Watered Down

Subaru is notorious for building fast and fun cars compared to its Japanese rivals.  Surprisingly the new Legacy seems to be a departure from this concept, instead opting for a more mainstream approach.  It’s bigger and heavier compared to the outgoing model, and its styling looks fairly conservative, especially for Subaru standards.  Compared to similar offerings from Nissan, Toyota, and Honda the Legacy still has a lot to offer, especially living in the Northwest, but I’d hoped engineers would have taken the design further.

My biggest gripe about the Legacy is its size.  Having driven the outgoing model I never had issues with the proportions and actually found it to be convenient considering I work downtown.  Additionally, the design of the body seems at odds with one another.  For instance the front and the back don’t seem to mesh, and the rear lights look like they came off a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero.  What do you think?  Am I being too critical, or do you think the design is more suited to the average American car buyer?