Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £20,400 to £27,400
Strong, smooth performance; refinement; a unique proposition; the usual Legacy strengths.
A little noisy at start-up; too idiosyncratic?
The most petrol-like diesel we've yet driven.
Very few Legacies and Outbacks come on to the second-hand market in their early years; most are privately bought and owned long-term, and not traded in until well past the 100,000-mile mark.
This keeps residual values very high and the best second-hand examples are invariably sold through Subaru's own network or, occasionally, four-wheel-drive specialist outlets.
No bargains for used buyers, then - the only cheapies are monster-mileage ex-tow cars, which have probably had a hard, agricultural life. Check carefully for worn-out gearboxes and suspension, as these things are worked very hard, and are expensive to put right once problems do occur.
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