The Subaru Legacy Is Dead

Production of Subaru’s mid-size saloon will end next spring after 36 years, leaving behind a long and impressive… oh, what’s the word?

Mike Bartholomew

24 Apr 2024

Crossover and SUV sales show no signs of slowing down globally, and as a result, the kinds of cars that once made up the bulk of traffic around the world – hatchbacks, saloons, estates, coupes – are dropping like flies.

The latest car to fall victim to the public’s unquenchable thirst for all things high-riding is the humble Subaru Legacy. If you’re in Europe, where the Legacy was dropped several years ago, or the UK, where it’s not been available for around a decade, it might surprise you to learn it’s still in production.

The current seventh-gen car is only built in the US and sold throughout North America, but won't be for long: Subaru USA has announced that Legacy production will wind up in spring 2025 as the company focuses on crossovers and EVs, bringing to an end 36 years of the nameplate.

While the Legacy was never the strongest-selling or performing car in its class, it was always an appealingly left-field choice thanks to its durability, widely available four-wheel drive and offbeat boxer engines (indeed, the Legacy is one of a handful of non-Porsche cars to ever be offered with a flat-six).

Subaru Legacy - fourth generation Spec B

We’ll particularly remember its various performance variants, like the B4, which featured powertrains closely related to those in the Impreza WRX in a larger and far more subtle body, or the six-cylinder Spec B.

Before the Impreza came along, the first-gen Legacy was also Subaru’s rally car of choice, with the Group A Legacy taking Colin McRae to his first-ever WRC rally win in New Zealand in 1993.

Then there’s the Outback variant, the last car standing in the strangely appealing lifted estate genre, once also populated by the Audi Allroad and Volvo XC70. The Outback is still available in Europe, albeit shorn of the Legacy name – it’s not clear yet if it’ll continue in some form or die with its saloon cousin.

Get ready to mourn the Legacy, then – another innocent victim of the SUV’s inexorable rise. It leaves behind one heck of a… wait, we can’t think of the word. History? Heritage? It’ll come to us.

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.