Gadgetory

this is the Subaru Legacy now is it Subarus big boring granola sedan or is it a fun and sporty alternative to the Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords of the world I'm looking at these muscular fender flares and all-wheel drive system and I'm thinking it's the latter but apparently Subarus got some other ideas let's hop behind the wheel and check the tech now the legacy dashboard is composed of some pretty cheap feeling materials when you really kind of run your fingernails across it these plastics feel really hard and really hollow on the bright side though there's a lot of variety in visual texture in color and that makes it look a lot better when you're driving around in the car that makes me kind of appreciate it a little bit more there's one place where it does kind of cheap out and that's these two little bits of translucent blue plastic that just seemed out of place in this metallic and wood dashboard now this limited model is gonna come with a nine speaker Harman Kardon audio system and it's got nine speakers all around the cabin including a subwoofer in the rear parcel shelf now this system actually sounds pretty good there is a lot of bass coming from that subwoofer that just really fills the cabin up the problem is that at the flat fitting the mid-range is kind to get a little bit muddy fortunately you can fix that with this multi band EQ in the infotainment system now there aren't any presets they all come flat you've got to set them yourself which means it's pretty easy to mess it up even more fortunately I was able to find some pretty nice presets on a Subaru users forum so we want to go there and check that out first before you start really getting in there and messing around now the navigation system is good it gets the job done but this entire touchscreen infotainment system is very kind of laggy every time I push a button there's about a good half a second to a whole second delay between I'm pressing the button in the next screen popping up and that can be a problem when you're driving along you just want to tap two buttons the fewer the nearest gas station is fortunately you do have a full array of audio sources including HD radio you've got XM radio you've got Bluetooth audio streaming and iPod connectivity you've also got AHA radio connectivity in case you want to listen to some streaming internet radio or I don't know listen to your Twitter feed I don't know who actually uses that functionality it's a little bit annoying but is there if you want to have access to it who's there there is no Pandora internet radio or iHeartRadio that I saw those are the more popular internet radio systems I'd like to see those in this as well but you don't actually have access to them and if we look up here we'll actually see the the eyes and brain of the Subaru driver assistance system that's actually going to be their eyesight camera and that's two cameras mounted on either side of the rear-view mirror that are gonna point out the front of the vehicle and watch the road ahead when you add that as part of a technology package you're gonna gain also lane departure warning you're gonna gain pre collision detection and that's actually also going to power the adaptive cruise control system also you get some pedestrian warnings and cycle this morning so it's really good at seeing what's in front of the car and letting you know that it's there before you run into it now underneath the legacies hood is a 2.5 liter horizontally opposed boxer engine that has like basically the two Pistons punching out of either side like a boxer now being horizontally opposed and flat allows Subaru to put it nice and low in the engine bay and keep the center of gravity low to the ground for better handling now don't get too excited this isn't the turbocharged 2.5 liter that you're under the hood of the Subaru Impreza WRX STI this is a naturally aspirated version that puts out 173 horsepower and 174 pounds feet of core still has a decent amount of power for a vehicle this size fuel economy is stated at 24 32 with 27 miles per gallon combined being the estimate from the EPA it's paired to a continuously variable transmission which is kind of unfortunate talk about that more in a second in turn that transmission is going to send power to Subarus trademark symmetrical all-wheel drive system that's gonna give this vehicle a little bit more sure-footedness when the weather gets slippery wet let's hop behind the wheel and see exactly what I mean about why that transmission is the worth for a car like this off the line it's not bad you do you know get off the line pretty quickly the problem is when you're cruising around at low speeds 25 miles per hour 45 miles per hour those speeds that you do in the city and then need to accelerate you need to get the transmission to jump down and ratios so that you can actually take off the problem is that when you do that the transmission and the engine they just don't really want to work very well together they basically kind of rubberband and you get a lot of revving from the engine while it's up in the power band while the transmission is just kind of waiting to catch up of course and you're a laid-back driver and you really are all about maximum fuel efficiency this transmission is more fuel efficient by a couple of miles per gallon than the manual shifted option you do have a manual shift mode and paddle shifters but the shifts that you get from the paddle shifts are even slower than you would have gotten from a traditional torque converter transmission or if you just left the CVT to do its own thing the 2014 Subaru Legacy 2.5 i limited that's the one that we've got right here is gonna start at 26 195 now there's one option package you can add that adds all of the tech that we talked about the iSight camera with its driver a tech and the index technology that's gonna be 4,000 $40 as your destination charges that'll read to an as-tested price of thirty one thousand and thirty dollars now that's gonna get you about 32 miles per gallon on the highway and it's a pretty good price even if it's not fun but if you really care about driving thrills save a couple of bucks and get the manual transmission