If you’ve been paying attention, you know that I replaced my Audi. She’s not quite gone yet due to some unfortunate circumstances but she should be by the end of the week. Before I talk about her replacement, I want to take a minute to say that I’m going to miss that car. Not only has it treated me relatively well over the last 3.5 years, it’s also the car I purchased on the way to see my grandmother for the last time. She lived in PA and was dying of cancer, the closest yellow S4 was in DE, so I made a slight detour on my way to see her.
The car itself is and was pretty much everything I want(ed) in a car. It’s sporty looking, relatively fast for a daily driver, had four doors, AWD and a bunch of creature comforts. If you want a full review, be sure to read this, otherwise just take my word that I wouldn’t mind driving it for a long, long time. The only thing really wrong with it, is it’s age, if you consider that a flaw. The car is in great shape but the mileage was getting to a point where’d I’d have to either sell it while it was still worth something or commit to it and run it into the ground. Never one to run things into the ground, I decided it was time to sell. This is by far the most sentimental I’ve been about selling a car.
So how do you replace a car that has nearly everything you want in a vehicle? That’s easy, you get something that’s pretty much the same only newer and with any of the features that weren’t available when you got the original one. Since automakers don’t seem to want to put a manual transmission in a higher horsepowered sport sedan, my list was relatively short. On the list were a newer Audi S4, a BMW 335Xi and the Subaru Legacy spec.B. The Audi was out of my price range if I wanted something with a warranty and I couldn’t see paying $25k for something without one. The BMW hasn’t developed a large enough used market yet and new they go for $40k+. That left the Subaru.
I have to admit I think the BMW and Audi look better… but I’ve been accused of being a whore for European cars many times. The spec.B has a more aggressive look than regular Legacys and I like the looks of the front and the rear, it’s just the side view is a bit plain. I test drove one and when combined with 0% financing and a price less than invoice, I knew it would be my next car. Lets run through a short-ish list of goodies.
- 243 hp / 241 lb-ft of torque
- All-wheel drive
- 6 speed manual transmission
- Sport-tuned Bilstein suspension
- Traction/Vehicle/Stability Control & ABS
- Front, side and curtain air bags
- GPS navigation w/touch-screen
- 100-watt stereo with 6-disc changer and aux input
- XM or SIRIUS radio (I opted for SIRIUS)
- Steering wheel mounted audio controls
- Dual automatic climate control
- Heated leather seats with Alcantara inserts and position memory
- 18″ alloy wheels
So as you can see, it has pretty much everything I could want in a car. It’s what the Audi was, with more stuff and because of the good deal, is brand spanking new. I have to wait until after the break-in period before I can really open it up and see what it can do, but so far I’m really digging the car. It’s getting tint and a spoiler in the new few weeks so that should up the sporty factor but without further ado, I present my ’08 Subaru Legacy GT spec.B.
inching closer to a camry…
At least it’s not a SuckUV or some generic Hybrid crossover.