The Bottom Line
I leased the 2025 Subaru Legacy Sport and planned to spend two weeks reviewing it myself. Then my niece Priya called on a Tuesday her engine was done. I handed her the keys that evening. For two weeks she drove it to work, to do errands, through a surprise rainstorm, and on a long unplanned weekend . I called her every few days to hear what she noticed. She’s 24 and has never once thought about a car beyond whether it starts. Her observations were more useful than mine. Also worth knowing, this is the last Subaru Legacy that will ever be made. The whole story is below.
Priya called me on a Tuesday evening. Her engine had seized. No buildup, no warning light she’d paid attention to, just a car that stopped being a car on her way home from work.
She needed something for at least two weeks while her situation got sorted.
I had the 2025 Subaru Legacy Sport sitting in my driveway on a lease. Picked it up three days earlier. Had maybe 90 miles on it and a loose plan to spend the next two weeks running it through my usual review process.
I dropped it at her apartment that night.
What I didn’t tell her immediately was that this was the last Subaru Legacy that would ever be built. Subaru announced the end of Legacy production after the 2025 model year. No 2026 is coming. No next generation. After three and a half decades the Legacy is done.
She didn’t know that when she drove it for two weeks. Her feedback was better for it.
What the 2025 Legacy Actually Is
Before Priya’s calls, some context.
The 2025 Legacy Sport starts at $32,980. Five trims in total: Base at $27,980, Premium, Sport, Limited, and Touring XT at the top. The base engine is a 2.5-liter flat-four making 182 horsepower and 176 pound-feet of torque. Higher trims get a turbocharged 2.4-liter flat-four with 260 horsepower and 277 pound-feet.
AWD comes standard on every single trim. Not optional. Not an upgrade. Standard. In a midsize sedan segment where most competitors charge extra for AWD or don’t offer it at all, this has been the Legacy’s defining argument for decades.
KBB owners rate the 7th-generation Legacy 4.8 out of 5 for reliability. NHTSA awarded it five stars. EyeSight driver assist technology with adaptive cruise, lane centering, and automatic emergency braking comes standard across all trims.
Rear legroom measures close to 39 inches. Trunk is 15.1 cubic feet with a low lift-over height. The Sport trim gets a slightly firmer suspension tune, 18-inch wheels, and a sport-styled interior without jumping to turbo pricing.
This is a practical, well-built, AWD midsize sedan that most buyers walk past on their way to an SUV. Which is why Subaru is stopping making it.
The First Call I made:
Three days after dropping it off I called Priya.
She answered mid-commute. I asked how the car was treating her.
“It’s so quiet,” she said.
Not what I expected first. I asked her to explain.
“My old car had this rattling thing and the AC was loud. This one just… doesn’t make noise. I turned the music down the first morning because I thought something was wrong.”
The Legacy’s cabin insulation has always been one of its underappreciated qualities. Road noise suppression on the Sport trim with 18-inch wheels is better than you’d expect from a sedan at this price. Priya noticed it immediately because she had nothing to compare it to except her old car’s particular kind of noise.
She also mentioned the heated seats. She’d turned them on by accident, didn’t know what the warming sensation was, and spent three minutes trying to figure out if something was wrong with the car.
I explained the button. She said “that’s amazing” and used them every morning for the rest of the two weeks. Las Vegas in the morning has a chill to it even when the afternoon hits 90.
The Second Call
Six days in. She called me this time.
It had rained the previous evening. Real rain, the kind Las Vegas gets occasionally that turns the streets briefly into something unfamiliar. She’d driven through it on the way home.
“The car felt different in the rain,” she said. “Stable. Like it knew what it was doing.”
She was describing the Symmetrical AWD without knowing that’s what it was. I explained it. She said “I didn’t know cars did that.”
This is the AWD conversation most Legacy buyers have with themselves before purchasing and most non-buyers never have at all. The Legacy’s AWD system transfers torque to whichever wheels have the most traction continuously and invisibly. On a dry road you never know it’s there. On a wet Las Vegas street at 9pm it’s doing work that a front-wheel-drive sedan cannot do in the same conditions.
Priya is not moving back to a front-wheel-drive car. She told me this on the second call and she didn’t know the terminology for any of it. She just knew the car felt confident in conditions where her old one hadn’t.
What She Noticed That I Wouldn’t Have
Three things Priya mentioned across our calls that a professional review would never surface.
The cup holders. She said they were the right depth. Her old car had shallow cup holders that dropped her coffee every time she braked hard. The Legacy’s held her 30-ounce travel mug without movement. She mentioned this twice. Cup holders are a daily quality of life detail that most car reviewers note once and move on from. Priya thought about them every morning commute.
The visibility. She said she could see clearly out of every window. No blind spots that made her nervous. The Legacy’s greenhouse is relatively upright compared to sportier sedans with low rooflines and thick pillars. For someone who’s not a confident driver in heavy traffic, this matters constantly.
The parking. She works in an area with tight street parking. She told me on the third call that the Legacy was easy to judge the corners of. Length-wise it’s not a small car at around 191 inches. But the boxy enough shape and good sight lines made her comfortable in spots she would have hesitated on with other vehicles.
None of those observations appeared in any professional Legacy review I’ve read. All three of them tell you something real about what it’s like to live with this car.
The Weekend Drive
Priya took it on a longer drive that weekend. About 80 miles round trip to visit a friend in Henderson and back. She called me Sunday evening.
“I used the cruise control for the first time,” she said.
I asked how.
“I just pressed the button and the car kind of took over. And then there was a truck that slowed down and the car slowed down too.”
She had activated EyeSight’s adaptive cruise control without knowing what it was. The system had followed the vehicle ahead, maintained a safe following distance, and brought the speed back up when the gap cleared. Priya experienced this as the car being smart rather than as a specific technology.
EyeSight is standard on every Legacy trim. Not a package. Not an option. Standard. For a buyer like Priya who doesn’t research technology features and just wants a car that keeps her safe, this matters more than any spec sheet comparison.
She said: “Is my next car going to have that?”
I told her most cars at this price do. She said “good” and changed the subject.
What I Drove and What I Found
I had the Legacy for three days before Priya took it and got it back for two days after she returned it. My own impressions fill in what her observations didn’t cover.
The 2.5-liter base engine in the Sport trim is smooth and unhurried. It does not feel fast and it isn’t fast. The CVT keeps it in a comfortable rev range and the power delivery is linear without drama. On the highway at 75 mph it cruises without working hard. On a Las Vegas on-ramp with a full merge needed it gives you what it has, which is enough without being plenty.
Fuel economy across my days with it averaged 32 mpg in mixed driving. The EPA combined estimate for the Sport FWD is 27 mpg. AWD trims come in slightly lower. The naturally aspirated engine is the efficient choice here. If you step up to the Touring XT’s 260-horsepower turbo, fuel economy drops considerably.
The flat-four engine note is distinctly Subaru. A slightly mechanical sound under acceleration that loyal Subaru owners find familiar and new buyers sometimes find unusual. It is what it is. The sound doesn’t intrude at cruise speeds.
The front seat on the Sport trim was reshaped for the final model year. Better lumbar support than the previous generation. Longer drives would confirm this properly but two days was enough to note the seat holds you without creating pressure.
The Honest Problems
The CVT is the Rogue problem wearing a Subaru badge. Smooth. Adequate. Uninvolving. The Legacy Sport trim’s suspension tuning adds some body control but the powertrain doesn’t inspire the way the chassis suggests it could. Buyers who want their commute to feel like something should look at the turbo Touring XT or reconsider the segment entirely.
The infotainment system on the Sport trim uses an 11.6-inch touchscreen that is large and responsive but occasionally laggy when switching between functions. Wireless CarPlay covers this in daily use. The native system underneath is fine, not impressive.
And the discontinuation. For buyers who purchase rather than lease, buying the last model year of a discontinued nameplate carries real resale risk. Parts availability will be maintained for years. Resale value in five years is less predictable than a continuing model. Buyers should factor this honestly into a purchase decision versus lease decision.
When I told Priya the Legacy was being discontinued she went quiet for a moment.
“So mine is basically a collector’s item?” she said.
Not quite. But I understood what she meant.
Reliability
KBB owner rating of 4.8 out of 5 across the 7th generation. NHTSA five stars. Subaru’s long-term reliability reputation is strong and the Legacy’s track record across three-plus decades supports the brand’s history. The 2.5-liter naturally aspirated engine is one of the most proven in Subaru’s lineup.
Common owner concerns on the current generation center on CVT fluid maintenance, which matters more on the naturally aspirated models that rely on it more heavily. Regular fluid changes per Subaru’s schedule extend CVT life significantly. Skipping them does the opposite.
No significant active recalls on the 2025 Legacy at time of writing. Verify your VIN through NHTSA before taking delivery.
Subaru covers 3 years or 36,000 miles bumper-to-bumper, 5 years or 60,000 miles powertrain. Standard for the class.
Who Should Buy the Last Legacy
Anyone who wants an AWD midsize sedan and doesn’t want to pay the SUV premium for the capability. The Legacy delivers real AWD in a lower, more fuel-efficient, easier-to-park package than a comparable crossover, at a price that undercuts most of its SUV competition.
Anyone buying for a younger family member who needs something safe, reliable, and easy to live with. Priya’s two weeks confirmed what the spec sheet suggests. The EyeSight, the AWD, the visibility, the quiet cabin these are real daily-life qualities that matter to someone who doesn’t read automotive reviews.
Buy the Sport trim for the value point. Buy the Touring XT if you want the turbo and the heated rear seats and the Harman Kardon audio. Skip the Sport for the Premium if AWD is what you need and budget is the constraint.
If you’re considering the Legacy specifically because it’s the final year, make that a secondary reason rather than the primary one. Buy it because it fits your life, not because it’s rare. That’s what Priya would tell you and she doesn’t even know what trim she was driving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 2025 Subaru Legacy really the last one?
Yes. Subaru officially announced the end of Legacy production after the 2025 model year. No 2026 model exists. The Legacy nameplate is being retired after more than three decades. Dealerships are selling remaining 2025 inventory. Once those are gone, there are no more new Legacies.
Does every 2025 Subaru Legacy come with AWD?
Yes. Symmetrical all-wheel drive is standard across every Legacy trim from the base model through the Touring XT. No front-wheel-drive option. This makes the Legacy one of the only midsize sedans offering AWD as standard rather than an option or upgrade.
How reliable is the 2025 Subaru Legacy?
KBB owner ratings average 4.8 out of 5 across the 7th generation. NHTSA awarded it five stars overall. Subaru’s reliability reputation is strong and the Legacy’s multi-decade track record supports it. The main maintenance item worth knowing is CVT fluid service, which should be followed on schedule for long-term reliability.
What is EyeSight on the Subaru Legacy?
Subaru’s driver assist suite that includes adaptive cruise control with lane centering, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and lane departure warning. Standard on all 2025 Legacy trims. The adaptive cruise follows the vehicle ahead and maintains safe following distance automatically, slowing and resuming with traffic.
How does the 2025 Legacy compare to the Toyota Camry?
The Camry has a hybrid option the Legacy doesn’t, stronger resale value, and more powertrain choices. The Legacy has standard AWD across all trims which the Camry doesn’t offer in the US market, and a lower starting price on comparable feature content. For snowy climates or buyers who specifically want AWD, the Legacy wins that comparison. For long-term resale and hybrid efficiency, the Camry is the stronger choice.
Should I buy a 2025 Legacy knowing it’s the last model year?
Buy it if it fits your needs and budget. The discontinued status adds some resale uncertainty over a long ownership period but doesn’t affect how the car drives or how reliable it is. Leasing removes the resale concern entirely. If you’re purchasing and planning to drive it past 100,000 miles, the discontinuation matters less than it does if you plan to sell in three to five years.
