Long-Term Road Test
Imagine for a minute a mystical place free of fiscal restraints, a place where people almost never drive a car in which they have any financial interest whatsoever. Intrigued? That's every day here at Car and Driver. Think of it as your house, filled with a couple dozen teenagers anxious to get the keys for a weekend, and you get the idea, although that comparison may be too kind. Oh, but they always bring the cars back just like they got them, right?
It's amazing - then again maybe not - how dents and scratches magically appear overnight, how interiors suddenly reek of pet stink and dark corners bristle with dog hairs, how windshields bear vast crack lines, how wheels bend, how stains leap out at you. Even more shocking is how many of these incidents are reported as somehow not being our fault. Hey, who did this?
With our history of bashing and crashing cars, it takes a lot to surprise us. But it happens.
Our poor long-term Subaru Legacy was the subject of this random mercilessness when, at 31,731 miles, someone introduced it to a tankful of diesel fuel. Let us say for the record at this point - purely as a historical note - that Subaru has never offered a diesel model for sale anywhere in the world. The Legacy, meanwhile, did not take kindly to this oafish outrage and refused to propel itself so much as an inch from its resting point in a gas station. After a tow-truck ride and a $400 fee to drain the tank, flush the fuel lines, and clean the injectors, we were back on our merry sprint to 40,000 miles. But hold on, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
For 2005, Subaru introduced to the U.S. a much-better-looking and, in 2.5GT trim, vastly more powerful Legacy. So we ordered up this 250-hp, 2.5-liter turbo GT version with a five-speed manual and in loaded Limited trim (for 2006 and beyond, however, all GTs are Limiteds) for an extended taste of this sleeper sedan. Legacys start at just over 20 grand, but the GT runs almost 30 large. Ours was $30,072 with just two options: a short-throw shifter with a Momo knob ($621) and a compass and auto-dimming mirror ($281).
We'd have to recommend against that shifter option, which indeed shortens the throws but does so at the expense of shift effort, a problem that's amplified by cold temperatures. Reverse was sometimes tough to engage, but complaints about the tranny's overall operation consumed many pages of notes including "notchy," "cranky," "annoying," "operating without grease," and "balky." Enough said?
Other than the transmission, early impressions were mostly positive. Drivers here appreciated the Legacy's big power - 0 to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds and a 14.1-second quarter-mile - concealed in a modest but sleek exterior, which made flying below police suspicion that much easier. The upscale interior was another positive trait - something Subaru is not generally known for - where fit and finish is beyond reproach, the layout is simple and intuitive, and the low-gloss imitation-wood trim even drew accolades. To accommodate more driver sizes, however, we'd like Subaru to add a telescoping steering column.
Still, true sports-sedan status is denied the Legacy on account of too much pitch and roll as well as light steering and a mushy brake pedal. The ride quality, while on the comfortable side, isn't as smooth as the exaggerated body motions suggest. And the all-season tires don't advance the sports-sedan cause, either. Braking from 70 mph took a longish 195 feet, and skidpad grip was 0.83 g.
Problems didn't appear until 10,000 miles had been racked up. Then the driver's window fell off its track. Turns out the window regulator was bent, and it was replaced under the three-year/36,000-mile warranty. A few thousand miles later, the Subie's idle turned violently rough, but our dealer couldn't find anything amiss.
