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2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT Full Test and Video on Inside Line

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2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT Full Test and Video on Inside Line

It growls, almost as if it's chewing up the road ahead. And then when you shift gears, it gives a kind of a cough, the way a turbocharged engine does. When you hear this engine, you can almost see the blue rally cars coming toward you through the trees. It makes us think of WRC rally champion Petter Solberg, and we can practically see his face as he turned to us and laughed — and since we were a couple of feet in the air in a WRX rally car, there was plenty to laugh about.

So these are the sounds that Subaru's turbocharged 2.5-liter boxer-4 makes, a soundtrack so familiar to anyone who has spent time around an Impreza WRX. The only thing you ask yourself is what this engine is doing in this grown-up American-style sedan, the 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT?

Bigness and the Backseat
Probably for as long as any of us can remember, Subaru has been trying to show the world that it's more than a fringe player from Subaru City, a place in Japan that is near, well, it's actually not near anyplace. And now with the 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT, the little company has an opportunity to get on equal footing with Honda, Mazda and Toyota.

When the planning began for the current crop of sedans some five years or so ago, most of the Japanese-label sedans were preparing to abandon their international-size platforms and adopt dimensions scaled for Americans. And so in the same way that the Honda Accord and Mazda 6 have been scaled up for the corn-fed inhabitants of this country, so, too, the Subaru Legacy's wheelbase has been stretched 3.2 inches to 108.3 inches. The car now measures 1.4 inches longer at 186.4 inches overall, plus it's about 3 inches more in its other dimensions, some 71.7 inches wide and 59.3 inches tall.

There are 103 cubic feet of passenger volume within the 2010 Subaru Legacy, a huge amount. At the same time, you most notice the increase in the rear seat, where legroom has increased nearly 4 inches. It is perhaps the curse of being American that we seem to measure space-efficiency by the size of our sedan's backseat, even though hardly anyone packs the whole family into the sedan for a trip to grandma's house when there's a crossover utility vehicle sitting right next to it in the garage.

And we shouldn't forget about the turbocharged, intercooled 2,457cc boxer-4, which delivers 265 horsepower at 5,600 rpm (it gets noisy when you go there) and 258 pound-feet of torque between 2,000 rpm and 5,200 rpm (where it's happy). The 2.5GT's all-wheel-drive system has a viscous-type center differential and distributes torque 50 percent front/50 percent rear.

American Cruising
The 2010 Subaru Legacy seems to love the American highway. It looks kind of bold and upright, like a traditional American car. Actually, it might look a little too upright thanks to the high hood line required to meet forthcoming pedestrian impact standards, and even the gorgeous headlights, hood scoop and extended rocker sills can't quite deliver a long, lean look.

Though this 2.5GT wears 45-series 18-inch tires, it rides pretty happily on asphalt (though not concrete), and it's resilient, albeit a bit springy in the same fashion as the Subaru Impreza. There's some tire roar from the summer-performance Bridgestone RE050As, but the turbocharged boxer-4 is smooth, although growly, in that typical Subie way. In fact, the car registers only 59 dBA while cruising at 70 mph — far, far quieter than a Mazda 6, in fact.

At the same time, the Legacy seems a little traditional in the American style while you're behind the wheel, as the color palette and materials and even the architecture are as plain as Lafayette, Indiana, where the car is built. The GT has a slightly tougher performance-style aspect inside the cabin than the plain (2.5i) or fancy (3.6R Limited) examples of the Legacy we've driven, yet it's still a step behind the competition.

American Speed
You'd never guess that the 2010 Subaru Legacy has any speed in its soul. It's packing 3,586 pounds now (not that much more, yet still a lot), and the persistent torque reaction from the front end as you lay into the throttle and the tendency of the car to bound over bumps combine to detune your enthusiasm when you're pressing toward the big numbers on the speedometer. But it turns out that the Legacy is quicker and faster than you think.

To get to 60 mph takes 5.7 seconds (5.4 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip), and if you don't abuse the clutch during the getaway and leave the traction control engaged, the time lengthens only to 6.4 seconds. The quarter-mile comes up in 14.0 seconds at 99.3 mph.

Nevertheless, the 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT doesn't seem like a platform that loves fast driving, especially compared to the former model. There's just not quite enough precision from the steering, and the rear end of the car might be a bit too lively for a sedan of this scale. And yet perhaps this is really a matter of taste, as we recorded an excellent 67.7 mph in our slalom test once we disengaged the stability control. The front end feels a bit soft initially, yet this helps the car carve through the slalom gates, and you'll never feel any understeering compromise from the setup of this all-wheel-drive car.

Not for Grown-Ups
The Legacy is so big now that you expect it to be more helpmate than playmate. You know, there's that big backseat and then that trunk of 14.7 cubic feet. But we still found ourselves on a narrow little road in the middle of nowhere, perhaps longing for those days when a Legacy sedan felt more like an Impreza WRX sedan with a certificate from charm school.

And what should we discover but a little of the old magic. The initial roll from the front end that feels like imprecision at speed helps the car turn quickly into slow corners, and the car then arcs around with its nose down and tail up while holding its line effortlessly. Then as it reaches the exit, the Legacy seems to spring up on its suspension and bound forward, now on an even keel and ready for the next corner.

We could see evidence of this goodness on the skid pad, where the car delivers 0.84g of cornering grip, and indeed the stability control is so finely calibrated that the Legacy achieves the same performance whether the system is engaged or not. Even the Legacy's braking seems to measure up, as a relatively soft pedal action doesn't keep it from coming to a stop on its relatively sticky 225/45R18 91W Bridgestone RE050As in just 111 feet, which the car does time and again without fading.

We confess there were moments when we almost could hear Spaniards cheering for us in the mountains behind Barcelona (they had neglected to paint any encouraging messages on the pavement here in the Santa Monica Mountains, however).

And then we shifted the six-speed manual transmission, and the dream evaporated. This is the best shift linkage ever from a Subaru, so our in-house Subie expert tells us, with more positive action and smoother engagement, and yet you still need help from the GPS to find the shift gates when you're going quickly.

The Subaru Connection
The 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT is very much the grown-up car that Subaru has been seeking, more in tune with the way Americans drive (and the way Americans eat, which is what makes us so big). But when you stack it up against the competition, it's also very much in the same place as before. It's as big as the other guys, has the right kind of features and comes in the right kind of trim levels, and yet it's still a half step behind in refinement, style and driving enjoyment.

What makes the Legacy 2.5GT interesting is the same thing that has always made a Subaru special — quirkiness. It's got a funny engine that is very vocal, all-wheel drive that's effective when the weather is terrible or when the roads are fun, and an overall personality that's pleasantly off the beam. The turbo 2.5GT is also quicker than the underpowered Legacy 2.5i and more fun than the expensive Legacy 3.6R.

If you're hoping to find a WRX, you won't find it here, as the Legacy 2.5GT is a little too big and a little too nice to be the aggressive sport sedan of your dreams. And yet the 2.5GT is far less grown up than its mainstream competition from Honda and Mazda (and even the Acura TSX) — after all, it offers you a manual transmission, doesn't it? It's a kind of quirky combination of qualities, but Subaru people love that quirkiness and (perhaps most of all) love explaining that quirkiness to others.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.

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