The build tag shows that this car was built at the Yajima plant a couple of months before the first Legacy rolled off the Subaru-Isuzu Automotive (now wholly owned by Subaru) assembly line in Indiana.
There were just two trim levels for the original U.S.-market Legacy: the base L and the upscale LS. This car is a front-wheel-drive L wagon, which had an MSRP of $13,049 (about $30,400 in 2023 dollars). That compared favorably to the cheapest Toyota Camry FWD wagon
($13,768, or $32,074 now); Honda didn’t introduce the longroof Accord here until the 1991 model year. Meanwhile, Detroit still offered ample selection for station wagon shoppers, including the more spacious Ford Taurus GL wagon
for $14,722 ($34,297 today).
Subaru was well-known here for four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive cars by 1990, but the full American-market product line didn’t go fully AWD until the 1996 model year. This car is an ordinary front-driver, though it does have the optional automatic transmission instead of the base five-speed manual. If you wanted a Legacy L wagon with all-wheel-drive (still called “full-time four-wheel-drive” by Subaru at that point, because new Loyales were still available with driver-selected four-wheel-drive at the time), the price was $14,249 ($33,195 after inflation).
This car served its owner or owners well, traversing close to 300,000 miles during its near-quarter-century on the road.
This is the optional 2.2-liter 16-valve engine, rated at 160 horsepower. The base 8-valve engine made 130 horses. I think this particular engine may be a swap from a Legacy GT, rather than factory-installed.
The emissions sticker shows that it’s a California-only vehicle, not a “49-state” federal version. The lack of body rust suggests that it spent most or all of its life in the Golden State.
Along with the powerful engine and automatic transmission, the original buyer got this high-end Clarion cassette deck with AUX jack (a real rarity in the pre-iPod 1990s, but popular in Japan for use with MiniDisc players).
Starting in the 1995 model year, Subaru began offering the Outback outdoorsy option package on the Legacy and Impreza (including sedans). Of all the Outbacks, the Legacy Outback wagon proved by far the biggest seller, and so it became a model in its own right in the 2005 model year (though obvious Legacy badging faded away from the exteriors of Legacy Outback wagons long before that
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