Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £20,400 to £27,400
Unusual, distinctive, tough and durable, utterly useful and practical yet sporting to drive, should be excellent value for money
Too idiosyncratic for some?
A car for those not drawn to the obvious choices, the thinking person's option.
The sheer numbers of ancient Subaru estates and pick-ups slogging away on the world's farms are testament to the reliability and durability of these things. 200,000-plus mileages are par for the course, and whilst early Subarus succumbed to body rust long before the engines and mechanicals showed any signs of giving up, this should not be an issue at all these days. Subaru continues to score very well in customer satisfaction and reliability surveys; all that we've tested seem very well put-together, and Subaru has now made a huge advance in the quality of its interior upholstery, fixtures and fittings, previously a let-down. Of course, the complex four-wheel drive technology and the idiosyncratically-designed engines mean that proper maintenance and servicing is a must (service intervals tend to be shorter than for most rivals). Worth noting too that the engines do tend to need careful running-in and take a while to loosen up, but treat it right, and a Legacy will go on almost forever.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Subaru Legacy
wrote on 01 03 2008
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