2020 Legacy XT Initial Owner Impressions

Previously owned an 08 LGT. I have owned a 2020 XT now for 2 months and have put 500 miles on it. Here is what I have found for those who are thinking of buying one.

 

Overall Impression

I still own my 08 LGT and like it better. It feels more solid and that it will last longer than the 2020 even though it is 13 years old. The 2020 has a much softer suspension and all the safety features prevent you from having any spirited driving with the car. The 2020 is much quieter and more comfortable than the 08 for highway driving. My 08 came with zero factory defects while my 2020 has paint flaws, undercoat flaws, and had to go back twice for balance/alignment with < 300 miles. All the new tech in the 2020 is nifty, but can be very annoying with all the warnings and lights. When you try to turn them off you often exchange one annoying light for another annoying light. I guess I am just old (only 38), but I feel trapped by the 2020 and that it dictates how I drive vs being able to go out and have a fun spirited drive in my 08. Btw, my life is technology. Maybe that is why it bugs me. All the little imperfections. The way they design these new cars today is nothing but universal chassis with interchangeable parts. Entire engines and suspensions just drop in to multiple vehicles. While cost effective for the manufacturer, it makes a car that never handles like the ones made ten years ago.

 

7/26/2020 update

Went on a 500 mile road trip. Car is now up to just shy of 1K miles.

 

Two things:

 

1. I have disabled vehicle dynamic control. I have put a piece of black tape over the huge orange light that doesn't dim at night telling you that VDC is off. Why did I disable it? I visited relatives who live on top of a mountain. Going up was perfectly fine. Coming down I was alternative between brakes and paddle shifting to use tranny braking so I didn't overhead the rotors. I came into a sharp left turn about 30mph and was decelerating with my brakes when all of a sudden "bzzzzzzzzzzz" the abs kicked in. Wtf?! I feel it actually attributed to more loss of control than being helpful as I was about 3ft from the end of a mountain cliff. I didn't appreciate it at all and there was absolutely no reason for it to kick in.

 

 

2. Collision avoidance is a joke. Situation #1: Same cliff someone slowed down to make a left. I started to steer to the right to go around them and pass by their rear probably within 3 feet as one normally does. Bzzzz bang bing lights brakes. So in this case it was "i am going to cause you to collide b/c I won't let you steer around this guy." Situation #2: U-haul truck comes into my lane and cuts me off. Absolutely nothing from the system. Truck was maaaaaaybe 3ft from my bumper. The system is more of an annoyance than a help.

 

 

Initial Defects

1. Car came loud as hell from the factory with a whomp whomp sound. Road force balanced. One tire was almost an ounce out of balance. Had to get all tires re-balanced. Red/Yellow manufacturer tire marks were not paid any attention to when mounting tires on the rims.

 

2. After balance, car still had so much road noise it was hard to hear the radio. Had to take it back to get an alignment. Toe was way out. Once this was fixed the car was dramatically quieter. Previously it was louder than my 2008 LGT.

 

Most of my first 300 miles were taking the car back to the dealer.

 

3. Factory Defect - Under side of trunk lid (strip where latch is located) is not painted properly on any 2020 legacy. I verified this at the dealership on multiple cars. It's like the robot just over sprays and doesn't actually re-adjust angle to paint the bottom. Call subaru to complain or they will never fix. Dealership offered to paint trunk lid. I didn't want a paint mismatch on a brand new car. Hopefully this wont be a corrosion issue down the line.

 

4. Factory Defect - Before allowing the undercoating to dry they put the chassis on the line. The four mating points have no under coat protection as they were rubbed off. Two are directly behind the front tires in a high rock wear zone. Dealer offered to rattle can some rubberized under coat on it.

 

 

Potential Longevity Issues

1. Wheel well liners and under body panels are thin plastic with a felt coating. Why the heck would you ever do this as they attract moisture and mold. The front wheel well liners are insufficient and they rely upon under body coating for protection.

2. Start stop. No clue how it will affect the starter, turbo, or any oiled system.

3. 0w-20 in a turbo? No thank you.

4. I have the light gray interior. My 08LGT has black leather that after 13 years still looks new. After two months the light gray leather on the passenger seat where I have had someone log maybe 2 hours of time is starting to show creases.

5. Soy based wiring. Because petroleum based lasted too long, never broke down, and didn't attract animals, subaru (and toyota) decided to change to soy based wiring covers which already has a class action lawsuit. Animals love to eat it and it is designed to break down. So who knows if these cars will last 10 years or start having weird electrical issues.

 

Dealership Delivery Issues

1. Car was delivered to me with 44PSI in each tire. Dealership forgot to lower them before delivery.

2. Maps and software came out of date to me. I updated maps manually. Now dealing with dealer to get software updated. Don't drive off the lot until you are sure you have the latest software.

 

Annoyances

1. Start/Stop technology. So annoying. The car startup is pretty rough and jolts you around. To turn it off you have to go three menus deep (version 503) and reset the setting EVERY start. In version 504 apparently you go only two deep. No way to permanently disable it which is very very annoying.

2. Lane assist is way overly sensitive. If you turn it off, you get a GIANT and I mean GIANT orange MIL light on your tach. Your choices are to have annoying flashing lights and beeping when you want to drive spiritedly and hug the inside of turns, or turn it off and have a big orange MIL. I put tape over the MIL.

3. Collision avoidance. I drive pretty aggressively. I have had it activate on me twice. Once when I went around a corner into the sun. No cars were on the road in front of me or oncoming. It was purely because of the sun. Second at low speed (< 35mph) I was stopping close to someone and it took over control and pulsed my brakes.

4. Profiles. Although driver recognition recognizes you, if you do not have blue tooth turned on your phone and your passenger who has a profile does the system will A. automatically connect their phone or B. ask you if you want to change profiles.

 

One other really annoying thing is I was following my wife, I had my blue tooth off, she had hers on, the car had recognized me upon entry, we were parked in traffic and she was in the car in front of me and the navi asked if I wanted to switch profiles.

 

5. Distracted driver. I was driving through a parking lot about 10mph looking for a store and it kept complaining to keep my eyes on the road.

6. Tired driver. Unsure if this was because I had a hat on or have a beard or what, one time I started off and was two minutes into the drive when the car kept telling me to take a break w/ a little coffee cup over and over until I had to stop and restart the car.

7. There is a lot of wind noise around the windows especially in the rear.

8. The doors chirp when you close them quickly. Apparently this is the by product of the new type of seals they use. It is intermittent and depends on how hard you close the door.

 

Navigation

I have the 11.6. Get a glass touch screen protector for it. They have several on amazon, but for tablet PCs. You can find them w/o pre-cut holes. Any 11.6 will fit just fine.

 

The My Subaru app and StarLink stuff are pretty worthless IMO as it is basically an owners manual.

 

Other than that I honestly have no real gripes. I don't use apple or android auto. I tried android auto and the screen was so small. I didn't see the point when you have built in navigation and everything else integrates such as phone/text/contacts etc..

 

I had automatic maps turned on, but they didn't updated so I had to download the map update online and manually update. FYI when you turn on your car it doesn't detect the update. You have to go into the software settings and choose to update and select your usb drive.

 

Actually, one gripe. Many of the "car" settings can only be modified with the engine running and the car not moving. Wtf? If you are driving they are grayed out. It would be nice to be able to adjust them with ACC/ON and w/o the engine running.

 

Transmission

Yea, it is a CVT. It is ok. It had decent acceleration and response for what it is. My only grip is transition from R to D. It takes WAY too long and sometimes slams in on me because I start to accelerate before it decided to "shift" into a forward gear. So now I wait about 6 seconds before going instead of the usual 2.

 

Engine

Time will tell. For what it is, it has some acceleration to it. Again not a race car, but will move. Hopefully this engine last me 100K like my current one. I wish I could do an oil catch line but all the lines are these hard plastic anti tamper things wrapped every which way around the engine making it really hard to add a catch can.

 

 

 

Cool features

1. Driver Recognition is pretty awesome. It sets your seats to where you want and should automatically load things like hvac settings, phone, radio, etc...

2. Smart cruise control is sweet. Keeps you in the lane and keeps an appropriate following distance.

3. If they worked well I would say collision avoidance and lane assist. Good ideas, but still need work.

4. Headlights that turn with you

5. Audio system seems pretty nice. I wish they would have hid the sub better instead of putting it off center in the package tray area.

 

 

 

I know it seems mostly negative. I will update if I find anything else. So far to me it seems like it is a car, it will drive, it has some annoyances, I am 50/50 on it after owning 2 other subarus. Definitely buy the 10 year warranty! Would I buy it again, probably b/c all cars are going this way. Flame suit on.

 

 

 

 

 

One random note on the tire situation:

I am a bit sad at this fact bc we thought it was a faulty tire. Subaru corporate said call Yokohama. What? That is Subaru's job IMO. Yokohama said if THEY determine it to be a faulty tire (fat chance) they will replace it, but your car has to sit at the dealer while the tire is mailed to them to be checked. They will either mail you a new tire or your old one back. I was just amazed at how a car with < 200 miles on it Subaru wouldn't do anything about tire noise. Eventually Subaru offered to replace it, but their stance is once you drive it off the lot it is your problem. My stance is if I discover a problem within the first 500 miles they should fix it.

Edited July 26, 2020 by bms231

I’m sorry, I don’t do impressions, my training is in psychiatry. (Sorry, had to)

 

A very good and thoughtful review. I agree with many of your observations, it’s like driving a video game. I wouldn’t call myself a spirited driver and I appreciate many of the nannies, and after 3k miles haven’t had an improper activation. For me the lane centering often feels like it’s tugging the car to the right, but when I let go of wheel it steers fine....

Any chance you guys know if the traction/ stability control can be turned completely off so it can "drift" in the snow or is it still somewhat active in the background?

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Any chance you guys know if the traction/ stability control can be turned completely off so it can "drift" in the snow or is it still somewhat active in the background?

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

I am going to say yes bc you can turn off a setting called vehicle dynamic control.. once you do you get an annoying warning light but u can turn it off.

updated 7/26

Wow! Sounds like you are extremely unhappy with the car. Not to be disrespectful, but maybe you should have looked closely at it before you bought it to see all the paint defects and taken it out for a long test drive...then you could have bought something else. I wish you luck. BTW, just went to check the trunk lip on my 2020 turbo XT...it is perfect. Mine was delivered in Sept. of 2019. Edited July 28, 2020 by Famduke

I guess I am just old (only 38), but I feel trapped by the 2020 and that it dictates how I drive vs being able to go out and have a fun spirited drive in my 08. Btw, my life is technology.

 

1. I have disabled vehicle dynamic control. I have put a piece of black tape over the huge orange light that doesn't dim at night telling you that VDC is off. Why did I disable it? I visited relatives who live on top of a mountain. Going up was perfectly fine. Coming down I was alternative between brakes and paddle shifting to use tranny braking so I didn't overhead the rotors. I came into a sharp left turn about 30mph and was decelerating with my brakes when all of a sudden "bzzzzzzzzzzz" the abs kicked in. Wtf?! I feel it actually attributed to more loss of control than being helpful as I was about 3ft from the end of a mountain cliff. I didn't appreciate it at all and there was absolutely no reason for it to kick in.

 

2. Collision avoidance is a joke. Situation #1: Same cliff someone slowed down to make a left. I started to steer to the right to go around them and pass by their rear probably within 3 feet as one normally does. Bzzzz bang bing lights brakes. So in this case it was "i am going to cause you to collide b/c I won't let you steer around this guy." Situation #2: U-haul truck comes into my lane and cuts me off. Absolutely nothing from the system. Truck was maaaaaaybe 3ft from my bumper. The system is more of an annoyance than a help.

 

Annoyances

 

2. Lane assist is way overly sensitive. If you turn it off, you get a GIANT and I mean GIANT orange MIL light on your tach. Your choices are to have annoying flashing lights and beeping when you want to drive spiritedly and hug the inside of turns, or turn it off and have a big orange MIL. I put tape over the MIL.

3. Collision avoidance. I drive pretty aggressively. I have had it activate on me twice. Once when I went around a corner into the sun. No cars were on the road in front of me or oncoming. It was purely because of the sun. Second at low speed (< 35mph) I was stopping close to someone and it took over control and pulsed my brakes.

5. Distracted driver. I was driving through a parking lot about 10mph looking for a store and it kept complaining to keep my eyes on the road.

6. Tired driver. Unsure if this was because I had a hat on or have a beard or what, one time I started off and was two minutes into the drive when the car kept telling me to take a break w/ a little coffee cup over and over until I had to stop and restart the car.

 

I had a 2020 Legacy rental and put 250 miles on it. The 3 or 4 times warnings popped up while I was diving. I was annoyed on the 1st one, but the warnings were right and I was wrong. It could be that it is confused by odd situation or isn't reading your face properly, but you might want objectively look at your driving. At least sounds like you are driving too aggressive for collision to be activating semi regularly.

 

BT just leave it on or remove your wife from the system if you are constant turning your BT on and off.

 

0w20 oil and start/stop, you should have known about those before buying it.

 

Flaws should have been inspected before delivery. Some of those 'flaws', just seem like how Subaru manufacturers the car. If you can wait, it is often better to buy the later models of a generation, because Subaru will fix many of the bugs and easy known issues, through the production cycle.

 

Many manufacturers started using soy based wiring around 2000, there is a chance your 2008 had it, it seems like my 2012 does according to what I have read on the internet. Good luck trying to find a new car without it. I think it is overblown.

Edited July 27, 2020 by dgoodhue

Any chance you guys know if the traction/ stability control can be turned completely off so it can "drift" in the snow or is it still somewhat active in the background?

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

FYI u turn it off, huge orange light, then turns back on with next start. awful.

Wow! Sounds like you are extremely unhappy with the car. Not to be disrespectful, but maybe you should have looked closely at it before you bought it to see all the paint defects and taken it out for a long test drive...then you could have bought something else. I wish you luck. BTW, just went to check the trunk lip on my 2020 turbo XT...it is perfect. Mine was delivered in Sept. of 2019.

 

 

yea what you said is completely illogical. what were they going to do... put the car up on a lift for me? 2 of 3 "defects" are under the car. a bad alignment and unbalanced wheel was on my new car, not the one that was test driven. as far as the features, what am I going to take a car I don't own and try to get in an accident with it to see if the collision avoidance system works? sorry I didn't have access to a mountain on my test drive? everything was gone over with a fine tooth comb and all items addressed except when i got to a place with 12 8ft long dual led strip lights (my garage) I noticed flaws in the paint. i know there are more folks out there like me and I am trying to share what it is like going from an 08 to a 2020. thanks to federal mandates, unless you have 200K to drop on a ferarri, you are going to get these annoyances in the name of safety. nothing can be done about that other than to pick the least of all evils.

Edited July 31, 2020 by bms231