For those who aren’t aware, I have had quite a few cars over the years, 24 to be exact, and because of that, I have had the opportunity to experience different daily drivers over the years. Driving all these different cars has had me chasing what I would call the “perfect daily.” From drop top, to “big body” sedan, SUV, truck, hatchback, and wagons, I have had just about them all, and for the longest time, if you were to ask me what I thought was the perfect daily, I would say a Mercedes W211 E-Class, until the Legacy came along.
Last October, I had just moved to Alabama and was hunting for a new daily as I had sold the Accord, and I told myself that it HAD to be a wagon, and boy was I hung up on finding an S211 (wagon variant of the W211), but they were few and far between, and especially in the form I wanted. I had entertained getting a W211 again, but I wanted whatever I got to stay for a while, ideally forever. So I continued my search for a wagon that would hit the same note the W211 did. I looked at MK6 Sportwagens, B5.5 Passats, and even MK4 Jettas, but nothing was landing in the right price range, or the condition was not matching the price. So the hunt carried on!
Now I had this car in my saved listings but never even thought about it because even though it was really cool, it was just too much money for the car. That car was my 1994 Subaru Legacy JDM import. 154,xxx km, auto, stock as could be, but just too much money.
Then one day, the price dropped, and not just a few hundred or even a thousand, but $2,500. So I got on the phone with the guy and agreed to come look at it.
Owned by an older gentleman and his wife who had it as a backup mail car, and his wife had just left that job, so they decided to sell the car. I took the car up and down the road and gave it a good look around, and if you haven’t seen my car in person, it’s very nice. So of course, I agreed to buy it.
I proceeded to drive the car 10k miles over the 6 months for work and other adventures, and slowly I fell in love with the car, but it never hit like the W211 did. After a while, I couldn’t stand racking miles for work on a low mileage car and ended up getting my Civic. Then sadly, my love for it faded some, as I had just gotten the Rabbit as well, and it became the center of my attention until I made the move back to Minnesota.
After getting back to Minnesota, and having the Civic as my daily, I decided to mod the Legacy. I had already put the car on WRX struts, but the rake was killing me; it sagged in the rear just enough to look bad. I was going to get lowering springs up front to level it out, but sadly, the springs I was going to buy sold. Bummed, I continued my search when the guy selling the springs said he had some BC coilovers for sale. I asked how much, he told me $500, and while that was a good deal, it was more than I wanted to spend. So he said he had some no-name coils for super cheap, and I said deal! Tossed them in a few days later and fell back in love again; it made the car handle better and have the ride I was after.
After that, I had a blowout on the BRZ wheels, so I pulled them off and quickly decided to get new wheels. After some searching, I found the wheels of my dreams and scooped them up for a great deal! And boom, the car was looking just the way I had hoped, but the car still didn’t hit that note.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I had been getting the car ready to be the daily again as the Civic was being sold, and I was after something that would help the car in a major way. After lots of debate, I decided that seats would be a great upgrade as my seats would hurt my back after a while and were just kinda meh. I researched what would swap in from another car and what it would take to put an aftermarket seat in the car and landed on 08-14 WRX seats. So I hopped on Marketplace and started hunting, and found a set fairly quickly, but once again, out of my price range, but I still had the BRZ wheels! I offered him the trade, and lucky me, his car was on stands without wheels, so he agreed to the trade!
I have now been daily driving the Legacy for almost 2 weeks full-time since the Civic sold and almost a month with everything done, and it’s hitting that note; it’s finally as good as the W211 was, and with a sub, upgraded rear speakers, and a better radio, I truly believe this could be the “perfect daily.”
You might be asking, “What is that note?”
The answer is… to be honest, I’m not sure. Something about looks, how easy it is to drive, how well it handles, and how long I can drive it without wanting to sell it or junk it, but I’m not really certain, I just know when I know.
I now sit in the stage where I am unsure how I want to proceed with the car. I have talked and talked about doing a manual swap come winter, but I don’t daily manuals anymore as it can cause hip/back issues for me. So if I do manual swap it, it will become a true project, and I will once again be after a daily, starting this whole process over again. But if I leave it auto, it will forever hinder the full potential of the car in my eyes because it will never be as enjoyable as it would be manual.
So it has been about 2 months since I wrote this, and I have since picked up an LS400 for a daily, so that means the Legacy is going to be getting some more love soon!
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