I'm disappointed. Whilst I've always thought of Legacy / Outback as being the most underrated cars in their segment, I did have a feeling that they're just a touch too conservative despite the obvious benefits of such a strategy.

Plain and simple: this facelift is a rather inconsistent approach on FHI's part in solidifying the brand's NDL (New Design Language). Core to which is the new 3 piece aero-motif grill. Did Subaru's management once again baulk at the criticism of an all too necessary brand differentiation strategy manifested in some quirky styling? Same thing happened with Impreza Bug-eyes. The car looked infinitely better in the tin and had such a cool, oddball persona that it was an instant hit with real scoob afficionados. Then they brought out that truly horrid facelift when all they had to do was adjust the dimensions and shape of the light clusters, reduce the size of the rally-style foglamps and give the car a more distinctive relationship between the upper and lower grills. So, Impreza 2 facelift 2 was born and it looked terrible in my opinion. The third facelift goes a long way to re-addressing the Impreza's identity crisis but it's just not cohesive aft of the A-pillar. The rear lights remain overdone too...

So, it appears that Subaru can't stick to their stylistic guns and this attractive but altogether pragmatic Legacy is yet another testament to a brilliant, off-beat, unconventionally outstanding vehicle that somehow just can't let it's true colours show on the outside. Subarus are different and they ought to advertise the fact through their styling as well.

I'm quite sure that the new aero-motif grill would've lent itself well to the Legacy shape even if in toned-down guise.