The Subaru Legacy is no more. Conceived by the Japanese automaker to intentionally cater to the North American market, the Legacy sedan has been around for 36 years. But the final model exited Subaru of Indiana Automotive on September 12th, completing the production run of the brand’s first model manufactured in the United States.
“This is a bittersweet moment for our company and our associates,” said Scott Brand, president and chief operating officer for Subaru of Indiana. “While an important chapter in our history has been brought to a close, we’re already turning the page and starting a new one.”
Globally, the Legacy was discontinued on most relevant markets by 2020. This was attributed primarily toward the industrywide shift toward crossovers and SUVs. While North America likewise pivoted toward crossover vehicles, and arguably earlier than other regions, the Legacy continued to perform best on the market it was originally intended for. There remained a subset of ardent sedan fans lingering on certain markets and ours was no exception. However, Subaru eventually had to acknowledge just how much more popular its crossover models had become.
Decades earlier, the brand was known for offering what were effectively simple and rugged cars featuring all-wheel drive and a smidgen of added ground clearance. The Legacy was novel upon its introduction because AWD was relatively rare to see outside of full-size trucks, let alone equipped to a smallish Japanese sedan.
Today, the automaker has fully embraced the shift toward crossovers. Models that would have qualified as station wagons in the past now boast even more ground clearance and are categorized as crossover vehicles or full-on SUVs. Whether this was due to the brand vying to find emission loopholes or simply catering to the markets can be debated. But what’s not debatable is the effect this has on Subaru’s lineup.
With the exception of the WRX, Subaru no longer sells any sedans. While buyers can still get the Impreza, it’s presently only offered on our market as a wagon and looks like it might be fully supplanted by the Crosstrek in the coming years.
From Subaru:
Though the Legacy was the longest-running Subaru model line, its discontinuation reflects market shifts from passenger cars to SUVs and crossovers—along with Subaru’s transition to electrified and fully electric vehicles.
The end of Legacy production will be followed shortly by the end of U.S. production of the Outback in about three weeks. Those changes are leading SIA’s transition to begin U.S. production of the Subaru Forester in October, followed by the Forester Hybrid in the spring.
The Subaru Outback was another model that gradually transitioned from being a versatile AWD wagon to a sport utility vehicle. While the same can be said of the Forester, it started out a little closer to the crossover end of the spectrum and has only become more SUV-like with each successive redesign.
It’s more than a little disappointing to see the Legacy go. Like the Impreza and WRX, the model existed through an era where Subaru was active and thriving in motorsport (particularly rallying) and boasted a unique personality not found anywhere else. Subaru frequently offered performance variants of the Legacy sedan, making it a pseudo-luxury alternative to the WRX as the models matured.
Even though the original 1989 Subaru Legacy was launched so that the company could compete with the likes of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, one could argue that it was never really in direct competition with them. Subaru was offering all-wheel drive and horizontally opposed motors by default. By 1991, it was likewise allowing customers to option the peppy (for the time) 2.2-liter EJ22T SOHC.
Second-generation Legacy models would see US-spec GT models equipped with the even more powerful 2.0-liter EJ20 DOHC twin-turbo. This would be followed by B-Spec trims that added upgraded suspension and fewer creature comforts to ensure the vehicle weighed less. At the same time, Subaru was adding more luxury features to the standard models.
The recipe was very much the same for the third and fourth generation Legacy, even as the model grew larger in overall size. Subaru continued offering a diverse array of efficiency minded four cylinder motors and turbocharged variants making over 260 horsepower. There was even a 3.0-liter flat six available on select markets. This is also the era where the model started to receive oodles of praise in both Japanese and Western media.
Fifth-gen Legacy models saw even larger powertrains and greater output figures across the board. But this is also when the sedan began losing some of the surrounding hype. While Subaru continued offering models with manual transmissions, this was also when the brand began to pivot to continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) — leading to criticism pertaining to long-term reliability and driving feel.
It’s a similar story with the sixth-gen models. Despite the brand offering increasingly reliable CVTs over time, they’ve remained unpopular with the enthusiasts that gravitated toward the model to begin with. At the same time, Subaru stopped offering the ability for customers to option the Legacy with a manual transmission and rival automakers had started to introduce more models with all-wheel drive. This arguably undermined a lot of what originally made the Legacy a desirable model.
Ultimately, trying to give the Legacy more mass appeal ultimately spoiled what originally made it so unique. There’s a lot to like about the current, seventh-gen Legacy. It’s comfortable, roomy (relative to its overall size), and boasts a comically large fuel tank allowing for exceptionally long driving ranges. It’s still a very practical commuter, ideal for people living in regions with lackluster roads and inclement weather. But the base engine leaves a lot to be desired when mated to the new-and-improved CVT. Meanwhile, the turbo option really hasn’t moved the needle on outright performance since about 2005 and it’s only gotten less exciting to drive since then.
It’s not a bad vehicle by any stretch of the imagination and was even under consideration as the next model to be parked in your author’s driveway for a time. But Subaru ended up losing the sale due to some of the aforementioned changes and we’d wager that’s been happening more and more over the years.
In fact, we don’t need to imagine because we only need to check the sales records. The Subaru Legacy went from 87,788 U.S. deliveries in 2005 to just 19,591 in 2024. While there were a few years that saw increased volumes relative to the one that came before, the general trend clearly indicates declining interest in the sedan’s most important market. That may be more telling than the automaker’s planned shift toward SUVs and all-electric models in relation to why the model is getting the axe.
[Images: Subaru]
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