Subaru Legacy Says Goodbye After 36 Years, SUVs Win Again

Pour one out for the Subaru Legacy, as after 36 years in the company’s North American lineup, the sedan will cease production in the spring of 2025, marking the end of its run after that model year.

Subaru cited “market shifts from passenger cars to SUVs and crossover,” as well as its own transition to electrified vehicles, as the reasons for its decision to discontinue the Legacy. Indeed, sales of the sedan haven’t been great.

Read: 2025 Subaru Legacy And Outback Largely Hold The Line On Pricing

Subaru of America sold 4,398 Legacys in the first quarter of 2024, down 13.1 percent as compared to the same period a year earlier, and made it the third worst-selling vehicle in the lineup, behind the struggling Solterra and the niche BRZ.

As you may have surmised, that means that the supposedly mass-market, comfortable, practical mid-size sedan, was outsold by even the performance-focused, enthusiast-oriented WRX, of which Subaru sold 4,404 in Q1.

That doesn’t mean that the Legacy won’t be missed, though. Since 1989, when the car was first introduced, Subaru has sold more than 1.3 million examples. More than 94 percent of them are still on the road today, suggesting that the people who have them, really love them.

The Legacy also played an important part in Subaru’s history, as the first model the automaker ever built in the U.S. Ever since its debut, every Legacy sold in America was built at Subaru of Indiana in Lafayette. Fortunately for the workers there, the plant also makes the Outback, the Ascent, and the Crosstrek.

The Legacy’s impact extends beyond its history, as the wagon version would eventually become the basis for the Subaru Outback, the brand’s second-most popular vehicle in the first quarter of 2024.

The final 2025 Subaru Legacy will start arriving at dealerships this spring. Prices are unchanged from the 2024 model year and start at $24,895.