My 2004 petrol Legacy went in for a service and MOT last week and I got a chipped (to 180BHP) new Diesel Legacy Estate to test drive while it was in.
The car is up for £25k, had leather interior, built in Sat Nav, automatic everything and a reversing camera (not sensor). I arranged a test drive as was thinking of replacing it (short list of Superb Estate, A4 Avant, Octavia Estate, RAV4, Legacy) but was struggling to justify the cost when the car is not used that often.
The drivers seat was very comfy, electrically adjusted with memory. The lumber support was particularly good and at 6'4 it was really easy to get a really nice driving position.
I really object to the current judgement of interior quality being "soft touch plastics" - my Saab had soft touch plastics but that didn't stop it sounding like a tambourine while my legacy is a bit shiny but makes no contribution to the percussion on the radio. The new Legacy is not an Audi cabin but it is not a Hyundai one either (we own an i10) - but poor glove box aside I think it will stay together well. The sat nav was terrible though, I really don't think the cost of the in car ones matches the performance they deliver - they might look nice but my £100 TomTom is a far superior unit.
The boot space is smaller than my Legacy. The pram wheels did not fit in the car front to back - big demerit. The interior space is better however.
The engine is fantastic, even if the gear change is a spot notchy. Tough to judge against the standard but the 180 version was rapid, really strong in 3rd where the A1M on-ramp was a launch pad! It still has the boxer growl under acceleration and it is very smooth and quiet at speed. Unfortunately the rest of the car isn't, the road noise was intrusive and the car was noisier than my old model - that old chestnut about big wheels and low profile tyres again. The ride quality was also inferior - it was really jittery even on a smooth bit of A road. When I took the car off the big roads and onto the little country roads around Stilton the handling was great and the car stuck to the roads really well - you didn't notice the ride - but on the straight it really was not good enough for the majority of the mileage that we do.
In summary it was a decent car, but not worth £25k of my money. Perhaps in 3 years time I would buy one second hand but it doesn't offer anything, other than straight line performance and reduced MPG, that my Legacy doesn't already deliver. When you put the depreciation against the cost of petrol the MPG "benefit" vanishes!
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Shame it looks exactly like a Vectra Estate!
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>> Shame it looks exactly like a Vectra Estate!
>>
Hey, that's unfair on the poor old Vectra, which I think was a neat-ish design for an estate.
The new Legacy has however been well and truly beaten with the ugly stick!
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There should be some discounts about - 2011 model is announced, slightly wider and longer wheelbase amongst other minr changes.
Maybe the Outback, with deeper profile tyres, might be a better ride.
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>> There should be some discounts about - 2011 model is announced, slightly wider and longer
>> wheelbase amongst other minr changes.
Surely they haven't made changes already - it's only been out about 10 months!!!
Changing the wheelbase is not a facelift change, that's major structural.
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My 2009 (last of the pretty ones!) goes in for a service on Friday and I'm hoping to get the new ugly Legacy as my replacement car so I can compare. What;w the odds on me getting a Justy?!?!?!?
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>>Maybe the Outback, with deeper profile tyres, might be a better ride.
I have one (company car) and it is a very comfy ride and much much quieter than my previous Legacies; it sits on 225/60/17s and this with a less firm suspension is probably why. I think the OEM fit Potenzas on the Legacies don't help the noise levels either. My local Subaru dealer engineer says that they put quite a lot more sound deadening in the new cars than the previous models which apparently didn't have much. Mine doesn't handle quite as well and rolls just a little bit more but its entirely safe and can be hustled along very rapidly if the mood takes.
I think the ugly stick beating has had less of an effect on the Outback than the Legacy but neither are beauties! Agree with you about the satnav and the engine sound - a bonus on a derv burner! The Outback has a lot more space than the Legacy - one of the reasons I chose it. Rear leg room is overly generous - I'd prefer a deeper boot but its still huge.
I wouldn't buy one new or one year old with my own money as historically Subarus have depreciated very heavily. I'm tracking how some of the early cars are standing up with high miles as if the depreciation remains high I may be interested in buying mine at three years old. There are some concerns over the DPF and flywheel as with any modern diesel and being Subaru's first diesel its a bit of an unknown.
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The Outback has a lot more
>> space than the Legacy - one of the reasons I chose it. Rear leg room
>> is overly generous - I'd prefer a deeper boot but its still huge.
>>
I thought the Legacy and Outback were effectively the same car, just that the Outback sits higher on longer suspension. How does this make the Outback bigger then the Legacy or am I missing something?
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Well, it seems that following my service and having sought a second opinion my petrol Legacy has/is suffering from a failed DMF. It is a sort of whistling noise at low revs and under initial acceleration (following a gear change) and also explains why reverse has been getting sticky. The cost to repair appears to be about £1,200 which I am not prepared to pay on a car with a px value of £3k and a private sale of about £3.5k.
What is odd that a failed/failing DMF on a Subaru petrol is not the terminal condition it is on most other cars. The forms suggest it might go for a long time before giving out completely and it will be the clutch that goes first (a failed DMF doubles clutch wear it says).
The car has gone from being a 2nd car for tip runs etc - and bought cheaply in average condition as a result - to being the main car as the i10 is too small for the new arrivals pram/buggy etc. As such I am not prepared to have a car with such a failure hanging over us being the main mode of transport - so the test drive "just in case" has become a test drive "to decide". I am surprised that the px value offered stays the same regardless of this fault?
I have discounted the new Legacy through price and worries over depreciation.
I have ruled out the Skoda Superb because the estate is too new for many to come through second hand and I have concerns over how a big Skoda will depreciate (I owned a newly new Saab and that was terrible!).
I like the 1.8 TFSI Skoda Octavia Estate, but again there are not that many of them in the facelift version although there are more of the diesel version around.
The new shape Audi A4 Avant is also still fairly new and is holding its value very well, so isn't proving good value from an initial purchase cost point of view - and I still find myself thinking that its a badge engineered Skoda with some clever marketing...
So I have found myself looking at a 3 year old Toyota RAV4 diesel with 15k miles on the clock - which is low and perhaps brings worries over the DPF. It was spot on in a test drive and is immaculate inside - as you would expect at that mileage. It was traded back in with the supplying dealer by a family replacing it with another RAV4 which seems like a good recommendation to me.
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>> Toyota RAV4 >>
Crazy, crazy, crazy rear door. Whoever designed it has doubtless commited kamikaze by now.
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Bang the Legacy through an auction and get an Octavia VRs diesel from Drive the Deal at 20% discount. The depreciation curve will be much more bearable and is an eminently sensible thing to do (says the man, who was going to buy a Skoda and ended up with a very expensive Audi A5)
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>> The depreciation curve will be much more bearable and is an
>> eminently sensible thing to do (says the man, who was going to buy a Skoda
>> and ended up with a very expensive Audi A5)
Poser!
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>> The new shape Audi A4 Avant is also still fairly new and is holding its
>> value very well, so isn't proving good value from an initial purchase cost point of
>> view - and I still find myself thinking that its a badge engineered Skoda with
>> some clever marketing...
The A4 uses a different chassis to the Octavia. It has the engine longitudinally mounted rather than transversely as in the Skoda and has more complex rear suspension. Having said that, of the two, I'd probably take the Skoda. I don't get on with Audis.
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Subaru Legacy - Test drive of new Legacy Diesel Estate - midlifecrisis
