2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5i

My BRZ was in the dealer for some warranty service regarding the door seal so I got a rental from the dealership, a 2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5i.

The car is styled in an any car style. As opposed to the older Subaru's which were more distinguished if also more polarizing. Gone is the aviator style grill.

I cannot speak to the headlights on this car as I did not drive it at night. Hopefully they are good, and I do like that the housing has the LED lighting around the edge.

As usual with Subaru it has quite a decent glass house and none of the bunker design language that has become so common now. There are minor amounts of rear end lift but not a lot.

The car chimes at you when you first get in. The blinker sound is kind of annoying in its prominence.

Steering is ultra light. About 220 degrees of input required from stop for 90 degree turns. Even 90 degree turns at 20 to 25 mph require steering wheel rotation of 180 degrees. No feel from steering wheel. Not much feel from seat. Rather isolating. Aside from lack of feel no complaints.

Suspension well damped. No feeling of understeer on normal driving.

Accelerates quietly and smoothly. Gains pace well and perhaps more quickly than expected, not saying super fast, but quicker up to speed limit than small throttle inputs ordinarily deliver in other vehicles.

I was surprised to see how well this handled one of my favorite triple compression on ramps. I was able to enter at a respectable pace (close to what I enter with in my BRZ). I had to shed a few mph more than my BRZ but was still within 5 mph of what I normally hit the final apex with and I suspect I could have accelerated out of it quite well if (as is often the case on this ramp) there had not been a significantly slower motorist ahead of me. I used manual mode and downshifted to 3. The engine braking was good. This alone has probably impressed me most about the car. I had traction control off and no real understeer to fight.

Driving position not as low as I'd like but not so high as to be uncomfortable. Steering wheel telescopes and height adjusts. Power driver seat is up to eight way adjustable.

Rear seating space is ample.

Touch points in terms of dash and trim are pleasant. It uses a soft rubber as the main material across the dash. The rest is hard plastics.

Rear cargo space is ample for a sedan.

The rear seats fold down to allow  pass through which greatly increases cargo space.

The seats allow for up to a 60/40 split.

Regarding the transmission there is not an insignificant amount of CVT noise. Not a lot but you'll know it is there. No real engine or exhaust noise worth mentioning.

The CVT likes 1500 to 2000 RPM. Hits 3500 RPM when semi pushed. Has manual mode with paddles that rotate with steering wheel. When demanded of it you can rev out to 5900 rpm at which point there is some engine noise.

A feature I find neat is that you can use the paddles while in D to shift, and for my purposes downshift for engine braking, and then the transmission eventually returns to normal D operations with no additional user input.
Also, the steering wheel buttons are useful though this wheel has so many I would say it is cluttered.

A multifunction display in instrument cluster usefully give instantaneous mpg or digital speedometer.

Dual zone climate control comes standard. Though the awesome rainbow display is compliments of my circular polarizing filter. My wife and I enjoy this greatly.
The infotainment system is easily usable and the interface and Bluetooth are friendly to use.

Roughly 37.5 miles on 1.492 gallons of gas. Car computer says I averaged 25.2 mpg. Granted I was not doing much highway driving and was being more aggressive with throttle than I likely would be day to day for the sake of testing. Fuelly shows a 26.6 average MPG for the 2016 as reported by owners.
Brakes are progressive though soft pedal feel and not a lot of feedback. Engine braking surprisingly decent for a CVT.

Unlike a lot of the rental cars I have reviewed recently this one is not built for people who hate driving but is too isolating to be an adult enthusiast sedan. I would love to see a GT or Spec.B version with manual transmission as that would do great in terms of sizing for more usability and with a bit more road feel and a much more connected steering wheel. It feels like the underlying dynamics are there but just under a thick quilt so you cannot really feel them.

Basically if Subaru made this car with the same interior features and over dimensions but with the Subaru WRX drive train, suspension, and manual transmission I would own one in a heartbeat. The underlying fundamentals are there but not explored.