If you haven't been paying attention to the Legacy's styling changes, you might not recognize it. Its appearance was altered with the total redesign in 2005; and it's not that the change was extreme, just that Subaru lost whatever ordinariness it might have had, and entered the sleek world of many of its competitors. The Legacy is now angular and wedge-shaped.
So far, the Legacy nose hasn't gone the way of the Impreza, which looks decidedly like an Alfa Romeo. The Legacy grille has lost some clutter, but it's changed least of all. The front fascia, however, now sports an impressive opening between the fog lamps, and the hood boasts a thin, wide scoop to draw air into the turbocharger intercooler.
The hood is made of aluminum, which is lighter. The new wheels are elegant, a starburst design with 10 thin, tapered spokes. The profile is rakish, with a nice coupe-like roofline. Our spec.B test model had aerodynamic side ground-effect bodywork.
At the rear, blocky taillamps are connected by an integrated spoiler lip on the trunk over the ordinary bumper.
The Subaru Legacy shines inside. Especially striking is the spec.B, with its stitched Alcantara inlayed seats, a material that's grippier in the curves and cooler than leather in summer because it breathes. The three-spoke MOMO steering wheel with audio controls is wrapped in dimpled leather and feels good to the touch overall, although we found that the heavy stitching fell under our thumb and forefinger and was lumpy at that spot. The dashboard trim, in faux polished alloy, looks good to the eye, surrounding the shift lever. The luminescent gauges are not our favorite, but worse do exist.
Under the speedometer, there's a small gauge intended to provide useful information about instantaneous fuel mileage, but it's analog, which means there are no numbers to read, and it's too small to read at a glance. Plus, it's calibrated relative to recent driving; it tells you whether you're getting better or worse mileage than with the previous tank. It wasn't useful for us at all.
The aluminum pedals are neat but the brake and gas pedal are squeezed together, with the clutch pedal spaced farther to the left. This makes it difficult to blip the gas with the heel of your right foot for a downshift, while the toe of that foot is on the brake pedal, a technique that results in smooth downshifts when you're slowing down quickly.
We tuned into XM Satellite Radio a lot during our time in the GT Limited, hanging on the Bluesville station, and the 120-watt, sound system was rich and satisfying, using what Subaru calls SRS WOW technology. It's easy and intuitive to tune, and if we'd had an iPod, we could have plugged that in. The satellite radio antenna is a black box about three by four inches, mounted in the upper right corner of the windshield, which seems awkward but is probably better than somewhere outside the vehicle.
Interior storage is good. The center console is reasonably deep and there's a useful pocket on the driver's door. The glovebox has a convenient separate shelf inside, so small stuff can be better organized.
The power moonroof really lets the natural light in, and in the wagon it's a dual panel, panoramic job.
The Legacy is a roomy car up front. There's excellent legroom in front with 44.1 inches, although we found that our knees hit the steering wheel climbing in and out, unless the comfortable eight-way power seat was set rather low, or the steering wheel higher.
In the rear, for 2007 Subaru has returned to a previous idea, the 60/40 split seat with center armrest and pass-through to the trunk, for carrying long things like skis. The rear seat doesn't offer an abundance of legroom, with 33.9 inches, despite the two-inch stretch that came with the 2005 redesign.
With SI-Drive, Subaru has raised the bar for automotive journalists, as well as other manufacturers. This section might be three times as long, because there are three separate sets of driving impressions, in Intelligent, Sport, and Sport Sharp modes. The driver changes the engine modes by rotating or pushing a dial on the console. Counterclockwise is Sport, clockwise is Sport Sharp, and pushing down on the knob gets Intelligent.
The turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine in the GT makes 243 horsepower and 241 pound-feet of torque at 3600 rpm. (On paper that's 7 horsepower and 9 pound-feet less than last year, but the difference is only in a revised method of horsepower rating by SAE.)
The SI-Drive influences horsepower, torque and throttle response, but not turbocharger boost or valve timing; and with the five-speed automatic transmission, SI-Drive also changes the shift points. In Intelligent mode, peak horsepower is reduced to about 195, and peak torque to 228 pound-feet.
