Review of the 2018 Subaru Legacy

I think it’s safe to say that the Legacy is not the first vehicle that pops into people’s heads when you mention Subaru. It’s not as trendy and youth-oriented as the Crosstrek, not as roomy or versatile as the Forester or Outback, not as magnetically attractive as the WRX is to its manic devotees. Nor is the 2018 Subaru Legacy a particularly standout model in its class vis-à-vis its competitors. It won’t knock anyone on their backside with its performance, its interior styling is only now getting up to ‘meh’ levels and it won’t turn many heads when you turn onto the local Saturday night cruising street. 

But the 2018 Legacy does offer very good safety features and rates highly on crash test scores, the interior is a lot more comfortable than it is flashy, and of course it’s got one very valuable asset many others in its price and size range don’t have: all-wheel drive. Solid selling point number one. In other words it’s a Subaru, pretty much what you’d expect from the automaker. And overall that’s a pretty good thing.

If you’re looking for huge differences over the 2017 edition, you won’t find them in the 2018 Legacy, although it has been given a decent refresh midway through what is now its sixth generation. The new grille that spans the carmaker’s lineup is now in place, bracketed by new C-shaped headlights and underlined by modified bumpers; together they do make for a prettier front end. But other than that, what it looked like last year is what it looks like this year. Considering that Subaru has been successfully selling the Legacy since 1989, they reasonably assume it’s not too broken, so why fix it… too much.

As before, the Legacy comes with either of two engines, one of them a 2.5L 4-cylinder that delivers 175 hp. The other is a bit more of a heavyweight, a 3.6L 6-cylinder with a maximum output of 165 hp, and 247 lb-ft of torque. This was the engine my Limited tester was running on. For 2018, the automaker also stopped offering the option of a manual gearbox, which will disappoint very few customers since only a tiny percentage of Subaru buyers (less than 4%) went that route in 2017.

On the road, the bigger engine I had for my turn in the 2018 Subaru Legacy bestowed on the car a surprising peppiness in city traffic. Acceleration was good ranging up to impressive, the braking was solid and the CVT, considered one of the better ones available in the business, rarely struck a false note as far as I could tell. I found myself quite enjoying scooting around urban streets. The highway ride was a more sedate affair, the suspension being nothing to write home about, in either a good or bad way. One thing that might make me hesitate regarding the bigger engine is that it slurps up fuel at a near-alarming rate – official figures are 11.9/8.3L/100 km, and in mixed late-winter driving I never got it below 11.5. If that’s a concern for you, the 2.5L might be a better option and it will save you pennies at the start as well. Your in-city driving will just get a little duller, is all.

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