There's no better place for a car company to show its greener side than Wind City, Chicago. That's why Subaru chose the 2015 Chicago Auto Show in order to showcase the all-new Legacy sedan, a car that seems to focus on efficiency to take on the midsize sedan market.
There's no polite way of saying this so we'll be blunt about it: we think the new Legacy looks a bit boring. It's a little different to the car it replaces, but not that much, almost as if Subaru is playing it safe, not changing too much to keep current customers rather than going for new ones. That sort of strategy works for a Toyota Camry, but considering Legacy sales were down 10% last year in America, bigger changes were necessary.
The coolest detail on the whole car is the large hexagonal grille, which reminds you of a Ford Fusion. The headlights are also nice too, but move down the side and the total lack of character makes this all-new sedan look like a 10-year old rental.
The engines for the Legacy are almost the same as the old ones, a 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder with 175 hp and 174 lb-ft of torque. Being available exclusively with CVT transmissions, the 2015 model year sedan gets much better fuel economy: 26mpg city / 36mpg highway / 30mpg combined. That's a boost of 2/4/3 mpg, respectively.
There's also going to be a 3.6-liter six-cylinder rated at 256 hp and 247 lb-ft of twisting power. For the same continuously variable reason, the 3.6-liter gets 20/28/23 mpg, 2/3/3 mpg better than before. Considering this is an all-wheel drive sedan, these figures are pretty sweet if you ask us.
Seeing this is Subaru we're talking about, all the money for this car must have gone into engineering. The 2015 Legacy features the new Active Torque Vectoring system from the 2015 WRX. Instead of actually controlling torque levels to each wheel, Subaru's new system applies the brakes to the inside wheels for better cornering. The tech side of the car is also upgraded, with new infotainment systems being available, together with the EyeSight active safety camera-based system.
The coolest detail on the whole car is the large hexagonal grille, which reminds you of a Ford Fusion. The headlights are also nice too, but move down the side and the total lack of character makes this all-new sedan look like a 10-year old rental.
The engines for the Legacy are almost the same as the old ones, a 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder with 175 hp and 174 lb-ft of torque. Being available exclusively with CVT transmissions, the 2015 model year sedan gets much better fuel economy: 26mpg city / 36mpg highway / 30mpg combined. That's a boost of 2/4/3 mpg, respectively.
There's also going to be a 3.6-liter six-cylinder rated at 256 hp and 247 lb-ft of twisting power. For the same continuously variable reason, the 3.6-liter gets 20/28/23 mpg, 2/3/3 mpg better than before. Considering this is an all-wheel drive sedan, these figures are pretty sweet if you ask us.
Seeing this is Subaru we're talking about, all the money for this car must have gone into engineering. The 2015 Legacy features the new Active Torque Vectoring system from the 2015 WRX. Instead of actually controlling torque levels to each wheel, Subaru's new system applies the brakes to the inside wheels for better cornering. The tech side of the car is also upgraded, with new infotainment systems being available, together with the EyeSight active safety camera-based system.