Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT
What is it about cars and gearboxes? It seems that the drivetrains in many modern cars and the performance icons in particular, are getting so good that the differences in gearboxes can make or break a car. Take the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT, object of this test. 195Kw of willing, turbo boosted power, 350Nm of torque available from low down in the rev range, it comes down to the gearbox. Let me make my stance clear here, until recently I was a manual gearbox obsessed luddite, memories of a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera , with its sequential manual gearbox instantly shifting in full sport mode, should have thrilled me. It would have in fact, were the destructive bangs coming from the rear as the car swapped ratios, not unplanting the car and changing the direction of travel mid corner in a very scary way.
mid corner in a very scary way. This isn't fun when you are driving with 100% commitment in a car you don't want to have to pay to repair. It was ok in lesser modes, but then it wasn't shifting particularly fast, so what was the point? DSG gearboxes have transformed life for me. Instant changes with all the control and directness of the best of manual boxes. A new Nirvana for me and I could finally join in on all this gearbox development fun. Auto boxes with their slurry acceleration, damped down, eventual changes, flat out refusal to obey driver commands and fuel-economy sucking ways seemed pointless, archaic even.
So what have the clever little engineers done? Fixed the auto. Crisp, instant changes. Throttle blips on the downchanges. The car even hangs onto the gear you tell it to in fullsport mode. An auto for the enthusiast at last. Talking about modes, and the rather silly, seemingly infinite, settings many modern cars allow, this cars' magnificently racy brother in particular, the WRX STi, has a gazillion settings you will never comprehend available at the twirl of various dials. This car gets it right. Three modes. Sport, the default, some mode which does something or other for comfort and economy that I never got around to trying, and finally, cleverly only selectable once the car is warmed up, sport plus, signified by a little “#” for some bizarre reason. Three modes, one dial. Perfection.
While Subaru has always been the car for the playstation generation, the Legacy seems to be the Subaru for those who have outgrown video-games and finally got themselves a real job. I wouldn't know personally, I am just surmising here. Taught muscular bodywork, that rare look of sheetmetal stretched over bulging power. Lovely.
Grown up interior too, one of Subaru's best efforts to date. It seems odd, but the best of Japanese cars never quite get the interiors quite right. Even Lexus. This one comes very close, except for the shiny dropdown console built out of metalised plastic, that looks just like hard metalised plastic.
A shame really. The car deserves better. They need to get this right. It is just about the only thing letting this car down. Solidly built, exciting to drive, really quick, communicative, well specced and for a vehicle that does 0-100 in around six seconds, remarkable for returning fuel economy of about 10l/ 100km's.
