Thinking of an estate for family + dog duties. Possibly to pull a caravan. Moving from a BMW. Thoughts on comfort, reliability, economy, driving fun? Would be looking at a budget of c.£6K.

Also considering a Passat or BMW diesel auto. Like the look of a Sub but never driven one so unknown quantity!

Thanks

I have a 2004 2.5 SE Automatic estate…it's fab!

More economical than the 2 litre manual that my brother in law has, I get almost 40mpg on a motorway run and about 30mpg round town.

Reliability – awesome
Comfort – very!
Driving fun – just slip that gear lever into sport mode and watch the car behind get smaller! It's also really funny watching the respect that the boy racers give you! 🙂

The Legacy is much better value for money that the Audi, BMW etc. It's also a fairly rare sight so is nice to be sat in something out of the ordinary.

This is my second, I had an oldish 1997 Gen 2, I can't think of a bad thing to say about them!

Dude apart from VC10 tanker needed to refuel it is the best car we have ever owned, kids stuff,bikes ect all goes in no problem, and the 4 wheel drive makes it so good in the snow. Very reliable. and looks good to!

I'd talked myself out of it,but looking at Passat ,Mondeo,estates,Golfs and Civics has made me reconsider.

I've had a couple as company cars about 15 years ago when petrol was cheap.

Fantastic to drive but becasue of that they are so, so thirsty.

I'd hate to run one now, but they do a diesel version now

Dave – Avoid the Civic as it's the harshest suspensioned car I've ever driven, it didn't feel too bad on the test ride but after 120,000 miles and 3 years I'm glad I've now got a Mondeo.

John,my mate had one,lovely car,but it had big wheels.Awful ride quality.He then had an A3 with big wheels (he's usually reasonably intelligent)again shite ride quality and he was unlucky enough to buy a dud.
I've wanted a Subaru,for a long time,can't really afford a diesel version.

Depends on what you consider ride quality I suppose. I love a harsh ride, much prefer it to sloppy sidewalls.

My brother used to have one of the twin-turbo 4wd variants. It went like something very fast and stuck like glue, like it was slid on rails, but it did get some pretty annoying problems:

The autos tend to blow gearboxes (according to the box specialist he had his rebuilt at. Twice.
The boxer engine really really suffers with piston slap.
The turbo, particularly the smaller of the two, dies at about 100K miles.
The rear droplinks failed fairly early on.
The air-con pulley failed.

But other than that, lovely handling, lovely power and speed (slightly odd flat spot between the two sequential turbos as the pipework re-arranged itself.

I really rate the Scooby; not sure why I bought my V50 R-Design over it 😯

If you want honest un-biased information have a look at http://www.honestjohn.co.uk – this will tell you everything you need to know.

BTW, according to an industry contact of mine, "modern" turbo's are designed to fail (as in a flaw in their design) between 80K and 100K 👿

2 litre 2004 legacy estate here. Mondeos and the like aren't a patch on them. Fuel consumption on short journeys is crap, but once things have warmed up it's much better. Have had upto 40mpg out of mine on a motorway run. Normal average is about 33.

But it's worth paying a but extra for fuel IMO a they are SUCH good cars. Very solidly built, nice ride and handling balance. You prob want the 2.5 engine for hauling a 'van.

Had a 1999 legacy 2 litre estate. Traded it in as part of the scrappage scheme last year with around 135k on the clock (had 35k when bought second hand in 2001). It had had 1 new clutch and needed its catalytic converter bodging with a week to go. Otherwise no serious problems in 8 years and was an excellent handling estate which swallowed bikes dogs shopping etc. with no fuss.

Downside was it drank petrol ( albeit not quite as fast as the Saab it replaced ) and parts and service costs were also on the expensive side – 7,500 mile service intervals and that version was apparently designed to make the simplest job as complicated as possible e.g. to change clutch, first remove engine.

Surprised that Hora hasn't been on yet to say he's 'thinking of getting one'…..

😉

Alot of rwd and 4wd cars are engine out jobs to change the clutch I believe. Post 2003 cars service intervals are 12000 miles. In 2006 I think (check parkers.co.uk reviews) 2 litre models gained a few hp to 150 and the 2.5 was dropped iirc. Fuel consumption increased a bit though with the increased power.

Service costs similar to other manufacturers, but less tends to go wrong so there are less 'extras' to pay for on top of a standard service.

Allededgly they have a reputation to go through discs (warping) but dad's had three subarus since 98 and hasn't had this issue at all.

Hey Aus, I have a VW Passat Estate 4motion. Its diesel, 4 wheel drive like an Audi Quattro and happily does 45mpg. Haven't had any faults with it yet. Also it has a very good spec with leather, cruise, air con, heated seats, etc, etc. I got it 2nd hand with 50,000 miles for £6k.

I test drove a 2.0 R Legacy estate- a good compromise between performance and mpg. The 2.0 'R' designation is key- it has different headers, filter etc etc.

Probably av. of 37. I get 33mpg av from my 2.0 VERY heavy lower-geared Forester.

The 2.5 and especially the 3.0 will be heavy on go-go juice.

As your coming from a BMW you obviously need a car that steers well. The Legacy offers you that IMO.

Another thing- if you only drive say 10,000 a year. You really arent going to see much savings if you bought a diesel Legacy. Its literally a handful more fillups in a year.

…and yes. I did consider one 😉

I had a Legacy GT when i was in the states with a 2.5L turbo engine in it and it was a brilliant car. Not sure would want one in the UK though with its petrol consumption.

My mate has a 2.0 litre '06 one and likes it, he tows a caravan but he says that it does struggle with the van and petrol consumption towing a van is low 20's or worse 8O.

You would get a good German diesel estate for that budget which I would go for.

Yeah,but eveybody has German diesel estates….I was almost tempted myself….even found myself looking at at a 08 plate diesel Golf(a sure sign that you've given up)I was saved by my Mrs…."You don't want one of THOSE,do you"? Err,no …just browsing.

Volvo V70 D5?

6k would buy you a tidy one.

we have an 09 estate and it is lovely.

swallows bikes, dogs, luggage etc.

we do a lot of motorway driving in it down here in Aus as everything is so bloody far away, and find the MPG to be pretty good. then again wife's crappy work astra auto for around as we don't pay the fuel, so don't notice that side of things too much.

love the stability, especially when we get on the dirt roads out in the country, just holds so well with the AWD.

nothing has broken, numerous friends have them and they all just seem to go forever with no major troubles.

Ratadog, Whoever told you that you had to take the engine out to change the clutch was taking the mick something serious. Engine stays in.

I'd love to buy from a friend/someone I trust. Not that they can offer any sort of guarantee but you could ask them questions/know if theres been a prob.

For instance one mate has a 130k 03 Golf TDI- they lost the service history in a house move and its never missed abeat- but hes decided to hold onto it rather than take up the company car option 🙁

Plus if Dialledmike ever wanted to sell his 😉

I have got a 2005 2.5SE Legacy Outback which I have had for 12 months now. Prior to that I had I had a Mk4 Golf tdi 150.

The Outback was purchased on the basis of having seen loads of them on the roads of Canada and North America whilst living their for two years and most of them having bikes and skis attached to the roof and rear. We though that it would be the car for our lifestyle on returning to Britain, especially with a nipper on the way and the requirement to carry loads of baby related gear.

So, Pros:

Huge boot (well its big enough for our day to day needs)
Handles well (not as quick off the line as the Golf mentioned above but handles much better through the bends.)
Very solid feeling construction.
Brilliant in snow and on ice (hill starts on sheet ice no dramas)
Engine tone sounds great up near the red line.
You don't tend to see that many on the roads.

Cons:

Not as quick of the line as the golf mentioned above.
Can be quite thirsty 36mpg is the max I've had out of it on a long run, but those journeys invariably have a roof box on top and a bike rack on the back and the car itself loaded to the gunnels – so I guess its not that bad.
Can be tricky to get into 2nd gear when cold which annoys Mrs B when she drives it.

Would I buy it again – definitely.

Can be tricky to get into 2nd gear when cold which annoys Mrs B when she drives it.

Funny that. My Foz can be notchy when cold. Same with my two previous MX5's until the gearbox had warmed up!

I've had a Subaru Legacy 3R Spec B estate for over 4 years now and it's fantastic. I've given up on overseas holidays while our children are small and airport security is such a fiasco. So we fill it up with children, luggage and put all the bikes on the back and head off to the Lakes, Scotland etc. Goes like the clappers even when fully loaded.

So far I've done 45K miles with no problems. The only complaint I have is the fuel consumption. It's ok on a long run averaging about 28 mpg. But around town with a short burst of dual carriageway I only get 19-21 mpg. It likes the Shell 99 Octane as well.

Still, like to think I'm doing my bit for global warming as it has been a bit chilly of late.