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2010 Subaru Legacy

Research the all new 2010 Subaru Legacy at Sommer's Subaru in Milwaukee, WI.


-ALL WHEEL DRIVE
-31 MPG
-5 STAR CRASH TEST RATING


2009 marks the 20th year of Subaru's Legacy lineup of the 2.5i, 2.5i Premium, 2.5i Limited, 3.6R Premium and 3.6R Limited, and in a happy bit of self-gifting, the boys and gals at Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) have popped out this brand-spanking new fifth-generation model. As is the way these days, the all-wheel drive sedan has grown in all dimensions. Use of a new platform ensures that the new car is 1.4-inches longer (to 186.4), 3.6-inches wider (to 71.7), and 3.2-inches taller (59.3) than the exiting model. Overall length may have only grown fractionally, but the wheelbase has swollen by 3.2 inches, prioritizing ad! ditional space in the passenger compartment.

One might reasonably fear that the Legacy has picked up a whole mess of additional poundage in the embiggening process. Not so. According to Subaru, the base car weighs 3,270 pounds, and all models are no more than 65 pounds heavier than their 2009 counterparts - an eminently reasonable trade-off for a massive increase in interior room and superior content levels.




Outside, the 2010 model is much more assertive than the outgoing car, which itself was a bit of a shrinking violet. After the departure of designer Andreas Zapatinas and his Edselian B9 Tribeca, the Pleiades brand seemed to lose a bit of its design nerve and the will to create a unified corporate face. But now, it finally seems to be seeking out its mojo once again with this new Legacy.

Open up the wider-angle, newly-framed doors (the old, rattle-prone sashless jobbies are gone), and a significantly larger and much-improved interior awaits. Dominating the instrument panel is a silver-effect center stack topped with a birdbath-like information display. The vertical array houses the usual complement of audio and HVAC controls (along with an eight-inch navigation screen if so-optioned), and it has a deep storage pocket for odds-n-ends. Plastics are nicely grained and solid fit-and-finish was in evidence, but greater use of soft-touch surfaces and more sincere-looking faux wood trim on Limited models wouldn't go amiss.

All the controls are easy to reach and intuitive to use, with the exception of a too-crowded and too-low panel that houses the power mirror controls, electronic parking brake, hillholder and traction control defeat buttons, trunk release, gauge brightness control, and a couple of odd-looking blanks. It's simple enough to use once you get the hang of it, but we'd prefer to see the parking brake located on the center console and a larger, separate tr! unk rele ase. We were a bit surprised not to see the availability of some sort of keyless start system, but as they're often more trouble than they're worth, the absence isn't worth grousing over.

In addition to its obviously heightened quality, the big story with the 2010's interior is its newfound space. In particular, rear accommodations are now genuinely large, with an extra four inches of legroom thanks to the longer wheelbase and deeply scooped-out front seatbacks. Our six-foot, five-inch co-driver had no trouble getting comfortable, and even when he was in situ, there was plenty of knee- and toe-room left behind him for full-grown adults. Total EPA volume is up by 9% to 117.7 cubic feet and betters that of the Toyota Camry and Volkswagen Passat, while trunk space swells by 29% to 14.7 cubic feet (more capacity than Honda's larger Accord).