The Final Subaru Legacy Has Just Rolled Off The Line – Here's Why It's Being Discontinued

Another sedan bites the dust. Earlier this month, the final Subaru Legacy rolled off the assembly line at the Subaru of Indiana factory, marking the end of the road for what was the brand's longest-running model. Though it was sold in many different global markets over the years, the Legacy was an especially important car for Subaru's growth in America. It was developed with the American market in mind, and in 1989, it would be the first Subaru built in America. 

But now, after seven generations and nearly 1.4 million US-built Legacies sold, Subaru has officially discontinued the car. The reason? A market shift away from sedans and toward SUVs and crossovers (CUVs) – no different than we've seen in recent years with Ford, General Motors, and others. Fortunately for Subaru, they've been well-positioned to handle that market shift with their fleet of popular, AWD-equipped CUVs.

We had some seat time in a turbocharged 2025 Legacy XT last fall, and found the car to be a generally pleasant, refined experience that stood out from the competition with its standard AWD system, but it was in no way a sport sedan or something to excite the senses. Just as Subaru's product planners had found, the Legacy just didn't offer many reasons for buyers to choose the sedan over the taller, roomier, and mechanically similar SUVs and crossovers in Subaru's lineup.

The Legacy wasn't always just a stable and safe sedan choice. There was a time, back in the 1990s and 2000s, when the Legacy, both in sedan and station wagon form, could come equipped with much of the same high-performance hardware found in the WRX and WRX STI. Many of the ultra-hot versions of the Legacy, like the rare S401 STI Version, were never sold in America, but we did get the rare Legacy 2.5GT spec. B in the mid-2000s, which was basically a WRX for grown-ups. 

Beyond that, the Legacy also played a pivotal role in Subaru's early motorsport and rally history. Back in the pre-WRX days of the early 1990s, the Legacy RS was Subaru's World Rally Championship weapon of choice. The lessons learned with the Legacy allowed Subaru to evolve into the blue and gold-wearing rally icon that it was later in the 1990s and into the 2000s.

You can't talk about the history and importance of the Subaru Legacy without mentioning the Subaru Outback. When the first Subaru Outback debuted back in 1995, the car was, at its core, a Legacy Station Wagon with some extra body cladding and a bit of extra ride height. The Outback would end up outlasting the normal Legacy Wagon, and though it became larger and more SUV-like over the years, it still wasn't hard to see the Outback's clear Legacy influence. Until now, that is.

With the Legacy now out of the picture, the fully redesigned 2026 Subaru Outback has shed all of its Legacy-inspired styling, taking on a new form that looks much more like an SUV than any sort of traditional station wagon. If you squint at the new Outback's side profile, there's still just a hint of wagon there, but it's now easier than ever to forget its humble station wagon roots.

The Legacy and the Legacy-based Outback may be gone, but the importance of this car to Subaru's history and evolution is undeniable. While it may not be terribly missed by those visiting Subaru showrooms, from the rally stage to the assembly lines and showrooms of America, Subaru would simply not be where it is today without the Legacy.