Subaru has long positioned the Legacy against category standards like the Accord and Camry. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice spec.B is arguably the sportiest of the bunch. Could that and its price make it worth jumping on?
It seems no one was jumping on yesterday’s 2011 Buick LaCrosse CXL. What with its post-factory vinyl roof and add-on chrome trim that car telegraphed a vision of automotive luxury from a bygone era that few of us were willing to revisit. A $13,800 asking price sealed the Buick’s fate, culminating in an 85 percent No Dice loss.
When you go out to a fancy dining establishment, you may be presented with a little tidbit between courses, typically referred to as a palate cleanser. Its purpose is to act as a transition between two different flavor profiles and thus to prepare your taste buds for the pleasures to come.
I’m sorry that I don’t have an automotive equivalent to a palate scrubbing between yesterday’s AARP-modded Buick and today’s laudably stock 2007 Subaru Legacy GT spec.B sedan. I hope the transition isn’t too jarring to your mental palate.
Unless you live someplace like Colorado or Vermont, you likely don’t see all that many Legacys around. The competing Accords, Camrys, and ubiquitous mid-size crossovers are most likely a far more common sight. One Legacy model that’s a particular white whale is the GT spec.B, Subaru’s bigger brother to the Impreza-based STi.
The spec.B was a special edition of the already warm 2.5GT. The hotter model was first offered as a 500-unit run in 2006 and then was given expanded availability in ’07.
The model rocks a 243 horsepower/241 lb-ft of torque turbocharged pancake four and this one channels that power through a six-speed stick on to Subaru’s Symmetrical AWD system. That includes a Torsen LSD in the back. Bilstein struts and model-specific 18-inch alloys round out the spec.B’s... er, specs. For its era, those are some pretty impressive specs.
This one presently calls Canada home and is claimed in the ad to be completely stock save for some aftermarket HID headlamps and the black paint on the wheels. The rest of the car looks pretty tidy for not having much done to it since leaving the factory 14-years back. According to the ad, it’s done 241,178 kilometers since then. That may seem like a lot road to have covered, but when you convert that into good old U.S.A. miles, that works out to only about 149,861 on the odo.
Both the exterior and interior seem to have held up well for all those kilometers. The paint still pops and the car carries a new windscreen so you don’t have to worry about looking at the world through a pepper pot. Inside, the cloth and leather upholstery looks to be completely intact and without much appreciable wear to either material. Both the wheel and shifter still seem up to the task as well. Out in back, the boot looks just as clean.
Speaking of clean, that describes both the title and engine bay. The seller makes no mention of how the car runs or drives, but then, they don’t claim there to be anything wrong with it either. They do note that “If you are reading this listing the car is still for sale.”
Since the car is for sale, we’ll need to weigh in on its price. The asking is CAD$7,500 and with a little bit of math — which is all that I am capable of — that works out to about $6,010 U.S.
What do you think, is this spec.B worth that as it sits? Or, does that price not fit within your specs?
You decide!
Vancouver BC, Canada, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.