My Legacy GT dilemma; to buy or not to buy

If you want to skip straight to the dilemma without any back story just go to the TL;DR in bold below.

I got divorced just over 3 months ago. When I bought my Legacy in 2012, I had wanted buy a 2012 Legacy GT, but my ex-wife played a very big part in why I ended up with a 2.5i and I was not happy on how that went down. I normally plan on keeping my daily drivers until they are 10-12 years old. However, I just can’t see myself keeping my 2.5i for that long because of the part my wife played in the purchase. I ended up doing more mods than I would have normally would done to car like a 2.5i to make it more my own, but I am still not satisfied.

I am a numbers guy. I keep a monthly profit/loss for my actual expenses and I also have monthly budget forecast. Since splitting my finances, my actual numbers have been hitting my monthly budgets and I still have some extra money left over. 2017, I have some legal expenses and housing expenses related the divorce that I will be paid off next January. I will also have my 1 month of savings replenished by then as well. I also typically get a good size bonus in February as well, so I will be in good position financially along with another year of raise. I just have this urge to move on from my 2.5i and start fresh even though keeping a 2.5i long term is probably my financial decision.

TL;DR

So I have I have been going back and forth on, what to do about my next car. I see my options as

1 - Buy a used 2011/2012 Legacy GT in 2018

2 - Buy a new WRX in 2018 or wait for the next generation WRX (likely 2020)

If buy a Legacy GT I would probably keep it for 5 years or so and I would eventually buy a WRX to replace it. Either car I would probably modify to stage 2. I have the suspension & shifter mods from my 2.5i that I would transfer over to LGT. Both cars would need a set of snow tires and rims. The additional cost above the purchase price would be about the same, a little more hassle for swapping parts for the LGT.

Am I crazy to buy a 6 or 7 year old Legacy GT with the expectation to drive it for 5 more years? I am very mechanically inclined and I am OK if I have to do the YNANSB. I do like the sleeper styling of the LGT. I am happy the way my car drives and handles now. I like the size of it. The interior is start to seem dated, but I am happy with it and I am not one to keep up with the ‘Jones’. My 2.5i is worth $8K less than 2012 LGT. I would sell my 2.5i privately if I bought a LGT. I probably would finance LGT purchase completely and then pay down the loan (shortening the term) when I sell my 2.5i privately, the month payment is almost what a new WRX would be but with a shorter term (likely 2 – 2 ½ years) instead of 5 years for WRX. I can install my hitch/rack and tow my small boat with a 5th Gen Legacy. I don’t mind travelling to buy the right car, I have tons of frequent flyer miles and in some ways I like the hunt; it is more convenient to go to a dealership to buy a new car (I will probably order a WRX).

For a WRX, I can buy new car that hasn’t been fooled around with. I like the styling of the current model. The typical WRX image is a negative. The car itself is more updated. 2.0DIT gets better fuel economy. The WRX probably is faster, but either car should be fast enough and is not a real consideration. The WRX has better aftermarket support. I actually like the interior a little better in the WRX and is a little nicer than the 5th Gen. I would get more money for my 2.5i because the Subaru GTP for my car is almost retail book value. I am OK with doing a walnut blasting to clean the intake from DI. The insurance is more expensive, but that is low on the list. The WRX have better resale value and looking at historical values expected depreciation may even be wash in 5-6 years. The recessed area of WRX hitch maybe problematic for my current bike rack and the WRX isn’t rated for towing. I sure that I could figure out something for my bicycles and boat. I would make due but it’s not ideal. If Subaru put a turbo 4 6MT in the current Legacy I would buy that over a WRX, but I know that isn’t happening. I have yet to test drive a new WRX and have only sat in them at a dealer showroom, but I have feeling I will like driving them. I have driven the 5th Gen LGT.

I have convinced myself that I am almost certain I going to buy WRX only change my mind with 100% certainly that a Legacy GT is a better choice and go back WRX with 100% certainty and so on and so forth. Today I am 50-50, maybe someone can give me clarity or opinions that will help make my decision.

Welllll considering you're looking start of next year. The GT is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper. 12-18grand for a fair price with lower mileage would be my guess.

The WRX long term would probably be the better choice. If you want to get into modifying it more.

Not sure what kind of boat you have but a friend here pulls a 12,ft aluminum boat behind his all the time with no problems.

If your good with maintenance and possibly short block, I think the LGT is really what you want. You can always upgrade the stereo and interior to your liking. And it will be cheaper, also there aren't many long term reviews of the 2.0DIT so realistically there could still be many gremlins to come out of that power plant.

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Buy the Wrx, enjoy the WRX, become as one with the WRX. See what I am hinting towards lol.

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Test drive the WRX for sure. That might tell you all you need to know.

Also, the aftermarket support for the rex means a lot to me. It's not just more options, it's more price points and more evidence of what each part does. Also more opportunity to get better quality at a more competitive price point.

The new WRX isn't faster than a stage 1 LGT don't ask me how I know this [emoji12]. I'm a tall guy 6'4" the Legacy is much more comfortable to drive than my WRX which was one of the reasons I chose the LGT over another WRX but I wasn't looking at the new ones so maybe they have more room now. I guess the deciding factor other than cost should be how much you are planning to mod the car. The LGT aftermarket support is horrible just check out the Nameless downpipe install thread. If you are planning on modding past Stage 1 go with the WRX for sure.

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The new WRX isn't faster than a stage 1 LGT don't ask me how I know this [emoji12]. I'm a tall guy 6'4" the Legacy is much more comfortable to drive than my WRX which was one of the reasons I chose the LGT over another WRX but I wasn't looking at the new ones so maybe they have more room now. I guess the deciding factor other than cost should be how much you are planning to mod the car. The LGT aftermarket support is horrible just check out the Nameless downpipe install thread. If you are planning on modding past Stage 1 go with the WRX for sure.

 

 

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There are a couple of other exhaust options beyond Nameless. It's certainly not a WRX-like environment, but it's also not completely empty. Just... mostly empty. But, dgoodhue already highlights that in his OP.

I am not one to be swayed by popular opinion, but the WRX is a boy racer car, it always will be. The LGT is much more innocuous on the street when you are commuting or just chilling and beastly when you open it up. They are two very different cars in their attitudes.

Having said that I did test drive a wrx with a cvt this past fall, and I didn't hate it. Power delivery is smooth and even with the CVT it seems to just pull and pull. I could own one, but I would prefer something a bit more inconspicuous to drive around daily.

Whatever you do, don't bring a non-salt belt car into the salt belt....please. Go drive the new WRX this weekend, spend some time with one, and then come back to talk more.

I don't like the rust either.

[close_your_eyes]My ideal would be to find a Legacy GT that has not been in the salt belt. It would likely extend the useful life of the vehicle for me. I usually get fed up with cars driven in the salt after 10-12 years because of rust. As a DIYer, it makes a huge difference not having to deal with bolts that break and even if they don't break that take a lot more effort to remove.[/close_your_eyes]

A vast majority of Legacy GT's were sold in places where the roads are salted. I know how rare these cars are and if I get too picky I will never find the right one. I at least want to find an example with low to average miles that is in good condition. It is pretty likely that I will end up with a rust belt car.

For a little while, I actually was thinking about keeping my 2.5i as winter driver and buying a new WRX and saving it from the New England winters. The more I thought about 1- I don't need 3 cars. 2- Why I am buying a AWD performance car to not drive it in the winter, because the point of me buying an AWD is for year round driving. 3 - My 2.5i still has decent value and I guesstimated that my 2.5i would lose another $5,000-6,000 of depreciation over the next 5 years.

I think you guys have hit the nail on the head about test driving a WRX. It could make my choice easier either way. It is suppose to be really cold this weekend, so I am not going freeze my butt off checking out a WRX. I will arrange to drive WRX; I might see if I can find a local WRX owner who would be willing to give me a ride/let me drive their car.

I drive my Legacy everyday so that definitely helps the Legacy GT case. My car just need a turbo plus the HK radio is also a lot nicer than the radio in my car as well.

Truthfully when you drive the 15+ WRX you won't look back on your legacy. Just saying

Only advantage our legacy would have is maaayybbeee a more luxurious feel and larger size. WRX is really a great driving experience

It might be worth considering the insurance cost as well. I was just talking to my buddy with an '09 wrx and he pays way more than me, even with my recent ticket.

The Legacy is a good sleeper.

I am not one to be swayed by popular opinion, but the WRX is a boy racer car, it always will be. The LGT is much more innocuous on the street when you are commuting or just chilling and beastly when you open it up.

The Legacy is a good sleeper.

The WRX is amazing, but I have to say that my favorite part about my car is that it is a complete sleeper. No one knows what it is and I can eat most "boy racers" wrx's for lunch. It is always nice beating someone and then having them say(at least in my head it is what they are saying lol) what in the hell was that.

Definitely, I like sleepers and they appeal to me, I feel like it fits more with my personality anyways.

BBPeik, obviously I don't know what people are are thinking while they are driving but their is a good chance some of them are thinking that, your LGT is modified and it is probably more than they are expecting. My truck is a sleeper. I have gotten couple comments about it on the street and at the 1/4 mile track, I usually get at least one comment every time I go about it even when it was mostly stock run 13's or high 12's. My favorite moment is when I ran my 1st 11 second pass, I had caught my ET on the board so I happy about that on top of that I had race a SRT8 and I had annihilated it. I had beaten it by over a sec but I also had gotten a better reaction time, so the SRT8 was a good 10 cars lengths behind when I went through the trap. The SRT8 kept his foot in the pedal well past the finish to catch up to me and then he slammed the brakes on to get even and the driver looked over in what look like amazement. I have never had anyone else do that at the track to me before. I race him again later that night and he didn't do that again.

It might be worth considering the insurance cost as well. I was just talking to my buddy with an '09 wrx and he pays way more than me, even with my recent ticket.

The WRX insurance to approximately $45 more month than a LGT which is 415 more than my 2.5i. I look at it as price admission of having performance car. Insurance cost is factor but isn't a deciding factor for me. It seems like long term I am going to end up with a WRX and its insurance expense anyways

The new WRX isn't faster than a stage 1 LGT don't ask me how I know this [emoji12]. I'm a tall guy 6'4" the Legacy is much more comfortable to drive than my WRX which was one of the reasons I chose the LGT over another WRX but I wasn't looking at the new ones so maybe they have more room now. I guess the deciding factor other than cost should be how much you are planning to mod the car. The LGT aftermarket support is horrible just check out the Nameless downpipe install thread. If you are planning on modding past Stage 1 go with the WRX for sure.

I am probably start off with Stage 1 and maybe go stage 2 depending on the feel of the car, but I am will likely stop their. I am aiming for a mid 13 sec maybe a low 13 sec 1/4 mile car. I have had 11, 12, 13, 14 sec and slower cars. I feel that 13's is good compromise for a street car to have fun with. It feels fast at street legal speeds, but it doesn't pick up so much speed that it become unusable. It sort of why I don't car which car is faster, I am not buy to race or be competitive with, just a daily driver that is fun to drive and can be driven year round in New England.

I do appreciate have options. I like to have a more innocuous exhaust sound, plus I appreciate quality parts.

A WRX does not have to be made into a " boy racer " vehicle. Keep it stock and minus a large wing and you are good to go. What gives it a bad rap is what's done to make it so.

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I can see all the logical arguments to get a WRX, starting with the fact that it would be new, and have many more years of life, and 3 years with no maintenance costs. However, if you are used to the space in a Legacy, I think, over time you will feel cramped in a WRX.

My wife's car is a previous generation Outback. Its an XT limited with a turbo and a manual transmission, so its just as nice and just as fast as my 2010 LGT. But its smaller inside, and that makes a huge difference, especially on road trips. At 6'2" and 240lb, I am a big guy. So every time I drive her car, I am first reminded how awesome it is. But after an hour or so, I start to really miss the Legacy.

I think you would need more than a short test drive to realize this.

A WRX does not have to be made into a " boy racer " vehicle. Keep it stock and minus a large wing and you are good to go. What gives it a bad rap is what's done to make it so.

 

 

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Your half right, it doesn't have to be "made" into one it is inherently one, because of the overwhelming majority of people who drive one. There is a reason the LGT is dubbed the "grown up wrx".

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I am 90% leaning towards waiting the year and buying a 2019 WRX. I haven't test driven WRX yet, but I am just going to wait until June or July when the 2018 WRX are on the lot. If I am going to kick some tires, I might as well be productive and figure out what model WRX I want. [the deciding factor will likely be the seats - Manual Cloth, Recaro's, or Power Leather with lumbar.]

I will wait until next year to decide what to with my 2.5i Legacy (trade it in or keep it). I have decided to have a Subaru winter driver to avoid the 1st few winters in a new car, plus their are rumors in my office that the location could be changing my commute from 40 miles to 100 miles round trip. (management says we aren't moving but the other location is building 50 office spaces for 10 employees and my group has 30 employees). I sure don't want to be putting 30k miles a year on brand new car. If the trade in for my 2.5i is too good to pass up, I will look around for 2005-2009 2.5i Outback or Legacy Wagon. Ideally keeping my Legacy would be my 1st choice because I am very particular about my cars in tip top shape and it is very likely nicer than any used car I am going to find. This is also why I am probably better off buying a new WRX than used Legacy GT.

I might as well update this thread. I am going to buy a used Legacy GT and sell my 2.5i. [i have negotiated a deal to buy a 2012 SWP LGT.] I had gotten to a place where I was almost 100% sure I was going to buy a new WRX.

I had hurt my foot and I was letting it rest. With my down time, I started putting together plan for renovating my old house and a long term budget to do so. I have bunch of high labor/low material cost project that I am going to start to tackle, but I also want to renovate my kitchen which is old/outdated (fortunately it's functional) and will need to be fully gutted to do so. When I started doing my budget projection a couple years out, I realized a WRX was likely going to delay my kitchen renovation a good 2 years.

The more I thought about it, I realize that I wanted the financial freedom & the low key nature of the LGT more than I wanted new WRX.