Cellos88GT
Well-Known Member
Well, it's not the most exciting car I've owned but I needed a comfortable DD and my '99 Regular-Cabbed Mazda B2500 wasn't cutting it anymore (I never bothered to post the car here because who cares) in the comfort department. I had been searching for a few months for an '05+ Legacy GT Wagon / Outback XT with a manual but they either had a bunch of miles, were listed for too much money, had questionable issues, or were modded by a jdm douchebag. Plus I was starting to learn that those turbo mills weren't as stout as their WRX counterparts and suffered a number of valve issues. So I decided to re-tune my search for the third-gen Legacies and found this fairly low mileage single-owner example:
After driving it a week, I have to say that I don't miss having a turbo, it's lowly 165 hp out of a SOHC 2.5 boxer-4 isn't fast by any means but it isn't as slow as I thought it would be. Plus it handles windy roads with ease, inspiring a lot of confidence. My one gripe with the car are the brakes, they're quite dreadful. Pedal feel is pretty mushy and the stopping power is marginal at best. Fortunately, this platform shares a lot with it's relatives so upgrade options for brakes are pretty broad. I'll start with new pads, rotors, S/S brake lines, and fresh fluid to see if that alleviates the issue and go from there.
Proof pics:
After driving it a week, I have to say that I don't miss having a turbo, it's lowly 165 hp out of a SOHC 2.5 boxer-4 isn't fast by any means but it isn't as slow as I thought it would be. Plus it handles windy roads with ease, inspiring a lot of confidence. My one gripe with the car are the brakes, they're quite dreadful. Pedal feel is pretty mushy and the stopping power is marginal at best. Fortunately, this platform shares a lot with it's relatives so upgrade options for brakes are pretty broad. I'll start with new pads, rotors, S/S brake lines, and fresh fluid to see if that alleviates the issue and go from there.
Proof pics: