Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £20,400 to £27,400
Good all-wheel-drive traction, fine diesel engine, petrol's smooth CVT auto, well-equipped.
Notchy manual gearbox, rivals offer a better drive with more refinement, fidgety ride on 18".
Legacy Tourer is a decent load-lugger with enough character to help it stand out from the crowd, but is far from best in class.
Subaru has finally consigned its trademark frameless doors to the history books - a result of side impact protection crash protection.
But there's another, more significant, reason for Subaru dropping the quirky design cue. Twenty years and five generations on since it launched its big family car, Subaru has decided to take its Legacy mainstream.
This is bad news for petrolheads. Subaru has been much celebrated for its idiosyncratic approach to car making and along the way it's built up a hardcore cult following.
Luckily, Subaru's idea of what constitutes as 'mainstream' is far removed from other manufacturers. That's why the charismatic flat horizontally opposed piston Boxer engines live on and all Legacy models come standard with permanent all-wheel-drive.
What has changed is that the new Legacy is bigger and more spacious than ever. The all-new estate also marks a new benchmark for quality, says Subaru, an area where its last offering, the Impreza, was much criticised.
Two engines will be offered: a 148bhp 2.0-litre diesel and a 165bhp 2.5 that comes equipped only with a CVT automatic gearbox.
A four-door saloon will follow on next year that is eventually expected to snare half of all Legacy sales.
Pricing kicks off at a hefty £23,090 stretching to £27,025 - a massive £2,000 more than the old entry-level car with the same engine, pushing the Legacy up against more premium rivals from the likes of Volvo.
Can it compete? Read on.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Subaru Legacy
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