Subaru Legacy

Start with what the Subaru Legacy is: a 4-door sedan / 5-door station wagon, built from 1989 to 2025, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer.

The background

The Subaru Legacy (Japanese: スバル・レガシィ, Hepburn: Subaru Regashi) is a mid-size car built by Japanese automobile manufacturer Subaru from 1989 to 2025. The maker's flagship car, it is unique in its class for offering all-wheel drive as a standard feature, and Subaru's traditional boxer engine. In 1996, a variant of the Legacy with heightened suspension called the Legacy Outback was introduced to compete in the burgeoning sport-utility vehicle class, and proved to be a sales success for Subaru. The Outback line was split into its own model in 2000, known as the Subaru Outback.

As of 2008, 3.6 million Legacy models have been built since its 1989 introduction. Production of the Legacy ended in Japan in June 2020, with the sixth-generation Legacy being the last model produced and marketed in Japan. Subaru of America announced in an internal email that 2025 will be the last model year for the Subaru Legacy. The Subaru Outback will remain in production, after being the company's top selling model in 2023. The Legacy was sold as the Liberty in Australia out of deference to Legacy Australia, an organisation dedicated to caring for the families of military service veterans.

Under the skin

The record carries the shape — a 4-door sedan / 5-door station wagon. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.

Where it sits

In the Subaru line-up the Subaru Legacy has a clear place: it handed the line to the Subaru Outback (wagon model) / Subaru Levorg (wagon model); the factory was Ōta, Gunma (Yajima plant. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lexus LS, the Mazda MX-5, the Honda NSX. Its Subaru stablemates include the Subaru Chiffon and the Subaru Lucra.

Owning one today

Buying one now means $7,300–$35,800 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $2,477–$6,395 a year. Insurance sits around $1,050–$2,340 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.