It’s official. Subaru has announced that production of the Legacy midsize sedan will end in Spring 2025 after 36 years of production. Yep, the archetypal all-wheel-drive midsize sedan is set to saunter off into the sunset, marking another departure from the world we’re used to. For decades, the Legacy embodied Subaru’s persona of slightly quirky all-weather Japanese cars, and I reckon its death could be the canary in the coal mine if Subaru doesn’t act fast.
See, you can only hold a competitive advantage for so long, and the world seems to have caught up to Subaru. In a few short years, don’t be surprised if the industry’s further still down the road – and if Subaru doesn’t change soon – the brand finds itself lost in the dust. After all, the things that make a Subaru a Subaru seem to be growing less and less important.
Over the past, say, thirty-plus years, Subaru has staked its technological identity on two things: all-wheel-drive and safety. For the longest while, if you wanted an all-wheel-drive car, you needed a Subaru or an Audi and that was that. However, the tides are changing, and the shoreline is receding. Nowadays, you can get any number of normal passenger cars with some form of all-wheel-drive. The Mazda 3, the Toyota Corolla, the Kia K5, the Nissan Altima, and the Toyota Camry can all be optioned to send some torque to the rear tires.
However, people are buying more crossover utility vehicles than sedans, and that’s a slight problem because basically all CUVs are available with all-wheel-drive. Sure, the Chevrolet Trax, Buick Envista, Hyundai Venue, and outgoing Nissan Kicks are two-wheel-drive machines, but those are single cells of the great organism that is the CUV segment.
Granted, not all all-wheel-drive systems are created equally, but thanks to faster processing and more sophisticated algorithms, reactive all-wheel-drive systems are really closing the perceptible gap with all-wheel-drive systems that always send torque to both axles. Plus, an all-wheel-drive system is only as good as its differentials, and since most systems including most Subaru systems use open front and rear differentials, controlling wheelspin caused by cross-axle traction imbalances falls to traction control systems and tire grip.
Oh, and that’s before we even get into electric vehicles. The Subaru Solterra is much like any dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric crossover with a drive unit on the front axle and another on the rear. Functionally, it works on exactly the same principles as all-wheel-drive in a Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E, or Hyundai Ioniq 5. If EV mandates keep up, Subaru’s “Symmetrical All-Wheel-Drive” marketing advantage will largely be wiped out in essentially two model cycles.
Alright, so even if EV mandates go to plan and Subaru’s all-wheel-drive advantage slides off the table, that still leaves safety, right? Well, not so fast. It wasn’t that long ago when new cars weren’t achieving top marks in moderate overlap crash testing, but now pretty much everything aces the moderate frontal overlap test and most new cars do brilliantly on the more severe small overlap test. From Mazda to Toyota to Hyundai, it’s not hard to find other automakers scoring just as well as Subaru. Once everything’s safe, what’s the difference?
If you remove Symmetrical all-wheel-drive, the flat-four engine, and even a cut-and-dry safety advantage, what makes a Subaru a Subaru? It definitely isn’t motorsports anymore, which begs the question: Is marketing enough alone? While some people will definitely continue to buy Subarus for the image, those who believe in the technology may grow to be disappointed, and those who’ve been burned by odd problems will continue to share their stories. Should this industry-wide switch to even primarily battery electric power happen, Subaru will need to think on its feet.
The Subaru Legacy may be officially on the way out, but Subaru’s own legacy hangs in the balance of changing technologies. How it chooses to reinvent itself in the face of electrification could decide whether the automaker sinks or swims. Is a lifeguard on duty?
I recently wrote a review on the Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, and while I didn’t like the CVT, I didn’t like the interior quality, and I implied that it feels like an all-wheel drive economy car on stilts, I acknowledged that it still had soul. And that’s the thing: People often buy cars not because of the hardware, but because of styling and marketing.
I mean, look at Jeep. Aside from the Wrangler, how is their Grand Cherokee any different than say, a Touareg or a Volvo XC90? How are the Renegade and Compass any different than all the other all-wheel drive crossovers? And yet, still folks buy them because they’re Jeeps, and also because of their styling, which tells a story that Jeep’s marketing team has carefully crafted over the last seven decades.
Ditto for Subaru. I will acknowledge that there seem to be more and more competitors these days (the newest CX-5 comes standard with all-wheel drive), and there will be more as the EV-era ramps up (adding all-wheel drive to EVs is trivial compared to adding it to a gas car), but I think styling and marketing will continue the Subaru cult for years to come.
-David Tracy
(Photo credits: Subaru)
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As a former Saab, and current Volvo, owner…you’d think a Subaru would be right up my alley. But they’ve slowly morphed from quirky and lovable, into just generic and ugly, to the point that I just don’t even consider them as an option anymore. Actually, they are almost up there with modern BMW where I actively wouldn’t want to be seen as owning one.
So Subaru is discontinuing a car that they haven’t bothered to advertise in over a decade.
This is not a surprise.
From the ads – you’d think Subaru only offered 3 cars: Crosstreks, Outbacks and Foresters.
Impreza is next.
I honestly didn’t even realize they still sold the Legacy in North America. I was fully expecting to start reading this article and get to the sentence explaining how it was discontinued here a few years ago but still sold in Asia or somewhere else until now.
Legacys are all over the place in our neck of the woods. Subaru doesn’t need to advertise here.
Disclosure: Mrs. OS drives a Legacy. We require AWD in our location, and the Legacy is quiet and rides nicely.
The Impreza is still around?!
I live in a mid-size city and there are at least three 2024 model Impreza within a couple blocks of me. They’re compact, return decent fuel economy for an AWD, and are smoking deal (starting at $23k). I would have picked one up if I didn’t want the extra clearance for a few off-road places that I occasionally visit.
I had a 2019 Legacy and loved it. Didn’t think it was that slow(it was still slow) and the CVT was fine. I will say this though. Their designs are really boring and the Wilderness variants look unfinished. Their infotainment system sucks. They really need to get their drivetrains moved to hybrid power so maybe their vehicles can be a bit more faster with some potentially better mpg even though my Legacy got 34mpg which I was really happy with.
The Legacy going away is a market-driven thing. For years now, Subaru has sold 1500-2000 Legacies in the US monthly, while the Outback’s monthly sales have held at 13,000ish or greater. Subaru gave the Lagacy more of a shot than Ford did its sedans – Ford killed all “regular cars” not named Mustang years ago. The market has spoken regarding 4-door sedans. This makes me sad; I loved the 2020 Legacy XT (2.4L Turbo) Limited that I had for a while.
Solterra is giving Aztek vibes… so unpleasant looking.
I think this might be a little dramatic.
Subaru certainly may certainly start to slow down a little bit, but I don’t think some people understand just how intense the loyalty is in certain parts of the US. Subaru is ingrained in the culture of Upstate NY/New England. Practically everything that isn’t a truck is a Subaru. My wife owns a Forester, and while I find it to be mediocre, she loves it and seems content to drive nothing but Subarus for the rest of her life. It’s a bit strange, but it is what it is.
A lot of people here may not see the appeal, but Subarus really are designed and marketed to the Northeast and other sad, cold climates in a very precise way. People don’t do luxury cars here. Cars and what they represent tend to be a bit… puritanical, in that car must be utilitarian to a fault, and not be a vulgar display of wealth, or fashion, or whatever. Subarus reflect that sort of ethos a lot better than whatever the hell the Toyota Crown is supposed to be. It’s a pair of Keens, in car form. You might find Subaru’s popularity to be collective virtue signaling in the vein of “look at me, I must spend so much time outside” but around here they’re often purchased because of their status as basic-ass transportation. Nobody’s getting a “you think you’re better than me!?” while parking their Crosstrek.
People swear by the AWD system. That they’re relatively sturdy and typically pretty easy to work on. The dealers are better than all the rest around here. But what a lot of us need to remember most, is that car purchases are tremendously irrational. It doesn’t matter that half a dozen other brands might check all the same spreadsheet boxes as Subaru. Most people don’t connect with those other brands because those other brands have often treated their economy car customers with utter contempt. Subaru has managed to make their customers feel pride in their Subaru ownership. I don’t see Nissan doing that any time soon.
I’m not even that big of a Subaru fan but I find myself defending them for some reason.
This. Here in the PNW, there are so many people who will continue to buy Subarus just because they’re Subarus despite there being many compelling alternatives. My wife was dead set on an Impreza hatchback years ago simply because of the brand and didn’t even want to go look at a Mazda 3, which looked like a better car on paper to me. My mom bought a Forester based solely on the marketing/cult appeal but eventually replaced it with a Highlander after realizing it was noisy, uncomfortable, and lacking in features.
Yeah…. this.
This is doom and gloom that seems to ignore reality. Where I live (upstate NY) you can not take a one-mile drive without passing three Subarus. Subaru continues to exist because of loyalty (every Subaru owner I know have owned at least three before their current one) and their continued perception as the safe outdoorsy crunchy granola pet-loving Earth saving-vehicle. They found a niche, market it to them hard, and it works.
It is an interesting point about the puritanical aspect of Subarus. The two richest people I know (who are not just casually rich, but eye-wateringly so) both drive a Subaru. And one of them drives a Legacy! A sweet little 3.6R.
Volvo used to have that demographic on lock down, but they sort of turned their back on this type of buyer. And this demographic is also very, very aware that Volvo is now owned by China, and is not very happy about that.
I read a few years ago that the ‘stealth wealth’ set was starting to adopt Subarus in addition to Tahoes and Landcruisers. I saw a lot all of them West of Denver so it seemed like it could be true.
I’m surrounded by wealthy folks in a Puritan area, and Subarus do well with that crowd. I didn’t even realize how frequently they were swapping the things out until local roads were jammed full of Ascents within a few weeks of their release.
I am a New England multi-Subaru owner who will not be buying another one… so it’s not all irrational loyalty.
I’m a multi-Legacy owner for a quarter century and I will continue buying old Legacys when/if I ever need another one. Where else to find used, can-be-made reliable, manual AWD wagons? That I know front to back. No cars have ever been more reliable or overall fit for me, including an Acura Integra and Toyota Prius. That said, I won’t own anything newer than 2005—of any brand.
Sure, there’s a lot of people who have had bad experiences who would rather move on. That’s fair. If our Forester ends up being an asshole (its been fine for the… holy crap, 6 years we’ve had it, time is flying) we probably wouldn’t return either.
But there are a lot of people out there that are very happy with theirs. Seriously, damn near everyone we know owns one, and they all swear by them. I just don’t see all of these people suddenly jumping ship from Subaru just because other manufacturers can do what they can do the same or better, after all, they opted to buy the Subaru in the first place.
Even though there are some disappointing maintenance issues with these cars, I’m moving on because they no longer offer anything that interests me. If I could still get a manual transmission, I’d overlook a lot of other things.
I’m sure my dogs will climb into the back of any crossover just as well as a Subaru. I have a short commute and my wife can work from home if there are weather issues. AWD has slid down our list of requirements in a vehicle. We’d gladly go FWD or RWD for a third pedal these days.
From what I’ve read, it sounds like (outside reliability) the biggest issue folks have with Subarus are the engine and transmission. It’s reminiscent of VW’s air-cooled flat four: they put it in everything they made for ages, but eventually they had to move on when it was no longer adequate. Hell, look how long Porsche kept their boxer engines air-cooled. Again, same story. There was a point of diminishing returns, and they finally went to water cooled. I know people aren’t buying Subarus for power, but “slow” seems to be a constant comment across their range of non performance cars. Maybe they’re just holding out until they can go full EV, but in the meantime they are soldiering on with a powertrain that doesn’t quite cut it. I know most people aren’t obsessed with speed and power, but they will absolutely notice something that feels sluggish compared to competitors, and as this article outlines, there’s more now than ever. And honestly, outside enthusiasts, who cares if it’s a boxer engine? It makes them unique and I respect that, but it seems to be holding them back too.
Like others have said, Subaru seems to be as much of a lifestyle brand as Jeep these days. Which I have to give them (and their marketing department) credit for, but I can’t help but think they could be doing better if they tried to modernize things with a more compelling powertrain.
They just developed a new generation of H engines in the past decade – when the H form factor was of no benefit in their lineup of tall SUVs. They chose to stick with the stupid, and release engines 20% underpowered for their displacement. One of their executives must have an uncle who owns a camshaft supplier.
The boxer engine design is not responsible for Subaru’s lack of acceleration. They generally produce a power curve similar to an inline engine, but with a little more character.
Subaru specs their engines and gearing to produce a certain level of performance, so it is their choice to make them slow. I think where they struggle is in trying to provide enough power while maintaining acceptable fuel economy for a cummuter car.
Their drivetrain layout is really what hinders them in that regard. Most modern awd systems can revert to full fwd and have the fuel economy of fwd in most situations, while a Subaru must drive all wheels all the time, even when the traction isn’t needed.
It’s an awesome layout for a performance car, but isn’t really ideal for a fuel sipping commuter.
Crosstrek is down 20hp from a Toyota Corolla. Both are 2.0 n/a 4 cylinders. That’s a significant amount in a vehicle putting out less than 200hp.
I’d much rather have that 20hp than any claimed ‘character’ of a stupid engine design.
The engine in an S2000 produces 70 more hp from the same displacement and layout as the Corolla and it’s from the 90s.
The original BRZ produced 30 more hp than the Corolla with the same displacement and a boxer layout.
What I was trying to say is that the layout does not determine the specific output. It’s more the tuning done by the manufacturer to suit it’s intended purpose.
These na cvt equipped subarus are slow, no one is arguing that, and the engines character is what it is. It’s not a fairy tale, and it’s not something you have to sacrifice hp for.
As I stated before, Subaru uses a driveline that doesn’t compliment fuel economy figures, yet they need to post fuel economy figures that are competitive and marketable for the segment, so to do this they sacrifice performance.
And of course, the Corolla is a far superior choice.
Make it a Corolla Cross, then. Same engine and HP. The H4 format alone is less efficient if only because it’s wastes energy spinning an entirely unnecessary pair of camshafts mounted in an extra head.
I owned an original BRZ. The engine had a giant torque hole (around 3500 rpm or so if I remember), and my particular instance of that engine ate its own valvetrain at 40k miles and the throw-out bearing failed before 60k – right about the mileage where it was totalled (which thankfully saved me from replacing wheel bearings!).
My point was that the Corolla motor is going to have a lazy tune, just like the Crosstrek. Neither of these are high-strung engines. They’re both 2-liter engines operating in similar vehicles. That Toyota can get 20 more hp from the same displacement while achieving similar mpg shows that there’s something off with the H4 vs I4.
The BRZ is the only car in the lineup where the flat format offers any benefit. They should have come to that conclusion and adapted, but I guess the flat motor is the ‘quirk’ they decided to hold onto.
The energy loss from spinning the extra 2 cams is somewhat trivial. It still takes the same amount of torque to open the same amount of valves, so it’s just the inertia of the extra 2 sprockets. The heads I guess would add up to a little bit of extra material and seals.
Much less trivial are the myriad of reliability issues Subaru H4s tend to have, and the excessive driveline losses when compared to fwd. That’s why an inline fwd layout is a better choice for a commuter or family car.
Also, an inline engine would be a poor choice to use with Subaru’s longitudinal engine layout, as the engine would be twice as long, and the vehicle’s packaging would suffer. To switch to inline, they would have to redesign their chassis, and at that point they may as well just rebadge a Corolla.
Slap a Subaru badge on the hood of a Corolla Cross and you can have the Subie of your dreams!
Not really. The subie of my dreams would have a third pedal.
I know they would have to change their packaging – especially their transmission, but with everything going to hybrid it makes a lot more sense to just hang an electric motor on the rear axle.
I do think you could probably mount an I4 in the same space without that much issue. The H4 has the cylinders slightly offset, so you’d really only need to add about a cylinder and a half of length if you wanted to keep the engine longitudinal. We’re generally talking about large and tall SUVs at this point, so it’s not like having the engine a little more forward is going to throw off the delicate handling balance.
They’ve been slow for aaaaages. I test drove them 20 years ago and they failed because they were too slow and not an upgrade vs my GM Corolla. The Highlander mopped the floor with them wrt merging onto a highway. I tried them 12 years ago and they had the same problem.
“… what makes a Subaru a Subaru?”
I hate to be the one to point this out, but since the “crossover” (I despise that term) SUV has now become the homogenized, default automotive form factor, what really makes Anything, anything at this point?
I’ve been in love with the industry since the time I first realized there were different car brands (read: early 70’s), and I hate that I have to acknowledge that it’s come to this. Styling at this point is limited to headlight, taillight, window opening and grille opening shape, if the vehicle has one. Essentially all cars have the same tech inside now. We recently bought my wife a 2024 Kia K5 because she realized she really didn’t like sitting up high and we have no other use case for an SUV. The K5 is a nice car, I like it so far, but other than dash design and materials used I don’t know what distinguishes it from any other sedans that are left on the market. It’s a base model but has lane departure and blind spot warning and adaptive cruise and whatever else you might expect on a modern car at any price.
At some point it almost comes down to what dealer is closest, and what brand you trust the most, I guess. It’s very nearly marketing in its purest sense. Cars are across the board so good these days, it almost doesn’t matter what you buy. It makes the current proliferation of brands these days both easy to understand yet baffling at the same time.
They also recently changed the slogan to “it’s what makes Subaru, Subaru.” Which is meh AND maintains the unnecessary comma.
That’s too bad. I’ve got one, looks just like the top pic up there, and it’s been a fantastic car. Smooth and quiet out on the road, nice interior for the price, and a great all wheel drive system. It’s boring, but that’s what I wanted for my longish commute in the land of snow and rust. It’s taken the wife and I on numerous cross country road trips and it’s in line for another this summer. I’ve had exactly zero problems with it mechanical or otherwise. It’s not my favorite car that I’ve ever owned, but I think it’s objectively the best car I’ve ever owned all things considered.
What was the decision making process when buying the Legacy over, say, a Camry/Mazda/Accord?
Ha! I was shopping used and I actually went to the dealership to test drive a Mazda 6 manual. That was a nice car, but I hated the manual – terrible clutch feel. I was going to leave and keep shopping, but they had a Camry and a Legacy sitting there that I took a look at. I decided I wasn’t ready to admit defeat and become a Camry owner. The Legacy hadn’t been on my radar, but I took it for a spin and was sold. Accords are nice cars, if I had bumped into the right one at the right time maybe I’d have one of those. I was coming out of a crazy Mk IV GTI that I had begun to hate on my new long and traffic filled commute. I wanted something calm, cool, and collected and the Legacy has fit the bill.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
None of it matters any more. Subaru did the Symmetrical AWD and quirky brand image things for long enough that they’ve burned themselves into people’s brains as a Volvo for cowards.
Even though that Subaru crossover thing is basically identical to a Toyota Highlander or whatever, people will still choose the Subaru because of the brand image. I don’t think that’s going away.
I used to work at a Subaru dealership, we’d sell 20 Outbacks before we’d sell a single Legacy. Subaru literally cannot make cars fast enough for its buyers, they’re cutting this model to sell more Outbacks
The foolishness here is not continuing the Legacy as a wagon only competitor to the Accord or Camry similar to what VW did with the Passat in Europe. They’re already making the Outback, just remove the cladding. The Impreza already went hatch only to make it easier to make alongside its Crosstrek counterpart.
Going from Outback as a trim name for the Legacy wagon to its own model is the most baffling branding decision I can remember.
Killing Subaru feels homophobic.
Hilarious, thanks!
As a former Subaru Legacy owner and now Volvo S60 owner (wow the meme is true). It saddens me to see the Legacy going away, but I completely understand it. Sedans are honestly a bad form factor with modern technology and are going to die out.
I know if I was to buy a vehicle today and wanted the sedan look, I’d buy a lift back style sedan like the Mercedes EQS because it is so much more practical. In reality id prefer a wagon, but I live in America and we don’t get nice things.
Please explain. This is an interesting take.
The traditional 4 door sedan design has hard barriers between the passenger compartment and the cargo compartment.
That combined with the traditional trunk opening design severely limits usable cargo space.
By changing to a liftback you can keep a similar roofline on the same footprint but have more usable space.
I agree with this, now that you have clarified. 🙂 Wagon’s for life.
Do you wear corduroy jackets with elbow patches?
If Subaru dies, what will the family of dogs drive?
I’m sure the Kia Hamsters will let the Dogs out.
I will always believe that Subaru is the spiritual descendant of SAAB. SAAB made unusual and quirky designs and engineering decisions which won the loyalty of a certain group of thinkers. Before Subaru offered 4WD/AWD, SAAB fans praised the (otherwise nonexistent in the market) FWD for its poor-weather driving abilities.
When everyone else started offering cars that did what a SAAB did, their only customers were the diehard loyalists, and it wasn’t enough to sustain the corporation.
Your conjecture that Subaru will suffer the same fate as SAAB seems very likely.
Doug DeMuro had a segment on his recent podcast where he and his co-hosts discussed the question “what car brand will no longer be around in 10 years”, I was surprised no one mentioned Subaru, or at least I don’t think they did. The did mention a few others that I kind of agree with, like Mitsubishi, Fiat, possibly Buick.
Subaru’s decline makes me sad. During the winter, we had about 5 inches of snow on my very steep, very long driveway. My Saabaru 9-2x (with CrossClimates) was the only vehicle to easily make it up the hill. a Jeep TJ and a Honda Ridgeline both bowed their head in shame.
Jeep TJ and Legacy owner here. Your TJ needs proper snow tires. Both vehicles do fine in snow until they high center.
More than fair, the Jeep has a weird tire size and choices are limited. For that matter, Crossclimates would have likely enabled the Ridgeline to make it up the hill with no drama. I don’t live somewhere that I can justify true winter tires, a bad winter here probably means 8-10 days per year of driveway drama
I want to love Subaru, hell we own one, my Mum owns 2, my brothers had one but at this point they’re just.. lazy? Black plastic cladding on everything, weak motors and CVTs jammed behind them all. It’s frustrating because they have the ability to make something epic and actively choose the path of least resistance.
The CVT thing seems esp. key. I have non-enthusiast friends who’ve test-driven them, and they all remarked on the transmission experience being somehow off. And plenty of them are part of the outdoorsy crowd that would seem interested in all the other stuff.
If Subaru isn’t so special anymore, I wonder if (maybe not so far) in the future, someone will snap them up. Toyota, perhaps? They already have a couple joint projects, so why not make it official and buy them out?
If Subaru is circling the drain (not to say they are now, but if they lose their “specialness”) what would be in it for Toyota?
I assume an MBA could make a slide deck about Synergies, Branding and demographics to justify the purchase.
It’s hard for Subaru to have any quirky identity when they are selling the same thing everyone else is. I guess the WRX may be slightly different, but they’ve already shown their plans for the future by making the top model WRX available only with a CVT.
Toyota owns 20% of Subaru if my memory serves. Their ownership is how the Scion FR-S (now the Toyota 86) and Subaru BRZ came about. Also, see the current matching between the bZ4X and Solterra.
they started going downhill since toyota got their hands in them.
Subaru seems to me to have already shifted to being squarely in the “lifestyle” automaker camp; it increasingly seems to make a product you consume not to consume in itself, but rather to signal other things about you beyond “I own a Subaru.”
Not many other carmakers feature ads that focus on the donations they’ll make to causes you like if you buy.
Honestly if they finally start of have some character again and most importantly ditch the boxer engine I might actually be interested in owning one for the first time. Their current lineup save BRZ does nothing for me whatsoever, and I’d rather buy the GR 86 anyways
This is amusingly topical, as I have a family member that replaced his Legacy last fall with an Outback. He absolutely loved his Legacy, but when it came time to replace it he was torn between it and other competitors like the Accord and Camry. He ended up with the Outback when he realized it had all the things he liked about his Legacy but with increased practicality for hauling stuff in the long, upper Midwest winters. When he admitted that aloud, his salesman said that in his experience, virtually everyone who came in interested in a Legacy left with an Outback if they test drove them both.
i live in the snow belt, Subaru country. for every 20 outbacks or crosstreks i see maybe one legacy. i probably see more wrx’s than legacies
I live in Colorado, so also Subaru country, and as I drove around today I kept track of the Subarus I saw. My ratio wasn’t quite as high as 20:1, but it was about 15:1 Outbacks/Crosstreks to Legacies (at 20 Crosstreks, 12 Outbacks, and 2 Legacies). All those Subarus in the three miles to and from my kid’s school.
The hit the curve and understeer into a ditch.
Honestly, the tales of Subaru make me think of how I’m hearing of BMW–“for the driver” but with very, very different reliability from model-to-model. I have no plans to ever have one, albeit I can just admit I don’t need AWD to begin with.
Oh, hey. The Legacy is actually discernible from current-year Foresters and Outbacks. Early aughts models of any of those three trip me up every time until I see the nameplate.
Somewhere in Vermont or Colorado, a tear is being shed.
As a Colorado resident, my response is: nope, no tears shed here.
While this absolutely is Subaru country, 80% of them are Crosstreks, 10% are Outbacks, and the remaining 10% are WRXs and Ascents.
Here in Idaho, we’re already seeing the Ass Scent start to take up enough of the market to warrant separation from the WRX in your breakdown, and there are enough Foresters and Outbacks to knock that Crosstrek number down considerably…and still not enough of the Legacy to warrant listing.
I suspect the Venn diagram of people looking for a full-size sedan and people looking at Subaru has very little overlap.
That’s why it getting killed, no doubt.
That’s a fair point, and I didn’t give the Forester a fair shake, as there are plenty of them running around my neck of the woods. The vast, vast majority of Subarus in my area are Crosstreks, but very, very few Legacy sedans. The local dealer can’t keep Crosstreks on the lot, but has considerable discounts on the Ascent…and a lot of Ascents on the lot, so I don’t think it has caught on as well here as Subaru hoped. This also Toyota country, so most people who might be considering an Ascent get a Highlander instead.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who owned a Legacy sedan – and I’m old.
My neighbour had one. Like a true 60ish “business consultant” he traded it in on an overly loud F150. As in louder that my Mustang. He actually did a lot more work with his legacy and a small trailer than he has with the truck.
We have quite a few Legacies here (half an hour from Vermont) so that checks out.
But we have so many Subarus in general, I’d have to imagine the Outback to Legacy ratio is 10:1.
Subaru. Once ahead of the curve. Now the curve is catching up.
Here’s hoping they figure something out!
Subaru lost their way years ago once they stopped being weird. I fear that they are going to be another Mitsubishi.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into another Saab story.
Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Volkswagen. They all used to have very special personalities that made them highly desirable. Now they are all Toyota wannabes except non of these wannabes seem to think investing in reliability is worth the cost.