Junkyard Find: 1997 Subaru Legacy AWD Sedan
Living in Denver, I see tremendous quantities of old Subarus in local wrecking yards. Subarus after about 1985 don’t make it into this series ( unless they’re XTs or SVXs or 4WD Justys), but the Legacy 4WD sedan is quite rare even by Denver standards so I made an exception for this car.
This one has a key, which means it probably came from an insurance company auction rather than a city tow yard.
Just barely over 100,000 miles on the clock.
By 1997, all Legacies sold in the United States had all-wheel-drive, but this was still special enough to warrant these “AWD” badges.
By this point, the Outback wagon (still bearing Legacy badging) was so much more popular than the Legacy sedan in the United States that most of us forgot that you could even get this thing in a three-box car shape.
These engines remain legendary (get it?) for blowing head gaskets.
Sold in Denver, crushed in Denver.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I'm a bit surprised no one has contested this yet, but in my experience AWD Legacy sedans are far from rare, on the streets or in the junkyards. The Outback SUS may have been noteworthy, but in any case its nice to see this article. On Legacys and Outbacks: In the US, you could buy a Legacy either in sedan or wagon styles up through 2008 IIRC. The Outback really only refers to the slightly lifted suspension and "off-road" style like the two tone paint and different bumper/foglights.
I had no idea these were uncommon in some places. In PA these things were as common as the wagon was, and still are. Most are now driven by teenagers who can't afford insurance on a WRX and/or were given dad's old work car.