Test Driver Gets Fooled by Very Quick Subaru

Filed in archive on May 31, 2006

Just how quick is the base Subaru Legacy sedan? Quick enough that it totally fooled me into thinking I was driving a turbocharged Legacy GT. I had one under my command for a week during a recent Toronto visit, which I duly reported in this "About Cars test drive". But I never bothered to raise the hood since most modern layouts hide everything under a highly-styled engine cover. So I simply assumed, fooled by the hood scoop plus a 5-speed manual transmission and exemplary handling, that Subaru had loaned me the performance version. I am chagrined and yet amused, because the test revealed in an unexpected way that the base 4-cylinder Legacy is quite possibly the quickest in its class. With all-wheel-drive and a long list of standard equipment it is also a bargain.