Since I took the keys for our long-term 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT from fellow editor Chris Paukert, I’ve managed to squeeze in a number of long drives. This has given me a perfect chance to observe the Legacy 2.5GT’s fuel economy in ideal conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency rates our Legacy model and its turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder at 18 mpg in the city, 25 on the highway and 21 mpg combined. As you can see above, our experience over the last three full fill-ups beat the estimates with room to spare.

Mind you, I’ve spent most of my time with the Legacy cruising comfortably on the highway, and Paukert, who lives in a decidedly more urban setting, assures me that the MPGs fall fast in the city. Also, remember that the Legacy 2.5GT requires premium fuel, and I spent between $44 and $46 to fill up its 18.5-gallon fuel tank with 93 Octane that cost about $2.80/gallon.

Still, my last fill-up showed the car achieved an honest-to-goodness 27 mpg over 426 miles, which is 6 mpg better than the EPA’s combined estimate and 2 mpg better than its highway estimate. And the engine appears to be gaining efficiency as we continue to break it in.

The wife and I are gearing up for a road trip with the Legacy that will add well over 2,000 miles to its odo. We’ll keep track of the fuel economy we see and report back to see if Autoblog’s first long-term car can keep this surprisingly good performance up.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Rise of the MPGs originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:29:00 EST.

Our 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT long-termer has over 4,000 miles on it now, and it’s broken in nicely. The six-speed cable shifter has freed up nominally (it’s still a bit notchy), and the turbocharged flat-four is singing as sweetly as ever.

As we mentioned earlier, we’re pleased to note that Subaru has already begun making some nominal tweaks to the 2.5GT to make it a bit more special, particularly in the area of cabin furnishings. We find the interior to be a pretty comfortable – and hugely roomy – place to be, but for the range’s dedicated performance model, the 2010 iteration just isn’t adequately differentiated from other models in the series. Thanks to a slew of minor changes, the 2011 model’s interior promises visuals that are more in keeping with the 2.5GT’s sporting temperament.

Oh – another word about those front seats. We’ve taken a few longer drives over the past month, and while they’re still very comfortable, the lower seat cushions are quite short and we can’t help but wonder if this would become a problem for taller folks. We’re going to try to cajole some of our lankier friends into taking a few long drives with us and see how they come down. Either way, we do wish that the GT would rank model-specific seats with significantly more lateral bolstering for the twisties. No such issues with the rear seats – knee, leg and toe room is epic, as is headroom.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: May 2010

Simple switchgear a welcome trait

There’s a lot to be said for simplicity over unnecessary complication.

Less wood, more sport

Subaru has recognized the opportunity to substitute faux carbon fiber trim for 2011.

Click here for all updates.

One other thing we’ve noticed is that not only are the Legacy’s seats comfortable, the ride is extremely forgiving, even on 18-inch Bridgestone summer rubber. The 2.5GT has a surprisingly pliant sort of long-travel feel to it, which has proven to be an asset on the broken roads here in the Midwest. There might be a bit more lean in hard cornering as a consequence, but the tuning seems to mesh nicely with the idea of Subaru’s rally heritage – we can see getting our Scandy-flick on and catching air on modest jumps with few issues in this thing. We plan to have the Legacy live out in California for a few months later this year, where our man Lavrinc will tell us if this somewhat softish feeling is a liability on the state’s well-groomed curvy roads. For now, however, it’s a pleasure, making short work of Detroit’s broken surfaces.

In the meantime, our Subie continues to win friends on the streets and with family members, some of whom haven’t encountered a modern product from Fuji Heavy. We’ve had a surprising number of unsolicited compliments curbside and at gas stations, and we’re growing used to the design ourselves – those big fenders (purportedly to emphasize the car’s all-wheel drive nature) now almost look like they’re part of a sporty body kit to us – in a good way – and the deep maroon paint hides the car’s size, while the finish appears to be of uniformly high quality.

CLICK HERE to check out all updates for our long-term 2011 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: May 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:29:00 EST.

After spending a week circumnavigating the country in a pair of BMW sedans on One Lap of America a couple of weeks back, you might think that the drive home to Detroit from South Bend would’ve been a bit of a disappointment. On the contrary, we were glad to see our long-term 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT, and have been so every day since then. Not that we didn’t enjoy the 550i (2010 model) or remember why we absolutely love the 335d, but there’s a lot to be said for simplicity over unnecessary complication.

For one, the cruise control switchgear on the steering wheel spoke in the Subie is infinitely easier to use than the hidden stalk on the Bimmers. The Legacy’s arrangement is a model of ergonomic excellence, whereas the BMW necessitated that we give step-by-step how-to directions to our co-drivers from the back seat. Repeatedly.

And don’t even get us started on the differences in navigation systems. While the 2.5GT’s is far from perfect, its touchscreen is still much easier to negotiate than either of the two generations of iDrive we experienced in the BMWs – much improved though they are. We do wish that higher functions (address entry, etc.) could be accessed on the move – at least when there is more than one person in the car. Why can’t automakers learn that this safety ‘feature’ should have an automatic override tied to the passenger seat weight sensor that’s already there to govern airbag deployment?

Did we mention how much we like the utterly intuitive dual-zone HVAC controls? Crisp display, a couple of rockers and a handful of buttons – it’s simplicity itself.

One area where our Subaru is arguably oversimplified is with its sunroof controls: It has two single-function switches – one for tilt, and one for slide open/close. Unless it’s a small cost win, we can’t see why there isn’t a unified dual function switch as on most other cars. At least they are differentiated in look and feel for less fumbling about.

Autoblog Long-Term Introduction: 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT

Long-Term Update: Touring our Subaru Legacy 2.5GT’s birthplace

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Hill holder a great feature, but why an idiot lamp?

More Long-Term Updates:

• 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: The key is robustness and simplicity
• 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Less Wood, More Sport

Visit the our long-term 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT page

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Simplicity of switchgear a welcome trait originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 May 2010 15:31:00 EST.

Over the last few months, we’ve had some time to come to grips with how comfy and capacious the interior is in our long-term 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT, but despite this, we think it could still do with a sportier feeling cabin. A big part of the staidness of the interior can be blamed on our test car’s spears of orangey woodgrain trim – we would have gladly substituted the silver trim in lower-rung models, but it wasn’t an option.

Thankfully, Subaru has recognized the incongruity – and the opportunity – and they’re substituting faux carbon fiber for the 2011 model year, which ought to be a great improvement and help sell the ‘performance’ aura. Better still, they’re adding aluminum pedal covers and silver seat stitching which should definitely liven up the place a bit.

Pricing for the 2011 model – now in ‘Limited’ trim only – goes up by $405 to $31,395. but includes Harman/Kardon audio with XM – two items that cost extra in our 2010. They’re also adding folding side mirrors, which should make at least one AB commenter we’ve heard from very happy. Either way the modest price increase is money very well spent in our book. Now, if Subaru would only make its excellent xenon headlamps available as an option (they’ve already got the switch blank for the beam adjuster in place next to the power mirror controls), we’d be even happier campers…

• Long-Term Update: Touring our Subaru Legacy 2.5GT’s birthplace
• 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: The key is robustness and simplicity
• 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Automatic hill-holder is a great feature, but why the idiot lamp?

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Less wood, more sport originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 21 May 2010 19:30:00 EST.

Like all new-for-2010 Subaru Legacy models, our long-term 2.5GT has an electronic parking brake that has a hill holder feature. We think these are great, particularly on manual transmission cars like ours, where rollback on uphill starts can be require a bit of pedal dancing that’s particularly nerve-racking for newer stick-shift drivers. It’s also mighty convenient for those that live in hilly areas where incline starts are a frequent occurrence.

So… great feature, right? Yes, but why does switching it on illuminate a green indicator lamp in the gauge cluster, and why does it turn itself off every time you turn off the car? We understand the advantage of a defeat button (usage is potentially ill-advised if you’re towing something or carrying a heavy load), but we would prefer that once the feature is activated, that it stay that way until the driver specifies otherwise.

Oddly enough, Subaru actually offered a mechanical hill holder on its cars long before going to an electronic parking brake, but as best we can remember, that system wasn’t defeatable. Still, we don’t recall hearing anyone grouse about it staying on all the time, and we’re not sure why the default setting for this new system is off, or why it requires an idiot lamp at all. As it is, we’ve stopped using it regularly to avoid the extra light in the cluster. That, and we couldn’t get The Smiths’ “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” bounding through our head every time we used it.

2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT: Automatic hill-holder is a great feature, but why the idiot lamp? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:45:00 EST.