Legacy GT or Spec B? (both 07's)

OK, I am sure this has been answered, but it has generally been an 07 LGT versus 06 Spec B, or new Spec B versus used Spec B. Well, there was a dealer up here with a used Spec B a bit over priced, and as such I didnt move on it... long story short, somone bought it. I have been in contact with a coupe dealers in the states, both west coast and where family is, and have narrowed it down to one of the few remaining 07 LGT in diamond grey or an 07 Spec B with a difference in price of ~5k. So I question the Legact GT gang, which to choose? and convince me why I should go spec B if I am slightly leanign that way, or why I shoudl just stick with the LGT if I plan to modify. As of right now I do not intend to modify the car, having modified my old Legact GT to near JDM B4 standards, and now modifying my S4 to near Stg3 ness, I believe I am done (lol, at least for now) I have been and do intend to continue Auto-crossing, but plan to stick with just tires for the present. (perhaps springs/roll bar).

 

So which Legacy is the best bang for buck for me? The nicely equipped LGT at a fair price and soem rooms for improvements, or the fully loaded more S4-ish Spec B that I dont have to modify anything for a while.

 

Given the chance, and also money conscience, would you "go for broke" and get a spec B, or save some money and get a LGT?

Personally I'd save some cash. The Spec.B is nice, but it's overpriced IMO.

 

-

Jim

I went through the same thing, and ended going with the spec b. I came from an STi, so I was familiar with the 6-speed, I didn't like the wheels that came on the '07 LGT, so I liked the 18"-ers better, and the nav system is pretty cool.

 

Oh, and of course the Bilsteins which gives the spec b it's name.

 

Being in anchorage, you'll need winter tires, but you hopefully kept your old wheels and tires (because 18" snows are expensive!).

 

It really comes down to your preference though.. do you care about the 18" wheels, 6-speed, satnav and the bilsteins?

Spec 's are over priced..get a LGT.

 

I mean, with the spec you only get 18's, great tires, great shocks, Navi, a unique interior, light wieght suspension pieces, and a nice steering wheel.

Spec 's are over priced..get a LGT.

 

I mean, with the spec you only get 18's, great tires, great shocks, Navi, a unique interior, light wieght suspension pieces, and a nice steering wheel.

 

And the Spec.B appears to be more powerful right out of the box.

 

The LGT is the obvious choice.

Here we go again

Go for the Spec.B. You're going to mod either one, so you may as well start with the one that has the better suspension/tires.

 

The nav is indeed a nice item to have, I like the alcantara seats better as they hold you in place during hard cornering, and the 6-speed is slick.

It depends on how badly you want:

 

1. OEM sat nav with the manual transmission (not the best sat nav system money can buy, but being integrated is nice)

 

2. the 6 MT transmission.

 

if those two goals are important to you, then get the the spec B, if not then save money and get the LGT.

 

I dont count the wheels or suspension because:

 

1. you can buy nicer, better looking aftermarket 18" wheels AND aftermarket suspension bits for cheaper than the price difference between a regular LGT and spec B and neither one of those are exactly big warranty voiders.

 

Ed

You live in Alasaka and drive in Canada. Here in Detroit we travel to Canada all the time for work, for fun or to pass through to drive to the east coast. In the medium sized border towns in Canada, such as Sarnia and Windsor, the mapping is very incomplete, and the NAV freaks when you get near the border bridges or tunnels. IN the interior, the POI's are hopeless. The nav stinks. I have it, wish I did not in my 06 Spec B. Do not count the Nav as a plus.

 

Do you like the Blue Alcantara seats? Do you want a 6 speed? Those are the real differences that you cannot modify the regular GT to match the Spec B. I suspect that you could buy the shocks, but you would not have the aluminum suspension parts. Does that matter? I do not know.

 

I bought an 06 Spec B that sat at the dealer for a long time. I love mine, I like the interior, the driving, for the price it was hard to beat. Everybody on this board that does not own one says that it is over-priced. I came from drivng much more expensive cars and compared to those, the Legacy Spec B was dirt cheap, especially when factoring the 0% loan for two years. It is an awsome car, but so is a regular Legacy GT. I would sugget that you try both, drive at a high speed and see which one has a lower RPM in top gear. You will be covering a lot miles in your car, and the one thing that I would change if I could would be an over drive to bring the RPM down a bit at 80 mph. On a long trip, the car is in the power band and very eager, but I always feel like shifting up again. Perhaps the new Spec B with the extra gear has a taller final drive? I do not know, but you should look into that and consider it.

Do you switch zones to the Canada map when you get close to Canada? I am familiar with a few Canadian cities and tested out some routes and POIs and everything came back prefectly fine. I accidently changed my zone once and when trying to compute a route in my home area, the Nav came back with bizzarro route calculations. I changed it back to the correct zone and presto everything was spot on.

Ben, if you go Spec B, it's really your personal preference. to me, i'd buy the spec b because i want a 6mt, the interior and just the Spec B uniqueness factor. if you could care less, then go for an LGT and do the upgrades as it'd be less money. having said that, if you were to get a Spec B and wanted to get rid of your wheels, just let me know. ;) once i do the brembo upgrade, maybe you'd want to swap tires/rims... :D my rims will not fit over the brembo's (we tried on Kyle's STI and they won't clear). regardless, i believe the choice is really what you prefer on shifting: 5mt or 6mt. 6mt is more fun, but i do know the 5mt is a very strong gearbox.

Thanks guys for the responses. I do care a bit about the 18's, and like the alcantra. The nav as of yet is not working up here, more a "ooo, looky" feature. I havent driven the 6spd yet, however if its like my Audi's its pretty nice. I remember there being a thread that rolled down the differences on the Spec B versus a LGT, but couldnt find it. According to Subies site the comparing models page shows the LGT and specB nearly identical, ok extremely identical. So are the main differences the interior, 6mt and bilsteins?

Thanks guys for the responses. I do care a bit about the 18's, and like the alcantra. The nav as of yet is not working up here, more a "ooo, looky" feature. I havent driven the 6spd yet, however if its like my Audi's its pretty nice. I remember there being a thread that rolled down the differences on the Spec B versus a LGT, but couldnt find it. According to Subies site the comparing models page shows the LGT and specB nearly identical, ok extremely identical. So are the main differences the interior, 6mt and bilsteins?

 

1. The alacantra will sure as hell beat full leather seats during the cold times in Alaska

 

2. If you like the shifting feel of the 6 speed in the Audi, you might be dissapointed by the feel of subaru's 6 speed, while its a technical improvement over the nearly 20(i think) year old 5 speed design, you'll feel vibrations from the transmission tunnel, its not a quiet, or crisp shift feeling as some of the audi shifters ive had experience with.

 

other than a few random knickknacks like extra steering wheel radio button controls i think, essentially youve listed all the significant differences between the LGT and spec B.

 

frankly i consider the 6 spd the only real reason to consider the spec B, it was my only reason, all the other things than came with it that arent in the LGT i considered bonuses with my purchase and not deciding factors in purchasing my car.

 

Ed

OK, that is my current dilema, aside from me not being keen on the wood grain (reminds me of my 2000 LGT) the only pulls for me for the spec b are ... "spec B" and the 6spd. but how much better IS the 6spd than the 20yo 5spd? Would you say its worth it? I'd love the 18's but am sure can source some.

^ The Spec.B suspension set up (which includes 18" wheels) is what makes the a Spec.B a Spec.B. They even named the car after the suspension.

OK, that is my current dilema, aside from me not being keen on the wood grain (reminds me of my 2000 LGT) the only pulls for me for the spec b are ... "spec B" and the 6spd. but how much better IS the 6spd than the 20yo 5spd? Would you say its worth it? I'd love the 18's but am sure can source some.

 

i can't answer that about the 6MT, its totally worth it to me, but ive read dozens and dozens of 5MT owners on this board who will freely give their opinion that the 6MT is overrated and will defend 5MT to the hilt, so im sorry that isnt very helpful. The 5MT isnt a bad transmission so its not like good and bad. thats the problem with the forums, you'll get a lot of varying opinions from different ppl, but as convincing as some pplz arguements are, when you try it yourself, you may find yourself completely disagreeing with them...or agreeing, who knows.

 

i'll just tell you this, i only had experience with the Sti 6MT and based on that loose comparison, i went with the 6MT on the spec B sight unseen. if youre unwilling to take a chance like that and play it completely safe then youre better off buying a 5MT car.

 

Ed

From a power standpoint, unless you're going for a lot like >400hp, a 5MT is fine. The 5MT is probably more practical. Some people say the 6MT isn't geared right. IMO, I would love to have a 6MT, I wouldn't be going for that much power and I'm willing to sacrifice comfortability if I have to b/c they're a blast to drive.

^ Both are good transmissions. I have a 5MT which I swear has one too many gears. However, I wouldn't kick the 6MT out of bed for eating crackers.

Do not place a high value on the 18" wheels. I have a 06 Spec B and just took off my 17" GT wheels and Winter Sport M3 tires and mounted the stock 18" wheels and tires. The car does not drive as nice. Not only is the ride harder and the rattles worse, but it feels slower (heavier wheels and tires) and either the stiffer tires or heavier weight of the wheels make the car less stable over bumpy roads when cornering.

I suspect that your roads are not so smooth in Alaska right?

 

The stutter is back; that went away with the lighter wheels.

 

The 18" look sorta wierd also, too much metal and not enough rubber. The 17" look more proportionally correct.

 

I love my Spec B, but if I were you I would not consider the 18" wheels as too much of a plus for the real world.

I don't have the stutter and my Nav works great and I can't wait to get my 18s back on the Spec.

 

Douglas, did you program your route using the proper map region? Your complaints leave me cold. I've made trips through Canada and from them I remember certain places I stayed or went to, etc. I was waiting for the Spec.B to warm up and I changed regions to Canada, selected POIs; city, Brandon Manitoba; category, hotels; from the letters available on the keyboard I randomly selcected "V" (no kidding), The Victoria Hotel comes up. I effing stayed there once upon a time! Nice place.

 

Then I selected all restaurants, and punched in "Tim Hortons". Several locations showed up.

 

Douglas. The Nav system is fine. My advice to you: RTFM.

Yes Vimy,

 

I know how to change the regions, and trust me, the system does not work well near a border.

 

The NAV sucks.

 

I do not play with the NAV for fun. I need NAV for my job to find places to stop on the way to and from my sales calls in distant towns quickly. If I knew where everything was, so much so that I used your techniques to program the NAV, then I would not need the NAV. Sorry, no matter how you look at this thing, it sucks; useless. You must have more time on your hands than I do. With my last BMW with the dreaded I-Drive or with my Garmin, I could/can program in my customer by street address, and before leaving my garage see all the hotels and their distance from the customer. I would choose the one I like, see the telephone number, call them, reserve and progam it as a destination in seconds. I could do the same while driving as well. The choosing things from a map technique that you suggest does not work in the real world. It may work fine in your own town where you know where everything is already, but not when travelling.

 

You seem absolutely obsessed with defending your decision to buy a Spec B. I love the car, but come on, please be objective.

I found all the stuff I posted about in 2 minutes. I also checked out Oakville, Ontario just because I saw a Ford plant from the highway once and found 12 Tim Horoton's. With your updated maps you'd probably find 24.

 

Seems you came to learn one particular method but are trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The phone numbers for the hotels are present in the data base from what I can tell. You can even program a destination by using the phone number and add it to your itinerary in seconds.

 

Choosing things from a map couldn't be easier. You don't like the distance? Change the selection.

 

You really don't know how to use the OEM Nav and that from a guy who has only scratched the surface of its possibilities. The Garmin is a much better choice for you.

 

RTFM.

 

PS, I agree that too many functions are frozen out when the car is in motion. Why not just sign a release?

By the reasoning you have I'd say go with LGT.

 

Only reason to get SpecB would be 6sp AND rear torsen differential, and the alcantara seats.

You'd probably want to get a set of 17" rims for winter anyway and can get better 18" for summer if you so wanted.

 

For your situation GT seems more fitting.

Ben, either route you go, if you don't need the 6MT it wouldn't take much to get the car up to the suspension qualities of the spec B, far less than the $5K. when adding up everything i have done to the LGT including the recent fiasco's of valve bodies and soon to come trip to PDX, I still have spent FAR less than what Phil's coming STI is STOCK.

Cool, Thanks. I had talked with my bro tonight and nearly talked myself into the spec B, Just for the fact I am already used to the high level model with my Audi, and am honestly quite found of the alcantra and 6spd, for 5-6k though am not sure.

 

It does appear I would be VERY content with the LGT in diamond grey,

versus the SpecB. I guess my main concern is having modified my last 2 rides quite a bit, I am planning on NOT doing that this go around, so wondering if the bilstein suspension on the specB is good, great or marginally better than the LGT's stock suspension, in other words, would I still find myself modifying it?

 

For the record, I like the 18's from teh Spec B, enough to buy the car for the wheels, no... but something about a stock look.