[Timgt5]

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Timgt5 Drives the Subaru Legacy
Come for the All-Wheel Drive, stay for the very nice car attached

In the world of midsized sedans, three nameplates consistently dominate the sales charts, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Nissan Altima. Subaru’s entry, the Legacy has always been an outlier in this category. Often in the shadow of its more well-known Outback cousin the Legacy’s lack of refinement and odd styling relegated it to that sedan you needed when it snowed. In the last couple of years though Subaru has been on a fantastic run, with the new Impreza and Forester wildly successful, Fuji industries has now turned its attentions to the Legacy and Outback for 2015. Can Subaru finally make inroads into the fearsomely competitive mid-size family sedan market? Read on.

2015 Subaru Legacy

Highs: Spacious, smooth ride, torque vectoring awd, excellent fit and finish, well equipped for the money, loads of safety features/very high crash test scores, excellent build quality, great overall value.
Lows: Lackluster acceleration, somewhat anonymous styling

Models and Pricing

The 2015 Legacy is a midsized sedan that comes in four trims, Base, 2.5i Premium, 2.5i Limited and 3.6R Limited. The base starts at 22K and the 3.6R is a hair of 30K, this is roughly in line with its competitors. All Legacies have all-wheel drive as a standard feature. In terms of other cars in this class AWD is only offered as an option on top trim levels of the Chrysler 200 and Ford Fusion. I car I drove was a 2.5i Premium which runs around 25K.

Inside and Out

In terms of styling Subaru took a conservative approach. Smoothing out the quirks of the former model, the new Legacy has a coupe-like profile. Everything is taunt, and tightly drawn. Up front there is a new Hexagonal Grill shared with the Outback. Cannot say I am fond of it though as it looks a bit cheap and yes it is obvious they are using grill shutters. The back is somewhat bland as well. There are some good color choices, both Venetian Red, and Lapis Blue have a lot of pop, the rest of the palette makes the car look somewhat generic, especially parked next to the likes of the Ford Fusion or Mazda6. In essence nothing that excites, nothing that offends either, but then no one really buys Subbies because of the styling, and they have always been the cars with inner beauty.

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On the inside things are much improved over the prior model. Throughout the very spacious interior, there are abundant soft touch materials. The padding on the center and door panel armrests is about the best you will see in a sub 50K car. People often take that for granted, but when you have to drive on a multi hour stretch, you can appreciate having those nice touch points.
The center stack is dominated by a 6.2 (base model) or 7 inch (the rest of the trims) screen. This is a brand new infotainment system co-developed with Toyota (Toyota owns 20% of Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru’s parent company) it is a variation of their Entune system. The touch screen is responsive, and the layout is clean and easy to learn. Premium trims and up get voice command functions, which worked pretty well. One small annoyance, the clock is hard to see.

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The cloth seats were both sturdy and comfortable. Subaru gets its American market really well in this regard, as they were plenty wide (as a big blocky guy I really appreciated that aspect) but managed to be reasonably supportive as well.

Leg room both front and rear is rather expansive, and particularly good considering the Legacy is not as long as many of its competitors. On paper at least the Legacy is the roomiest car in the class. I would say it does run close to the class leaders the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. The trunk is 15 cubic feet, which is about the norm nowadays for midsize sedans, the lift-over is reasonably low and the opening is wide. The seats due the normal split 40/60 fold for extra space. If one needs more cargo space beyond that Subaru will sell you the Outback, basically the same car but with more room and higher ground clearance.

Performance and Economy

The first three trims of the Legacy come with Subaru’s tried and true 2.5 liter flat four cylinder engine. Also known as a “boxer” engine the cylinders are arranged horizontally opposing one another, an engine choice oddly shared with the Porsche 911 and Porsche Boxster/Cayman. There are a couple of advantages to this arrangement. The engine takes up less vertical space, allowing it to sit lower to the ground, this brings down the center of gravity and aids in cornering. The other is that the boxer 4 is one of three “inherently smooth” running engines (the others being an Inline 6 cylinder and a V12) this means it can run relatively vibration free without the extensive use of balance shafts that its competitors must employ.

A couple of years ago Subaru quietly reworked this mill and added a number of modern updates to reduce friction and improve efficiency. The output is a modest 175 Horsepower and 174 ft lbs of torque. The boxer engine brings torque in at low rpms which aids in drivability. Mated to this engine is Subaru’s third generation CVT transmission, a manual gearbox is no longer offered on the Legacy. The 2.5 feels respectable off the line and in town, but it is no powerhouse. Acceleration is somewhat tepid and a bit behind competing mid-size sedans. Passing at highway speeds while not nerve wracking needs a bit of planning.

The CVT itself is one of the best on the market. Subaru has worked really hard to minimize the often annoying “rubber band” effect (where the engine runs up the RPM band and stays there until the car’s speed catches up) and it is really only noticeable in hard full throttle take offs. For those wanting a bit more control Subaru supplies “flappy paddle” shifters on the Premium and higher trims.

The upside on all of this is the great gas mileage the 4 cylinder Legacy can achieve. EPA puts the 2.5i at 26 city and 36 Highway. Those are impressive numbers considering that the Legacy is carrying the extra weight and drag of all wheel drive. My real time numbers were around 28 in mixed in town and interstate driving.

For those wanting both more power and little more smoothness can step up to the 3.6R. This is the top of the line model and features Subaru’s 3.6 Cylinder Boxer engine. This mill is rated at 256 Horsepower and 247 lbs of torque. It is mated to Subaru’s “high torque” CVT first deployed on the Forester XT and WRX. The six as expected accelerates faster and is effortless in quick runs on to the interstate on ramp and passing slower traffic. The downside is the gas mileage is not quite as good. The EPA rates this one at 20 in town and 29 on the highway. According to the EPA the yearly gas costs adds up to about 400 dollars more if you opt for the bigger engine. This power plant though very smooth and trouble free, is a bit dated in performance and economy compared to some competitors. If Subaru dumped this mill and supplanted it with the 2.0 Turbo from the WRX, the Legacy would be giant killer, just my two cents.

Ride and Handling

In the past Legacys have always had a decent balance of good corning with a comfortable ride. For 2015 Subaru further enhances the Legacy by adding torque vectoring to the all-wheel drive system. This system ported over from the WRX allows the computer to distribute torque between the wheels based on cornering loads. This reduces the normal understeer and allows the Legacy to be planted nicely on sharp corners. One particular sharply curved on-ramp I was rather impressed with how flat the car stayed with almost no body lean what so ever. The steering as a nice heft to it, yet it remains light and easy around the parking lot. Over all handling is very responsive, though not quite as sharp as the Ford Fusion or Mazda6 (the class champs).

In terms of ride quality the Legacy is both satisfyingly firm and smooth. Bumps are deflected in an almost Germanic manner, there is almost no sense of underlying jitter. The Legacy is very hushed once up to interstate speeds, and there is a very solid feeling to the car. The CVT is able to keep revs low at 75 mile per hour cruising, aiding in the relaxed interstate driving. Combine this with the nice touch points, the security of all wheel drive, and all the sound insulation and you have one very nice road trip car and a pleasant every day driver.

Safety

Over the last several years Subaru has really been pushing the safety of its product line. Unlike many things in life Subaru can back up the marketing. All of its newest models including the Legacy have scored very high in crash tests, including the difficult front overlap test. The ratings for this car are 5-star and front and side impacts with a GOOD in the overlap. The Legacy packs the usual assortment of front and side curtain airbags, as well as newer generation “knee bags”

In terms of accident prevention Subaru offers both blind spot detection (although visibility in the Legacy is great) and lane watch. Subaru also offers its Eyesight collision mitigation system which uses stereoscopic cameras to detect objects up the road further than people can actually see (hence the name) The system can actually stop the car at low speeds if it detects an imminent collision.

Of course one cannot talk about Subaru’s safety without mentioning the standard all -wheel drive. This full time system works constantly to adjust power and torque whenever there is a sense of slip. The Ford Fusion and Chrysler 200 are the only competing models offering AWD. On both it is an option and only on their highest trims, not to mention their systems only work part time. Bottom line is that if there is bad weather and you have to take your ailing grandma to the ER, the Legacy is the car you are going to want to have to get you there.

In Summary

Subaru did an excellent job on the redesign with its Legacy. The car is more mainstream than ever, with comfort, poise and packaging to match the best of its competitors. Only time will tell of Subaru’s newest family sedan can step out of the shadow of its well-known wagon brother. No longer just that 4 door with All Wheel Drive, the Legacy is just a now damn nice car, that happens to have all wheel drive.

A Subie is excellent where the weather is miserable several months out of the year.

My preference in the mainstream midsize auto is a Ford Fusion.