1998 Subaru Legacy Outback

Vehicle Tested: 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback Limited with Dual Moonroofs

Base Price of Test Vehicle: $27,090 (includes destination charge)

Options in Test Vehicle: None

Price of Vehicle as Tested: $27,090 (includes destination charge)

A Snow-Cat for the Family

by Christian J. Wardlaw
Photos by Greg Anderson

Denver was getting dumped on. My wife explained through the LAX pay phone attached to my ear that it had been snowing all day. Fortunately, a couple of Subaru Legacy Outbacks were waiting in Colorado to transport our group home safely from the airport. It wasn’t ground transportation we were worried about. Rather, it was getting the United Airlines 757 landed safely.        The flight left Los Angeles a bit late, and so it arrived in Denver correspondingly tardy. By midnight we’d located our cars in DIA’s confusing concrete jungle of a parking garage. Three of our five hardy travelers hit the road in a 1995 Outback, a toned-down version of the raised suspension 1998 model I was driving. John Davis, our senior media specialist, was accompanying me to my home for the night. Interstate 25 was closed at Monument Pass, blocking the way to his residence in Colorado Springs.        As soon as we drove the Legacy Outback Limited out of the parking garage and into the snowstorm, it became apparent that the trip home was going to take some time. Despite earnest attempts by plow trucks to clear the roadway of snow, drifts were piling up quickly. John needed cigarettes and the Outback needed gas, so we stopped at the Conoco station near the toll plaza just as the Outback’s leather seats were getting toasty thanks to the standard seat heaters.

       The entrance to the gas station was a mess. Deep snow left by plows clogged the driveway, but the trusty Subaru stepped up to the challenge and easily powered its way toward a pump. With a gutsy 2.5-liter horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine under the hood, and a state-of-the-art all-wheel drive system directing the gold-accented alloy wheels to churn through the snow, the Outback is to El Nino what Superman is to Lex Luthor.

The only other vehicle at the gas station was an ancient Land Cruiser, rusted and faded but still running. To replace the old Toyota with a new model, the owner would have to shell out more than $40,000. Or he could buy a Legacy Outback Limited, loaded with air conditioning, anti-lock brakes, power windows, power door locks, cruise control, alloy wheels, weatherband radio, heated seats, heated exterior mirrors, heated wipers, CD player with premium sound, and leather for thousands less. Of course, then he wouldn’t be able to go as far off-road, since the Outback is essentially a tall car rather than a heavy-duty truck. Our test car came equipped with dual glass moonroofs: one in front that tilts up, and one over the rear seats that slides rearward. Kids will love the safari-style rear portal, but one of our editors thought the arrangement useless. Others liked it, because it illuminated the dark gray interior nicely during the day, helping to eliminate some of the claustrophobia inherent inside other Outbacks.

       The Outback Limited is not our favorite model, and it’s not because they’ll build as many as people want despite the name. We prefer the more basic unit equipped with the cold weather package. Our test car ran more than $27,000, which is a tad expensive for a mid-size station wagon with lousy cupholders, tiny radio controls, a rock-hard center console armrest, plenty of cheap interior plastic, and no remote keyless entry. Our ultimate Outback runs a more reasonable $24,500, equipped with premium sound, a five-speed manual transmission, and cloth seats that won’t freeze or scald your buns, depending on climate and season.

       But on this night, we cared not which Outback we had. Davis and I drove through the curtain of snow on warm seats toward warm beds, and the roads worsened the further we traveled from suburban Denver. The main drag running from the bedroom community of Parker to I-225 is wide and straight, but the Subaru never topped 40 mph. Despite our slow speeds, Davis decided the Outback was the best car on the market for the typical Colorado family because of its amazing ability to blast through slush and the occasional drift with a healthy load of belongings occupying the 36.5 cubic foot cargo bay (which expands to 69.9 cubic feet if the kiddies are left home). But he wasn’t driving. What he didn’t realize is that the Outback makes sense for any climate. On dry pavement, this car is a hoot to toss around. You sit up tall like in a traditional sport-ute, but with the Outback’s low center of gravity and relatively light curb weight, it behaves like a sports sedan in turns. Responsive handling and a personable growl of an engine note provide this car with a fun-to-drive nature under any road conditions. All we really want is more power, because the current Outback is a bit sluggish once underway.

       As we closed in on Parker, the only car on the road as the clock neared 1 a.m., I noticed that the Outback is sprouting a few gray hairs. Based on a 1995 redesign, the Outback is rapidly aging in terms of interior ergonomics. The power window and lock buttons are canted oddly perpendicular to the driver’s natural reach. Peripheral controls are hidden behind the steering wheel. Climate and radio controls are too small and should be reversed so that the radio is in the upper section of the center stack. Storage room for doo-dads is limited. The cupholders slide out of the dash and completely block access to the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning controls when deployed. The stereo isn’t exactly easy to reach under these conditions either. Despite the fact that rear passengers would still have plenty of legroom, the front seats don’t slide back far enough to provide optimum comfort.

On the plus side, the uplevel stereo system of the Limited sounds great (it costs over $1,000 to add these components to other Legacy models – try Best Buy instead), visibility is outstanding, rear seat room is excellent, and there’s plenty of cargo space for everybody’s stuff. Add over-the-top exterior styling that somehow grows on you after awhile, exceptional poor weather driveability, and entertaining road manners, and the recipe still spells success. Best of all, you feel intelligent for driving it.        Parker was snowed under. Davis, the Outback, and I tracked into the unspoiled frozen precipitation that covered the streets of my subdivision. When I arrived at my house, there was a foot of snow in the driveway. Using the Outback as a makeshift plow, I backed up and down the driveway to create a path so that my wife could get out of the garage and into the office the next morning. Not once did the Subaru so much as hint at getting stuck. What about our companions in the 1995 Outback? Made it home to more rural areas of Colorado than Parker that night with no problem, despite lower ground clearance and worn tires. What great all-weather cars.

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