Last spring, I had the pleasure of spending $1200 to replace a set of brake rotors (because you can’t resurface BMW rotors) and the window mechanism on the driver’s side (a design defect in 3-series cars). That, combined with the spousal desire to have a second AWD car led me to sell the BMW in September and start looking for a replacement. I didn’t need to get a replacement right away since we had the car that I got for my daughter – a 1998 Honda Accord – but when she gets her license in May, I’d be stuck driving the Ranger.
After a bit of research, I settled on a not-so-obvious choice – a Subaru Legacy sedan.
Subaru spends a lot of effort marketing the Outback, the Forester, and the WRX. They’ve spent – at least until this year – very little money marketing the Legacy.
This perplexes me. The base legacy is a pretty nice 4 door AWD sedan at a good price. And they also put a slightly detuned version of their WRX turbo engine, making it a bit of a stealth racer. 0-60 under 6 seconds.
So, of course that was the one we wanted. But there was a problem.
We wanted a manual transmission. We wanted the Limited version (leather, heated seats). And, if at all possible, we wanted it in red. After a couple of months looking through auto trader and craigslist, I found one in San Jose at a dealer, but that one fell through. Then I finally found one in Portland, and picked it up about a week ago.
It’s quite the sleeper. Looks like a normal 4-door sedan, flies on the road.250 hp, 250 ft-lbs of torque, intercooled turbocharger. Needs a new stereo to round it out.
Very nice, but according to the rules, it doesn’t count as a midlife crisis because it’s not a 2-door, so I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere…
So, what do you think ?