I currently drive a 2008 Subaru Legacy. It’s not my dream car, but I bought it because it’s sporty looking, relatively fast for a daily driver, had four doors, AWD and a bunch of creature comforts. 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 hadn’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
As a side note, it’s no secret I’ve owned a few cars in my day. Here’s the running list in chronological order.
- ’84 Honda Accord
- ’94 Nissan Sentra
- ’98 Honda Prelude
- ’99 BMW M3
- ‘01.5 Audi S4
- ’08 Subaru Legacy spec.B