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It's a great car if you don't mind paying for fuel.

Built like a tank, great handling, and superb planted feel in the wet. As SpecB mentioned, you notice it at the pumps, but in my mind is definately worth it. How old are you looking to go? Mine is 2005 and hasn't missed a beat. However be warned, a full service history is a must!

sorry, been having pc \ explorer problems. I am thinking of buying a Legacy\, 2\3 years old, probablt the 2.5. Was wondering if anyone had any opinions & experiences they would like to share. They certainly seem outstanding value for money, compared to the usual German alternatives

I am certainly not the most experienced person on this forum to advise you on this one, SpecB and Penny9966 are more qualified to, but I can give you some generalisations...

The Legacy is a great car, which is built well and very durable, if not a little thirsty.  As you said, they are fantastic value when compared with the German opposition and it is only really down to badge snobbery and lack of marketing in the UK that means we don't see more of them on the roads.

Many people (mostly the press) bemoan the fact the cabin looks dated and the materials used are not to the same soft touch spec.  It depends on your opinion, but I personally find the plastics seem to be durable and I like the clean simple design of the dash.

Reliablilty doesn't generally seem to be a problem.

As always, see if you can get an extended test drive and do your home work before you buy.  Best of luck.

Before I owned my current Legacy, I had an old shape 1999 model which was a 2.5 automatic. The 2.5 I thought at the time suited the car very well, and almost went fore another one but with one drive of the 3.0R I was hooked. Anyway the engine is very smooth, and sounds good too with the boxer burble. From what I can remember it was reasonably ok on fuel...much better than the 3.0, and a would sit happily at the legal limit at 2500rpm. As mentioned previously full service history is a must (don't be put off if servicing is done by specialists; out of my current cars the Legacy and the Impreza are now done by specialists). I am not to sure if SpecB has had a similar issue, but a few months ago I had a minor radiator leak (fixed under warranty) and the ABS triggering way to early (again fixed under warranty).

TegTypeR:

Many people (mostly the press) bemoan the fact the cabin looks dated and the materials used are not to the same soft touch spec.  It depends on your opinion, but I personally find the plastics seem to be durable and I like the clean simple design of the dash.

Screwed together really well, and three years on mine still looks new with no rattles to speak of.

All in all though I have a real soft spot for Subaru's (especially my mighty Impreza!) and apart from a GT3 one day will be very hard for me to own anything else (they are stupidly good value down under). Let us know how the hunting goes.

If you can stretch to a 3 litre then I would highly recommend it.  There is not a lot of difference in the economy between the 2.5 and the 3.0 but there is an awful lot of performance difference.  There was a 3.0R and a 3.0R Spec B.  The difference in the earlier cars is that the R had an auto and Spec B had manual and Bilstein suspension.  The later Spec Bs have a choice and there is no longer a 3.0R sold in the UK as of today.  There is a plate on the C pillar that tells you what model it is.

I have put over 22k miled on mine in about 18 months from new and have not had a problem.  The interior quality is fine and as said above, well screwed together with no rattles.

The estates sell a lot better than the saloon come the time to sell it and the prices reflect this.  The auto is also more economical than the manual but the auto is not the best in the world.  You will have to test drive it to see if you get on with it.  If it has sat nav, make sure it is the latest disc or that will set you back about £350-400 - these DVDs are a dealer part only.  The only thing to look out for is that all the tyres match and that it has had a full alignment check recently.

Most cars in the UK 2-3 years old will be in the dealer network and so will have a bit of warranty left and will have a full dealer service history.

What sort of economy do you get from the 3.0?

As my car is an Aussie model it tells me in Litres/100km but since having the car I have averaged 11litres/100km which works out at about 26MPG combined cycle (bearing in mind my Impreza only does 29 combined!). On the motorway it is better, but I am more than happy to put up with the figures because it is a good car.

 My figures are for the auto, SpecB will have knowledge on the manual. Whilst on the automatic, if you do test drive one, flick the gear stick to the sport position (move the stick over to the right from drive) and you will feel a difference in the way the car performs. I normally leave it 'D' if I am watching the fuel. It is by no means a great gear-box, but there are alot worse out there.

Fuel economy on mine is 20-22mpg around town (better than Subaru's official 17mpg);  30-31mpg on the motorway cruise and about 24mpg combined.