Subaru Legacy Concept

Subaru unveiled a Legacy Concept in Detroit, which, according to the company, will show us the future direction of Legacy sedan design. It will, of course, be no surprise if the popular Legacy is redesigned for the 2010 model year, as the car has seen five-year cycles since its introduction in 1989. We’re now on the fourth iteration, which came to dealers in 2003, so a redesign is overdue.

 

Designers made the Legacy Concept bolder than the existing model and slightly increased the overall size and interior volume without making it overly large. Keeping tidy proportions for the sake of nimble handling is imperative for the Legacy, Subaru reps said.

 

The concept is powered by a 3.6-liter, horizontally opposed boxer 6-cylinder engine, which is mated to Subaru’s symmetrical all-wheel drive. There is no word on whether the new engine will see production in 2010 Legacy models, but there’s no question it’s bigger than current Legacy offerings, although Subaru currently offers a 3.6-liter, 6-cylinder engine on its largest model, the Tribeca SUV.

 

As it stands, you can go to the dealer and buy a Legacy with anything from a 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine, to a turbocharged 243-horsepower version or a big 3.0-liter, 245-horsepower 6-cylinder, but nothing punched out to 3.6 liters.

 

Traditionally, if you were buying a high-performance Subaru, it’d come strapped with a turbocharger and a longitudinally mounted 4-cylinder boxer engine. But given the aggressive stances of this concept, we can’t help but wonder if the company has started to believe that there’s no replacement for displacement when it comes to high performance. If a 3.6-liter is offered in more plebeian trim, a miracle in engineering will be required to compete with the current 3.0-liter’s 17/24 mpg (city/hwy).

 

But the reason the engine is so big is presumably because we’re looking at a sporting version of the new Legacy, as evidenced by the aggressively flared wheel arches and a front fascia that says "get out of my way."

 

What’s certain is that we’ll have to wait for any official information about the next production version of the Legacy.

 

Maybe an upcoming 2010 Legacy STI will take visual cues from this no-nonsense concept. The Legacy Concept’s smart-looking forebears have sold more than 3.6 million units, making the Legacy what Subaru calls a "core car" — and a risky redesign every time.