to Volvo, Subaru experiences the phenomena of wagon take inversion. Watching for first gens I see the wagons on the road up here in the Sierra AWDland constantly; out of my population guesstimate of fifty I can count the sedans on one hand.
The 2.2L EJ Engine that debuted in the Legacy would have a long run as the workhorse of Subarus lineup through the 90s as well as supersizing into the 6cyl in the SVX. Up until it was revised in the middle of the second generation Legacy run in 1996, the engine was non-interference.
This is also something of an auto-biography as a 1990 Wagon was purchased by my family in fall of ’89 and became my bequest in 1997. It survived a rough six years of several stupid fender benders and my constant testosterone fueled hoonery until being stuck down before its time in a rear-end collision in 2004.
“Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting watios”. Climbing the grades on EB I80 from Auburn to Truckee at altitude, the slushbox does a superb Elmer Fudd impression. From first-hand experience I know that the 4EAT 4 speed automatic has a frustrating tendency to downshift and hunt in the mountains unless you thrash the engine hardheartedly. The front fold-out cup holder tended to drop drinks and was limited to the diameter of a 12oz soda. More so than any car I’ve ever driven, operating the AC unleashed a massive power and fuel sucking vampire; using it heavily dropped fuel economy some 25%. On many surviving models the chrome that was covered on the roof line is revealed as the paint chips.
The original Legacy represents a key step on the path that led Subaru to its current profitable position of upon the heights of the AWD car and CUV segments of the US market. The next step was the marketing Jujutsu that took a competent AWD Wagon and altered consumer perceptions to strike a rich vein of ego and vanity witha simple addition of a lift kit and body cladding. Although this first generation Legacy lost traction in its vain effort to go mainstream, it formed the basis of all future AWD Legacies and Outbacks to come, propelling Subaru to significant success to come. Not a bad legacy indeed.
The neighbors had a first year model that was about two years old when we moved in next to them. Within the next four years, their Legacy wagon had noticeable rust around the wheel wells, and the paint was already flaking off the hood and the door chrome.
My college roommate had a ’92 2.2L AWD Legacy wagon that I occasionally had the privilege of driving. I was driving a Volvo 740 Turbo wagon at the time, judged by our house as “the beast” of the fleet, but the Legacy handled better. These wagons had a lot in common: solid chassis (rattles notwithstanding), solid steering, good torque, and a feeling that neither would let you down, no matter what how badly you beat on them.
Ironically, the roommate’s right-rear tire exploded on a drive home and sent him pirouetting into a guardrail. Thankfully he was unharmed, the car a bit less so.
I have a lot of respect for these Legacys, and have always entertained the idea of owning an AWD turbo 5-speed as a budget near-classic.
The background of these photos is very typical. Although this model was fairly popular in flatland Western Europe, too, it, together with its predecessors, was considerably more common in more mountainous regions. Much akin to the Toyota Tercel AWD wagon, these always remind me of skiing holidays in Austria, so even though these to me are little different from other bland mid-sized 90′s Japanese cars, they usually put a little smile on my face!
I doubt Subaru killed SAAB.
Lack of AWD hurt SAAB, but mostly in the torque area; it wasn’t until the late 90s that the engines got tuned enough for that to be an issue.
Yes, a lot of lefty, tweed jacketed professors bought Suburaus; they were cheap. I’d hazard a guess not much crossover with actual SAAB owners, however. Again, mostly a myth. Was there a Subaru convertible? A turbo hatch with leather?
What impressed me about the new style Legacy was the amount of glass. My parents had one of the orginial Suburus, as did my grandparents. I remember looking at this Legacy with my Dad, and it was way too expensive for a Subaru. He bought an Audi instead.
About fifteen years ago, my sister in Vermont bought the exact same Legacy wagon as depicted in the top photo.
It was a ’92 and being a New England car its undercarriage was an annual recipient of that time-honored method for recycling used Havoline – oil undercoating.
So it was that as Laurie went to a ’97 Outback with the 2.5 engine…complete with its propensity to eat head gaskets, Mom got the ’92. That was around 2001 or so.
The family was falling to the cult of Subaru, the unofficial official car of Vermont.
In 2006, Mom gave the ’92 to our oldest son Dave as a going-away-to-college present. She and Laurie drove it from Vermont to our home in Pittsburgh, complete with service records.
But Dave couldn’t have a vehicle on campus until he was a sophomore…which meant the ’92 became a spare car for my wife and me.
And my wife fell to the cult of Subaru.
That Legacy was…almost…indestructable. It had developed oil leaks around the valve covers and was also leaking tranny fluid. Keep the fluids up and it was no problem. It also had a bad fuel injector that received a good dose of carb cleaner every few months to keep it running at something resembling all four cylinders.
All that said…as my wife’s parents in Syracuse took ill that summer, the Legacy racked up a ton of miles as she preferred it – and its 28-30 MPG – to her Blazer, driving back & forth several times that year.
But the time finally came to let our son have it.
Dave took it to college midway thru his sophomore year. after I showed him how to check all the fluids and where the fill lines were, etc. He too fell in love with the car, naming it “Peggy”. He’s not the greatest driver but that Legacy was very forgiving, as long as the fluids were kept full.
Which Dave often forgot to check.
Fortunately college was only 50 miles away and he’d come back often enough for me to keep up with them and remind him once again of the importance of keeping after them.
Every May when he’d come home for summer, there was the annual ritual of schlepping another layer of Bondo on the front fenders and getting it thru another inspection. The floor, of course was flawless, after all it had several layers of Vermont’s best oil undercoating, driven on dusty back roads to seal it in.
Just don’t ever work underneath it. Which I had the misfortune to have to do.
Part of the annual inspection ritual was welding shut the seam in the Y-pipe and other exhaust repairs. I had replaced the muffler- twice (boy do they rust when installed at the very back of the car where the gases are cooler and can condense in the muffler). I also replaced the pipe in front of the muffler and IIRC the center pipe.
Also those rubber-coated fuel and brake lines that get routed up into the body…when the rubber shrinks, it’s a perfect place for dirt, moisture and rust to attack. Which they did. I got really good with that double-flaring tool kit.
In the back of my mind, I was expecting 300K out of the car, based on the good fortune others have had with the same model. One of my wife’s co-workers had the same car and made it over 300K before giving up and trading it on a 2010 Legacy sedan.
But Dave had let the tranny run too low one too many times. By the grace of God we made it to the junkyard where he received $225 for the remains.
He now drives a ’93 Honda Accord SE, which he’s also come to love. Sure he could drive something newer, but like most Japanese vehicles of this period, it’s drop-dead reliable and put together well.
My wife is on her third Subaru…an ’05 Outback which has just had its head gaskets replaced. Imagine that.
She’s looked with longing at the new Outback…which I think looks like unwiped butt. Not to mention it has the same 170-something-HP 2.5 engine in a far heavier package,
Thing is…another co-worker of hers, a longtime friend, is married to a longtime sales manager who’s worked at several dealerships around town. And for the past three years, he’s been general manager at…
…a Subaru dealership.
Did I mention what most of my wife’s co-workers now drive? And he did cut my wife a huge break on that head gasket repair.
Maybe an Impreza next time. After all…it’s about the same size/weight/MPG as that ’92
Legacy. And it still looks pretty cool.
Or she can always rejoin me back in the land of GM…she can even buy it pre-owned from that sales manager husband of her good friend co-worker.
I really don’t care for the current Outback and Legacy’s exterior design. The 2008-09 versions were very nice looking cars.
I love these cars and they may be my favorite Subarus. Why? They were still rugged but no longer agricultural. With AWD and a manual, they had a 50/50 torque split and put down their power very nicely. They also took a Citroen approach to suspension tuning and the cars were very agile in routine driving in real world conditions. They also had great steering feel and visibility and were available with turbos and rear LSDs along with an air suspension (with which I’ve had no encounters).
The following Legacy had the same virtues but were very drab inside and not as good looking (IMO) on the outside. I dig that super Japanese hard-top boxiness. They also didn’t have the same powertrain options.
The next Legacy was not as fun and didn’t have the characteristic softness in its suspension and had the fun refined out of it in many ways.
The 4th generation finally had a high quality interior and was a bonafide sports sedan. It sadly no longer had adequate space in the rear for even medium sized adults. I don’t know how reviewers overlooked this, but there was no toe space under the front seats. It was no longer family friendly. Too bad, because it really was one of the best cars to come from Subaru and from that era of Japanese autos.
The current Legacy addresses that problem but has also lost the distinctiveness in appearance and driving experience that characterized its predecessors. In this age of increasing R&D costs, I hope that its stronger sales keep Subaru flush enough to give us cool cars. I do like the new Impreza’s looks and interior quality; it’s an encouraging sign.
Gosh, so many points to comment on, where to begin?
A look under a hood is the heart of the Subaru story. All Subarus have short, flat boxer engines, longitudinally mounted in front of the transaxle. (The Subaru boxer engine deserves a CC all to itself.) Its competitors have inline transverse engines. Subie’s layout is naturally right for all-wheel-drive.
Early AWD Legacy wagons sold really well in New England and the Pacific Northwest. What do these areas have in common? Big cities, notoriously fickle weather and nearby snow-covered mountains. Subaru wisely listened to their market and developed it.
A common Portland winter forecast is “mostly cloudy with showers, possible sleet, snow or ice.” In other words damn near anything without warning. An AWD daily driver with decent mileage and easy parking is a Good Thing.
One day you get the urge and the opportunity to run up to Mt. Hood for a fine day on the ski slopes. “Traction devices are required in mountain passes.” OSP defines traction devices as chains or AWD. Toss your skis and gear in the back of your Subaru wagon, and you’re on the slopes in 90 minutes.
Or maybe the coast is calling instead, but the Coast Range passes are iffy. Likewise, just go, and 90 minutes later the surf is lapping at your feet.
We’re also major gardeners here in the Rose City. The average East Portland yard puts Palo Alto to shame. Great to have a handy wagon for all the pots and soils.
Subarus have always been about as sensible and well-built as the other Japanese cars, so that issue is covered too. Add that all up and what’s not to like here? That’s why there are three Subies parked within 100 feet of my house, and a ’94 Legacy wagon (stick, not auto) in my garage. We bought it used in ’02 and it has been a stalwart daily driver, grocery and nursery getter and sudden ski car for my wife ever since. (Very reliable. Yes, head gaskets but not much else.)
Subaru occupied the space left open when Saabs became obsolete. Front drive put Saab on the map in the US. When that became the common platform for all, they failed to go to AWD. Audi jumped on upscale AWD with the Quattro. Saab did not follow. Subaru brought AWD to the normal car, and pulled a further marketing coup by pitching their Imprezas as Quattros for the kids.
These are the stories of the early-nineties Subaru Legacy.
Oh, by the way, I’ve been stuck behind way more BMW posers running their smartphones in the left lane than Subarus.
again, with your logic, SAAB became obsolete in 1990-1994? 10 years of strong sales after?
Saab left this market behind by 1990, and succeeded with some smart short-term tactics, having pioneered turbos and offering some things their upmarket Euro competitors didn’t, like a smart convertible. By the mid-nineties, Lexus, Acura and Infiniti had launched, Audi recovered from the unintended acceleration smear job, and Saab had no fundamental distinction to support its niche. Worst of all GM took over then and turned Saabs into Swedish Buicks.
If Saab was doing so good in the US vs Subaru, then explain why they felt the need for the Saabaru 9-2X? Seems like the age old adage if you can’t beat them join (or buy) them or in this case rebadge them.
Similar situation east of the Cascades, and the weather case for Subarus is still quite valid. Just on a 40 mile trip to Klamath Falls, we can get ice, wet roads and dry. Tend to find a lot of older cars, with some impressive miles on them.
You are more likely to see a conservative bumper sticker on a Subie here as one of those Coexist ones. (The latter seem to end up on ancient Civics, probably because the FWD is more likely to be found in town than in the country.)
Deciding between a Forester and an Impreza 5 door to replace the RWD Ranger…
When I lived in Madison, the CEO of the company I worked for had one of these, and kept it for years. She was known for making it in to work every single day regardless of weather conditions, which of course can be quite problematic in Wisconsin in the winter. When it gave up the ghost, she bought an Audi A4 quattro wagon, which she’s now had for probably 10+ years.
As for myself, I have a 2003 Outback H6 wagon, which we bought new and now has about 114,000 miles. I think this was the best generation of Legacy–the newer two generations just don’t do it for me, and I don’t know if I’ll buy another (the ever-expanding Forester, I might consider).
I agree that Subaru didn’t really kill SAAB, just inherited the space that SAAB couldn’t hang on to. SAAB crawled off to die on its own.
That corporation happen to be Epic Systems? From what I know of Judy, your description fits her perfectly.
That’s the one. Definitely a unique personality. And you could never say the boss was ditching work on a snow day!
My first car was a baby-blue 1994 Legacy. FWD, automatic–not a great example of the breed. It was about four years old when I got it. With the exception of an appetite for axle boots, it was a loyal steed. Surprisingly sharp steering, communicative-yet-comfy suspension, and the best manually-adjusted seats I’ve ever sat in.
It was a magnificent example of a generic car, and I mean that as a complement. Not an anesthetized Camry, not an ostentatiously weird Saab, just a great little car to drive. I can’t say I miss it much, but it was a wonderful first car.
I still remember when these were about to come out. I was sitting in a Denny’s with my then boss (during my short climb on the corporate ladder) and at the table next to us was what appeared to be a couple of the Subaru area reps. They were recounting how the dealers were that happy to have “such a large car” coming their way. The reason it wouldn’t fit in their service bays.
I’m surprised that none of the previous commenters that have owned these haven’t talked about their fragile automatic transmissions. When the earliest versions failed it usually took out the case too meaning you couldn’t just have it rebuilt. At the time the wrecking yards were making serious bank on the used units since they could sell them for $1500 as soon as the car hit the yard a unheard of price for a used transmission at the time, even with an integrated transfer case.
I worked at a Subaru dealer in summer of 1989, when the Legacies showed up. The first batch all had engine failures shortly after being delivered. Embarrassing. New motors in crates showed up pretty quickly, but it is still remarkable how I’ve never seen the engine failures reported.
Wow, that was a close one for Fuji. A little worse and Subaru would be another forgotten also-ran, mainly known for Malcolm Bricklin’s hilarious 360s.
What did they do, forget the process of thoroughly cleaning the castings of sand like they did with the Justy CVTs?
That was back before the internet was in wide use, so things like that didn’t spread too quickly. Also a lot of it has to do with how they handled it. IE didn’t tell the customer that they put a new engine in. Came in for the first complementary oil change and got a new engine too? Or told them it was a minor problem like a wire that came loose?
This is the first time I’ve heard that story. Wow…if that had been GM it’d be all over the news every night.
I see two models in that brochure pic that my ex and I bought while we were married. She got the Loyale with the automatic and I got the Justy with the stick. Reliable little cars. Not good on mileage or power, but decent commuters that got us to work every day without fail.
Fun trivia is that Subaru sold the station wagons in right hand drive for rural mail carriers, and I’ve seen one in the Portland suburbs. Moving further off topic, according to the Quigley rep I met at the auto show last month, the RHD Subie completely destroyed Quigley’s plan to sell RHD converted Chevy vans to mail carriers and their only sales have been for export.
There are a couple around here, in the rural and not so rural areas surrounding Seattle served by contract mail carriers.
My local mail carrier drove one for years. I thought they still built RHD versions…
While working in a body shop in the mid 90s I had a RHD come in for service. I was 18 at the time and for the life of me could not pull it into the bay!
I bought a beater ’91 Legacy wagon in ’02 or ’03. Cost me $455 plus a $130 rebuilt alternator(old one had a growling bearing). It replaced a ’78 Nova with a V8 as my job had me driving up to 500 miles a week. It was the first non-american car I’d ever owned.
It was an absolutely awesome car for what it was. The body had rot in all the usual places, there were a few quirks with it(blower was all or nothing) and it looked like hell. But it just kept trucking along. In the two years I drove it I put probably 60-70K on it and never had one breakdown. I finally junked it when the clutch wore out(I drove it til there was basically no clutch, it would slip hopelessly even on the highway) as a clutch job was at least $800.
It was replaced with a ’96 Outback which also served me well until it was replaced with my current xB. I have a great fondness for the Subaru wagons, and if I ever need a good winter car it will be the first place I look.
I recently owned a 93 Legacy wagon with gutless EJ18 and auto a NZ oddity the 1800 engine having been dropped in most markets by then it was good to drive entertaining at more than sensible speeds on gravel but sucked fuel unless babied the 2.2 was far more economical. The car had been owned by my BOL and had been serviced by a garage that didnt know how to tune carburettors so condequently it didnt run well and of course there are no carb kits available on the planet but years of shadetreeing cars produced a reliable sweet running car. Subarus are hugely popular in NZ we have the highest Subie ownership rates in the world probably due to the rallying Subarus being pioneered by KIWI Possum Bourne but these things are everywhere.
This write up gave me a bit of a “What was I thinking” moment.
I explored a lot of options before buying my Xterra yet never gave Subaru a passing glance. An 03 to 06 Baja would have met all of my requirements perfectly!
Just remember the 2.5 engines have a head gasket fetish. Just as bad as GM 4.3 “W” motor intake gaskets. Or crappy Chrysler 2.7 V6′s.
The head gasket issue was supposed to be fixed for the 2003-04 model year but my wife’s ’05 just had them done. Keep about $1500 in the bank for that and you’ll be golden.
Yeah, my Mom just got bitten by this two years ago. It was $1800 she didn’t have at the time.
My sister has a 2000 2.5RS, my BiL has an Outback (~5 years old) and my mother has a non-turbo 2005 Baja. All have 100k+ mileage and none have had any head gasket issues.
Yes, as Bryce said, they’re everywhere down here in NZ. The go-anywhere reputation was hugely appreciated here – as were the myriad JDM used import versions, especially the high-performance turbos.
In 1996 my parents traded their 1990 Ford Telstar (aka mazda 626) station wagon on a 1990 Legacy wagon. The Telstar had done over 300,000km, and was mechanically tired. With a boat or caravan to tow, I wasn’t surprised my folks bought a 4wd Legacy wagon, but I was surprised they got a JDM 2.0GT turbo. I asked why they didn’t go for the sensible non-turbo, and the sole reason was “the GT has really nice seats”… The fact it was a seriously quick car meant nothing to them! (But it meant everything to a 23-yr-old me!) And boy was that thing quick – it was an auto, and the kick-down + the turbo coming on boost = the biggest kick in the back I’ve ever experienced.
Being a wagon the strange change in belt line height between the door and the back window was minimised; also like most of our JDM used import wagons, it had a higher roof line, which balanced the styling a bit better. Overall it looked very smart in factory dark blue (almost black) with full privacy glass (too dark to see out comfortably) and a large factory sunroof mid-way between the front and rear seats. The interior was suede and very comfy. It had a button to change the steering response from normal to sporty to comfort, but as far as we could work out it was simply a button, as it effected no discernible change.
The GT was in the family for 4yrs and around 200,000km, by which stage it was still a rocketship and was reasonably good mechanically – but was becoming plagued by tiny but annoying oil leaks. Dad was a mechanic but got sick of trying to find and fix the leaks. So in 2000 the GT was traded on a non-turbo 2.5L 1996 Outback wagon which Mum and Dad kept for 10yrs and 330,000km (the Outback went through 3 engines, but that’s another story).
Sadly the early-90s Legacy’s legacy (hee hee) in NZ is as an uninsurable boy-racer vehicle. Most were stolen and/or thrashed within an inch of their lives. Even now they still have one of the highest insurance premiums. Shame really, as they certainly cemented Subaru’s reputation as a quality 4wd family car.
You could have had a Baja for a song, too. After we bought our Outback wagon, we were back in to the dealer for service and they had an ’03 Baja sitting on the showroom floor–this was in mid-’04 and they’d never been able to sell it. We came within a whisker of pulling the trigger on it but for some reason, didn’t. (Probably for the same reason they’d never sold it–it was one of the ugliest vehicles ever sold in the US, even if it could be pretty useful.)
(Edit: That was supposed to be a reply to Sean’s comment.)
Oh good it’s not just me today! I did that in another thread.
I thought they were OK looking except for the YELLOW and grey ones.
On Subaru replacing Saab:
Certainly happened in Vermont.
From its very earliest corn popper days, Saab found a welcome home in Vermont. By the eighties, trading on its earlier reputation, the in-car to own in Vermont was the Saab 900. They were everywhere. Sporty, handled the back roads, good on snow and ice, looked good on the slopes, and utilitarian to boot.
Trouble is the 900 was a compromised design using carry-over components from the 99 that weren’t quite up to the job. Montpelier, a city of less than 9000 souls, at one time had five (5) independent repair shops all dedicated to Saab repair and they still couldn’t handle all the work.
Enter the Subie. The early front drivers were prone to flipping and rusting out over the weekend. But they quickly began to correct those faults. As their reputation spread, Subarus began to replace those trouble prone Saabs while at the same time reawakening memories of the iconoclastic, tiny, go anywhere, tank that the original Saab represented. As one of the commentators has already said, Subaru inherited the crown and remains today the unofficial official state car of the Green Mountain State.
It may not be too long before, if you drive a different make over the state line, you will have to get a special permit.
From my short time living in New England (Winthrop, MA), I also noticed scads of Subarus and Subaru dealers in even tiny towns in Maine, for much the same reasons, I would assume.
I looked at this thread earlier today and thought “hmmmmmmm I don’t have a Legacy so I’ll just move on.”
Today on my way home from supporting 1st year teachers at a local school, I got my 1st gen Legacy story.
I was on my back from Crownpoint, NM to Gallup just a few miles out of town and entering “Diablo Canyon” as some of the locals call it. Its a twisty two lane stretch of blacktop that falls through the canyon and then rises out the other side, just a few miles but not something you want to fly through unless your a professional racer. There are no gardrails and the corners are NOT banked.
I was driving the districts 07 Equinox with horibble, god awful, understeers like a pig, AWD. I set the cruise at 5 over the limit through the canyon, the vehicle wouldn’t handle more than that and I didn’t need a thrill. Ahead of me was a nearly new Nissan Altima (Texas plates) with the 2.5 and the Nissan was pulling away from me at a rate that indicated he was doing about 10 over. I scanned into the distance and realized that pulling away from the Altima at a rapid pace was a 1st generation Legacy sedan (yes one of the handful sold). Through the canyon I was able to keep a visual on the two of them. The Altima driver certainly thought he could keep up with the Subie through the twisties, his new car against one that was 20 years old?
The Altima driver couldn’t do it… I saw him tap the brakes and slow to my pace half way through the canyon. At the exit of the canyon there is a convinence store, the Altima driver pulled in at a speed that suggested his britches were full.
Ha! I always find it amusing when someone’s tailgating me, then we go through some twisty roads, and suddenly the other car is WAY behind me. It’s so much easier to mat the accelerator than to, you know, drive.
Bought an ’08 Legacy Sedan a year ago. Took it for a drive and it handled like no other mid-size I drove (Malibu, Altima, Fusion, Passat, etc). Then found out it handled just as nicely in the snow even with the lower profile all season Yokohama tires on it. With an avg 30 mpg in the summer and 25 in the winter I’ve had no complaints.
It’s the closest feeling to my ”99 CBR1100XX than any other non-performance edition car I’ve driven. Feels like it is on rails while still giving a acceptable ride on local pothole patches.
We bought one of the first wagons in 1990.
Good:
Brought both our sons home from the hospital.
Off-roading up Otay Mtn near Tiajuana, we actually pulled a stuck F150 4wd out of teh mud!
Could get it offroad up to the sills in snow or Anza desert sand and it couldnt be stopped.
The coming home on SoCal twisties it was a poor man’s Quattro, steering remarks above are apt!
Wife took over my Alfa 164 so it became my DD to the shipyards. Survived the barrio, and when we moved to DC, carried us 4 and our clothes.
AC worked well. Slate color of 2nd photo lasted. AO4 tranny had drain plug.
Bad:
19-24 MPG
3rd gear started bugging out at 145k
rear xfer case always leaked, left more spots than my Alfa!
Hardest seats in any car Ive ever owned, incl my ’83 GTI
Another common foible for these tanks were the knock sensors, and mine were hard to service, didnt last and degraded the slim power it had.
Replaced it with an ’02 base Caravan 3.3, and never missed the Legacy. But, it worked…
I had a ’96 Outback which was the best car I’ve ever owned. 2.2L, manual. WRXs were new at the time, so 16″ wheels were cheap to replaced the 15″ alloys that would get corrosion along the bead seat and lose air. Loved the sound of the boxer.
The Subaru Legacy is so versatile, people use it for all sorts of things.
Valentine’s Day ‘role-playing’ lands couple in jail
Great article! Best line: “The Legacy would dethrone the Volvo brick wagons as the car of choice for those engaged in liberal bumper sticker-shod left lane banditry while listening to All Things Considered en route to yoga or a farmers market.” Even here in our redneck logging town, Subies started replacing trucks about a decade ago… 10 mpg in a pickup, or 25 mpg in a Subie is a no-brainer, especially since most trucks around these parts are just mom-mobiles anyway.