End of the adventure...

With a tint of sadness, I bid goodbye to the loaned car today. It has been a hectic week and with some good adventure. Well, I'll say that for those who are in the market looking for a reasonably priced large Japanese sedan, they should seriously check the Legacy out.

It is not a car that can be found easily in a international car rental fleet so one may not be familiar with it. It's a pity because it's good for touring with a large trunk for your luggage, and none of your passengers can complain about being bundled up in a squashy rear seat.

But do take the Legacy for test drive if you are out shopping for your own car here. Maybe you can use it for your own cross-country motoring trip!

Last date with Legacy

As i'm writing this post, i'm nearing the end of my date with the Legacy.

Legacy had went dating with my family, my cousins, my friends, my colleagues and lastly my suppliers.

She nevers fails to get attentions whenever we are in the carpark!
Others will look and look and look at us...
Either the Legacy is attractive or i'm damn ugly..

in 30mins time i will leave company and head to Toa payoh to return the car.

So Sad... ;-(

I love the Legacy! Maybe later on will try begging them to extend the dateline to... maybe another 1 week?

Haiz.. so fast time flies.. 1 week.. and its all over.. Back to reallity.. No more sweet dreams..
No more waking up and diving into a spacious, powerful monster to work...
No more adrenalin pumping drives...


Tmr back to my Impreza. At least its still a Subaru...

:-)

Day 7 of 7 - The Last Night

Time flies when you are best enjoying something that has a time-span. It's the last night with Legacy. Pity its a week-day and I am too tired after work to take the Legacy for a longer drive on this cool-weather night.

That blogger (no pun intended) beat me to it at describing the Legacy's paddle-shifters,so I shan't be draggy at it in my blog entry. I agree with Bot Rocs to a large extent anyway.

Nothing can beat the real deal of pedal-clutch and gear shifter stick when it comes to manual drive. If you are in doubt, go try the WRX-manual and burn some rubber! To master the precision and timing required to reap the full-potential of a manual-drive car, you need practice and more practice.

While you are at it, the adrenaline and sense of achievement wil make it all worthwhile. And for your information, you should shift your gear down before the wide turn to match the speed of the turn, and then accelerate lightly into the turn to ensure maximum lateral tyre grip on the road. Not during the turn.

I did however, notice that the use of Legacy's manual mode sure did not unleash the fuel-regulator into the wild. The rpm does not race towards higher readings for rapid shifting with the paddles. And hence a killjoy. But to be fair, the Legacy's acceleration is already wonderful in its full-automatic drive mode. So that's enjoyable enough in my opinion.

Now, the rest of driver's controls in the Legacy are very good. Oh, except the horn which is hard to depress with your fingers. The turn-signal and windscreen wipers levers are excellent. Just a light push and they go into position, and does it so quietly and softly. The turn knobs for headlights/fog lamps are equally fantastic to operate. And then there is the button for releasing the boot's hatch. It's an electronic switch actually (as opposed to cable-pull type), which require you to press and hold until the boot "pops". Same electronic switches are used for the air-conditioning and audio system controls in the Legacy. Cool enough I'd say unless you yearn for those futuristic touch-screen type controls.

I think the concept Legacy showcased in 2010 has these touch-screen controls but likely to be too costly for incorporating into its production-version.

I will have to return the Legacy tomorrow, but I am still looking forward to the day for another reason. For I am getting my "re-newed" Forester XT from the painters tomorrow! I miss that crazy monster :'S

A MPV Replacement?

I met a client today for lunch. He was surprised that I had a new car. No, I said, it’s just a loan set of wheels, and I’ll be returning it tomorrow. Whilst in the car I tried to show off the Legacy: it’s double-tiered large glove compartment, the light on the vanity mirrors, bottle holder on each of the doors, the ample legroom in the rear seat, and the humongous boot.

He was not impressed with most of them. Huh?? No? Well, he said the glove compartment, the vanity light, bottle holders and huge boot were all available in his 1.4L VW with TDI. Oh… maybe this is a European car design style then.

But he did like the large legroom in the backseat. In a smaller car, if one fits in a baby seat, there would not be much room left for the other passengers in the rear, but it will not be so for this car. Ah, at last, this is one up for the Legacy. So families with babies, you may not need to get a dowdy MPV; you can consider this car instead!

Going Manual

The Legacy can be driven in manual mode. It has an upshift and a downshift gear paddle on the sides of the steering wheel.

Whilst in a large carpark with no traffic, I decided to switch to manual mid-drive to test it out. I upshifted from 2^nd gear to 3^rd gear after accelerating on the straight road, then downshifted before the road hump. Then I tried to park the car. Well that’s when I had to get out of manual mode and go into the regular Reverse mode of an auto car.

What I noticed too was that unlike a regular manual shift car, one cannot change gear mid-way with the steering wheel turned more than 90-degrees, especially if one drives with the pull and push method during turns. Those horn-like gear paddles on the inside of the steering wheel would be anywhere but at the default horizontal position on the steering wheel when the wheel is not turned.

Thus far in real life, the only times I overrode the auto gear selection were during twists and turns on the slopes to reduce my speed on these tricky roads, and not to negotiate on simple straight roads. So if I turn the wheel too much, this gear shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel may not work for me.

Day 6 of 7 - Fuel Consumption

The low-fuel warning lamp came on again and so I had to visit the petrol kiosk this morning. I chose SHELL 95R (as opposed to SPC 98R) this time round. For the previous $60 (before discount) tank of SPC 98R, I managed to travel 300kms before the warning lamp came on. At S$2.09 per litre, this works out Legacy's fuel consumption to be 10.45km per litre of fuel then. This is only an estimate, as any car's fuel consumption will be influenced by traffic conditions and driving habits.

Now, I am driving on the tank of SHELL 95R fuel. No noticable difference in Legacy's performance so I guess 95R fuel will do just fine for the Legacy. The manufacturer's fuel specification recommendation for my Forester XT is 98R though hence I have no choice.

The Legacy provides a digital "estimated kilometers left on remaining of fuel" measurement gauge at the centre of the dash board. The information could be useful in curbing one's bad driving habits and planning for when to refuel. A word of caution though, the low-fuel indicator came on when it reported 90kms remaining. I didn't want to prove Legacy wrong and so I went to refuel after just 5 kms anyway.

I will have to return the Legacy soon. Just 1 or 2 more blog entries for you to stay tuned to....cheers :D

Day 7 in a Legacy

Today i had delibrately called up a friend who is working near my place to pop over to meet me for lunch.

He is driving a Lancer GLS.

He came over and we went off in the Legacy.

During the journey, i psychoed him to change his car and join in the Subaru family.

Ditch Mitsubishi and join Subaru are the words i kept on chanting to him.

Explained all the functions of the car and obviously he was drooling...

I saw the eager in his eyes.

i popped the question to him : Want to test drive?

He replied : Sure!

He drove back to my workplace and reluctantly came out of the car.

He mentioned to me he can only dream of this Power, Luxury and Comfort in his dreams only as he cannot afford the Legacy.

He will definitely get a Legacy if he can manage to afford one.

Also commented that to sit in a Legacy is really a King's treatment given by Subaru.

Day 6 - Monday Blues

Drove to work, arrived same timing with my Operations Director.
He asked me you changed car again?
Replied : No la no extra $ la... i won in a contest and Subaru Sponsored this monster to me for a week.

He looked around the car.
Asked me : Powerful?
Replied : Yes, very! Open the door, peep in.
He saw the paddle shift first thing!
He said : Paddle shift! very sporty!
I passed him the key and he went for a test drive.

Commented the below :
Quiet cabin
Nice white themed dashboard
Cabin was Cushion wrapped - I never noticed that!
Nice Titanium HairLined type of interior trims which is something special
Sporty yet Luxurious exterior
Spacious boot

In the end, he mentioned : Its a brand i will consider the next time i change my car.

Sat a Day on Saturday

Early morning 7.35am, sat into the Comfortable Pilot Seat.
Drove wife and her colleague to work then myself to work.

Requested my bangladeshi worker to wash my car and they bargained for a ride after the wash. I gained, why not?

Car ----> Washed (bling bling under the sun) ;-)

Drove the workers for lunch and back to work.
They were "wowing" the whole journey..! (ithink they were comparing to their usual seat in the lorry type of "open top luxury" ride. hahaha..!)

Second half of the day was spent delivering Dumplings to relatives all over Singapore.
Finally got to rest at 11+pm.

Looking at the car, the car could have been alittle bit more "Bling" if it is equipped with 18' rims like those BMWs....

Nowadays auto headlights are the "in" thing, hope Legacy will have it soon.

Something that i discovered when i suddenly drove very fast then slow down then very fast again.
Its the sounds system.
It amazingly follows the speed of the car! The faster you go, the louder it gets!

Lights... Not Your Usual Suspects

Other than the mandatory headlights, and the standard cabin lights, the Legacy has a couple of very thoughtful additional lighting. For one, both the front passenger and driver has a vanity light on the mirror behind the visor. It has a plastic flap to cover the light when the visor is used as such to block the sun. Now there's no excuse not to remove unsightly remnants of one's previous meals from one's teeth prior to arriving at the next appointment!

Anyone who drove the car at night would have appreciated the red rim of light surrounding the ignition switch. Years ago before luminous stickers were more common-placed, I actually had some luminous paint on paper special made to stick around the ignition switch so that I could see that keyhole in the dark.

And if you ever looked at the ground before you stepped out of the car at night, you would also noticed that there's light coming from the bottom of the door panels on the front doors when the doors are opened. This is the first time I've ever come across such a thoughtful design in a car!

Day 5 of 7 - A Sun-Day

Is a bright sunny sunday...or at least for a large part of it. I am quite accustomed to driving the Legacy now and in fact I had to keep reminding myself and my family that I didn't owned it and we shouldn't forget about the Forester XT which is in the process of getting a fresh coat of paint. And so, I started my Sunday morning admiring the Legacy yet again.

Door Frame - Love it or Hate it

I should have been surprised, but I guess I didn't paid attention initially. The Legacy has door frames! Well, one of the unique feature of Subaru cars have been its frameless windows. With the Outback and Tribecca as the only exceptions, I think. Its very cool to have frameless windows especially when you swing the door open with the window down....like an Italian-style sports car. But it will not be cool if you swing the door open with the window up, hit something and end up chipping or worse breaking the glass. I also get the chill down my spine when the glass window of my Forester XT hits my body and vibrates, when I am getting in or out of the car. Other disadvantages of having frameless window are 1) water seepage during pressurized water hosing of car after the door rubber seal hardens overtime and 2) spoilage of the window tint film at the edges after prolonged friction between the window and door rubber seal. Anyway, the Legacy will not have such problems.

Big Wing Mirrors - Love it or Hate it Too

The Legacy has large wing mirrors. One may hate it because the large wing mirrors may be perceived as unsightly or to be causing wind drag. Yet another may love it as it provides very good coverage of blind spot. Personnally, I am okay with the large wing mirrors on the Legacy. Its wing mirrors can be neatly tucked it with a touch of the control button when not in use, and they proved to be very useful when maneuvering the Legacy in reverse and around rim-unfriendly kerbs. Moveover, Legacy's wing mirrors come with turn indicators which would come on when locking and unlocking the car.

Big Boot - You will definitely Love It!

The Legacy has a HUGE boot too! If one had already chose a sedan over a hatchback, there shouldn't a reason to dislike a huge boot as long as it doesn't create an eyesore on the car's overall exterior styling. The creators of this Legacy did it well, in my opinion. If I were to own the Legacy, I would be keen to utilise the extra space to install a subwoofer in there! Even then there will still be enough space to accomodate one 29-32" luggage case. I am 1.93m tall and I could fit quite comfortably in the boot. Serious! See photo above :p

Exhaust and Tyres - Potential for Enhancements

There seems to be another additional exhaust outlet pre-cut in the Legacy's bumper (for common use with Legacy 2.5GT perhaps?) for a twin-pipe exhaust upgrade or dummy exhaust tail-end installation. The tyres' width seemed too narrow in comparison to the size of Legacy's boot. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, an increase in rim and tyre width should be first considered when planning for upgrades.

Wow...I drove some 150kms today, on very familiar routes as well as never before routes. Included in the "never before routes" are some really windy downhill ones, but the Legacy gave me the confidence to guide it through the route relaxingly, and keeping my feet off its brakes most of the time. It felt as if the Legacy glided through the turns and even chicanes like a graceful ballet dancer. There were no fierce resistance felt at its steering wheel....that's pretty amazing I must say. The weekend is almost over now and only a couple more days with Legacy left. Do stick around with me for the rest of my adventure with Legacy, thank you.

Acrobatic feats

On the first day I had already noticed that there were a bunch of buttons on the driver's side. One of them had an icon of a car on a slope. I guessed it had something to do with stopping the car on a slope. But I did not dare to try it out before checking the manual. This day, whilst there's no one behind me in the carpark exit, I decided to give it a go. Nice.. it held it's position. This would be a boon to new drivers who often have difficulty stopping mid-way on a slope especially with a car load of passengers.

And talking about carparks, normally I'd prefer to reverse into a parking lot as it's easier to get out later. But for the fun of it, I decided to do head-ins with this behemoth car. With a couple of turns I can usually park the car nicely within a regular-sized parking lot without scratching the car (nor the ego :-)

This being a raining day, most people only got out of the house in the late evening when the skies cleared. However, it added to the congestion of cars double and even triple parked alongside the proper parking lots. The nimble Legacy had no problems skirting through the crowded carpark despite its size. But you know what could beat that? Having my black Optimus Prime transform into an autobot and fly over the obstructions! ;-)

Day 4 of 7

It's a rainy Saturday. I decided to sleep in longer while the Legacy is enjoying its "shower" at the carpark roof-top. Thanks to my 39x zoom camera, I managed to peep at Legacy taking its bath from my room's window.

It's a good thing I decided against going out for a drive as I read on STOMP that there are flash floods again! It the Legacy gets caught in a flood, I 脱裤 also cannot pay for the damages. Hopefully the rain will stop by the afternoon.

While waiting for Legacy to warm up its engine, I decided to examine the rear passenger seat's centre drinks console again. On the 2nd day, I proudly directly my rear passenger to pull out the centre console so that she needn't held on to her big cup of drink. She was pleased until she mimicked my resting of elbow on the driver's arm rest and received a shock when the console collapsed forward! Hint: See video clip. Nothing looked out-of-ordinary when I examined the console today. I guess its just a design imperfection by not having a locking feature to prevent the support from dislodging too easily.

I like Legacy's storage compartments for the driver and front passenger though. These compartments are nicely hidden when closed, and are for very practical uses when opened. For example, the drink holders could double-up as a mobile phone holder. I also discovered that the compartment just beneath the audio player has a very deep bottom, so much so that my whole palm can fit into it. I reckon it can be used to house many CDs or 4 single CD plastic cases.

My itinerary today was passenger pick-up from the West side, dinner at East Coast Park, movie at Kallang Leisure and some scenic-driving while heading back to the West side. The nice cool weather kept the Legacy performing at its best....acceleration was very smooth and responsive, at each light tap of the feet. The Legacy is now resting, and waiting for its next bath. And I going to get my bath and rest now too. I shall end today's blog entry with the very nice photo I took earlier tonight.

Day 3 : On-going Fever Day

Woke up at 11+am with a heavy and spinning head. Temperature measuring 38.6.
Quickly bathed then send mum and 2 kids to the market for some vegetables, fish and meat for dinner preparation.

Elder son hopped into the Legacy Saying : Dad, the door entrance is very big!
Actually i did not noticed that as i have not taken the back seat yet.

Dropped them at the market and i went for the carpark.
I sneaked into the back seat. I was treated as if i am a VIP entering a Palace! The door entrance is so spacious! Btw, i'm a big size guy weighing at 98kg.

The second thing i would like to check for is the Sound system.
All along i suspected there is a subwoofer hidden somewhere and i'm determined to find it!
Looked underneath all the seats.
Looked at the 4 doors.
Looked into the boot.
Looked into the spare tyre compartment.
Then questioned myself : Where in the hell is the woofer that made the music sounds with an extra oomph?

Btw, i'm still looking for it! If you happen to know, please let me know.

Day 3 of 7 - Ending A Tired Week Quietly

It has been a tired week at work, and I just wanted to end it with a nice quiet evening. This was still some time before my dinner appointment so I decided to demonstrate to you how quietly the Legacy comes to life, "stretches" itself like a cat as it warms up quickly before calming itself down to a soft and steady purr, prepares itself to launch into action. See video clip for the demonstration. Notice how the bonnet lifts itself up gently and silently....nice!

Next, I began my peaceful drive towards Upper Bukit Timah for dinner. There should be busy traffic on a Friday night, but thankfully the traffic on my route was pretty smooth. I guess the Legacy's serene interior enviroment contributed greatly to my relaxing drive this evening. I hate to admit it, and I never thought I would actually appreciate a quiet car that the Legacy is. My cars have always been loud, both at the engine bay and at the exhaust's end. Even though I had upgraded my I.C.E in the Forester XT, its sound quality is compromised by the noisy car in the end. The sound system in the Legacy is pretty good but I am not certain if it is a Mcintosh system like the ones found in its predecessor model. The current Legacy's sound system produces bass that is a little overstretched though. But at least the Legacy's very good sound-proofing allows me to appreciate the music better.

So how quiet, is quiet in the Legacy? On my first day with Legacy, I was frustrated by the distinct sounds produced by some hard object rocking about in the plastic holder located in the front passenger door panel while driving. I tried to reach for the plastic holder from the driver's seat but was unable to owing to the Legacy's spacious interior. Subsequently, I found a pen in the plastic holder that was causing the noises. I have since hidden the pen beneathe the car mat located at the front passenger's compartment. All I hear now is the engine's rhythmic "purr" only. There are no creaking or rattling noise all around the interior of car even when driving over road humps. Nope...no hissing sounds heard from the suspension either. This is an important feature as I will give the driver confidence in driving the car.

Its finally the weekend. I shall have more time to spend with Legacy then. And to blog of course. Till then....have a great weekend and cheers....

Discoveries to date...

One of the things that caught my eye was the numbers and the fuel gauge icon next to the clock display at the center of the dashboard. I guessed that it showed the remaining distance one could go based on the available fuel in the tank. When I refilled, the figure goes up. After RTM today, my suspicion was confirmed. However, it also said that it can show the fuel efficiency since the last time the trip meter was reset. After playing around with some buttons, I think I got it to reset, but the display changed to that for fuel efficiency rather than remaining distance to go from existing fuel in the tank. More RTM needed.

Various people commented that the car had a really high boot. Well, coming from an existing SUV driver, it ain't no big deal. But I began to compare the height of this car with other sedans. I think it seemed higher when compared with smaller cars, but if you put it beside a BMW or Camry, they are of similar height.

This gentle giant also has excellent lumbar support for the driver which should make it a very good car for touring. However, you will need to use a very heavy foot to navigate the intense and fast moving traffic in the North-South Highway should you decide to bring it up north. And this could then take away the fun from a relaxing long drive.

Do you know that the drink holder divider on the center console behind the gear shift can be removed to turn it into a big storage area? If I put my drink container on the driver side on the center console, the height of the bottle would obstruct my gear shifting. I have to put the container either on the front passenger's side on the center console, or put my container in the container mold on the driver side door.

And do you know that the glove compartment is so big that it actually has two tiers, with another separate section on the upper tier too so that smaller stuff do not roll around. Very cool!

Let's see what we'll find tomorrow...

Day 2 - Fever Day

Unluckily i was having a fever 38.9 + diarrhea.
Wife pestered me to fetch her to work in the Legacy.
(Even when i'm not feeling well she don't let go of the chance to sit in the Legacy! Thats how much she loves the car)
She loves the spacious legroom, the quietness of the cabin, the stability of the drive.

After fetching wife to work, i visited the Doctor. 2days MC.

As i'm driving an Impreza 1.5R, the difference was great.
The Legacy is so much Luxurious!
The dials lights up the moment the key was turned. Nice white theme.
The nice short rumble of the engine everytime i start the car is just like a dessert served each time i turn the key.

My elder son likes to disturb me by sitting on the back seat floor.
Whenever i ask him to sit properly, he will tell me the floor enough space!

Ytd after fetching wife from work, mum mentioned she wanted to go Giant at IMM.
Off we go.
Bought some groceries and mum placed the items in the boot.
Mum commented : The boot is so spacious! I believe it can fit in 3adults!

Day 2 Here We Go...

Today I found that there's indeed a steering wheel tilt lever. After lifting it higher, exiting and entering the driver's seat became easier.

Everyone who sat in the car today was impressed with its spaciousness. One can almost dance in the backseat, and put two stowaways in the boot!

However, the cargo net design for front seats' rear pocket was a letdown. One only expects to find this behind the seats of a coach, not an executive saloon car. Small items can easily slip through the holes in the netting. Maybe the designers thought the elastic of such a cargo net may allow one to put bigger items behind the seats?

Day 2 of 7

In 2 hours time I will be off-work, and for Legacy to "start work"! Today's challenge is to ferry an aged parent to-and-fro dinner between West and Central part of the island, while keeping her comfortable and her dinner within her for the trip :p

Update:
I just got back from the dinner outing. Our elder was all smiles and with shine in her eyes when we surprised her with the car pulled right up in front of her. She got into the car with ease as the Legacy's rear passenger seat was neither too low nor high (as in the case of my Forester XT) for her. The first feature of the Legacy that delighted her was its generous interior space. The Legacy offers more than adequate leg room and overhead clearance that are expected of a typical luxury sedan. She was also immediately impressed by the Legacy's quietness as we began the drive. However, she seemed to attribute the Legacy's quietness to its newness as she assumed I bought it new. Ever since the first time she sat in my Forester XT, she has been persuading me to send it for repairs as she thought my blaring exhaust, turbo's "psstt" sounds, and the occasional exhaust back-fire "pops" were symptions of a faulty car. And so she was disappointed when we told her that we will only be driving the Legacy for a week. She asked me to buy the Legacy but she did not ask again when I told her that I could buy buy 2 more Forester XTs to keep as spares instead. Anyway.....

Superb Road-Holding Capabilities of the Legacy
On my way to pick up my companions tonight, I tested the Legacy for its road-holding capabilities.....with and without its traction-control activated. Not surprisingly, the Legacy handled sharp bends with its AWD and traction-control turned on very well. Guess we all expect that from a standard Subaru. But what was surprising was that there really wasn't noticable difference with the traction-control turned off, when taking medium bends at 75 km/h and even hard turns at 50km/h. No screeching of the tyres or wild tilting of the car. When I inspected the rear tyres subsequently, I was even more surprised to discover that they were actually far from being brand new! They appeared quite worn in fact :S I was also disappointed to see that the rims were of size 16" only. My take is that the Legacy's road-holding can be further enhanced with broader rims and tyres.

Suspensions and Ride Comfort
I was very surprised that the Legacy offers a better ride comfort than my Forester XT with both on stock suspension. I am quite sure of this as I deliberately drove the Legacy on the extreme left lane along AYE, that had became rough due to the harsh punishment it receives from large lorries and buses on a daily basis. My Forester XT would have rattled traveling on that lane and my wrists would have felt the roughness of the road through the vibrating steering wheel. The Legacy on the other hand, did not produce similar symptoms.


On my journey back home, I stopped by SPC to refuel as the low-fuel warning light had already came on. I took over the car yesterday when its fuel guage reading was just below the half-tank mark. I might have travelled some 150km before the refuel, but I am not sure as I could only vaguely recall the odometer's initial reading. I have since refuel with S$60.00 (before discount)98R SPC petrol and resetted the trip meter. Although the Legacy had incorporated the "mileage per litre" measurement gauge, I could not make heads or tails out of its readings. Anyway, will update again on my estimation of the Legacy's fuel consumption. Till next time then......thanks for reading :)

First date with Legacy.

I had enxiously waited since last night to meet the Legacy.
Woke up at 7.30am, travelled from Boonlay to Toa payoh Subaru showroom.
Arrived at 9.45am.
Shortly awhile, saw a beautiful sexy babe.. i mean car... waiting at the front door.... entered excitedly... toured around the estate to familiar and get upclose and personal with Legacy...
All controls are nicely and conveniently placed.

I love the electrically controlled chair.
I love how the soundproofing was done. All exterior noise were cut off literally..!
I enjoyed the FM as thou the music were played from a CD!

Handling was superb!
Took corners with the Traction control turned on.
Bodyroll was hardly felt!

Dated with Legacy from T.Payoh showroom to NUH to have lunch with wife+colleagues at westcoast MacDonalds. Then to Jurong westHDB then to Jurong point then to Shell then to Work at 2.15pm.

Everybody loves Subaru...

Enjoyed every single secs in the car.
Its truelly Experience Beyond Words.

;-)

First Impressions

The much awaited day has come. I first spied it through the big glass walls of the showroom. Whew, my ride was going to be an elegant black sedan. Thank God it's not some bright red set of wheels. After going through the checklist and signing off on the loan form, I sat inside the driver's seat and fired up the engine. The dashboard lighted up like a plane's cockpit, and there were graduated white on the dials on the instrument board. The dashboard was black with brushed metal. It gives a very futuristic and masculine feel. With the embedded volume, cruise control, and I believe the other two pointed controls may be manual gear shifts over-rides on the steering wheel, I feel as though I was seated within an Autobot.

The first thing I did was to try to adjust the seat, groping around fruitlessly below the front of the seat. Though the seat adjustment bar was visible on the front passenger's seat, I realized that the driver's seat was possibly more sophisticated. Sure enough, there were some levers on the side of the driver's seat. Initially I wondered if they would work if the ignition was off. (They did.)

I tried to adjust the mirrors. I got to expand the closed up side mirrors, but couldn't figure out how to make further adjustments to the side mirrors from the single dial that could turn to the left and right. I tried to look for the car's manual in the glove compartment but it was not there. I went back to the showroom and asked for it. As it was past 5pm, many people had left the office and it could not be found. After maybe 10-15 min, they finally found one for me. That will be the night reading material for the next few days. Meanwhile I asked the staff to teach me how to use some of the sophisticated parking light and various functions on the driver's side which were new to me. (Yes, I was also shown how the mirror's joystick worked.)

Next was a quick drive to buy some dinner. During the short drive, I found that the steering wheel was too low and as I turned the steering wheel, my hands knocked onto my knees. The top part of the steering wheel also obscured the top part of the readings from the dashboard. I will need to fix that in the carpark. At the carpark, I tried to find something that showed where I could adjust the height of the steering wheel. But in my preliminary checks, I couldn't find anything on this. So I worked on another premise -- that I could change the seating height instead. It worked, but the seat adjustment also affected the seat back's incline. More tweaks were needed before it felt right.

After returning to the car with the food, I thought it'll be a good chance to see how the car could bring these takeaway meals back in a secure fashion without any additional car accessories (I used to add various hooks behind the front seats to hold such plastic bags).

Now there was a boot open button on the remote control, but it didn't seem to work. There was also another boot release button in the car. It too didn't seem to work either as I saw that the boot still seem to be closed. Then I started the engine, and pressed the button again. It opened.. I think.. as it still looked closed from the rear view mirror. I got out of the car to check. Yes, it was indeed opened, and there were convenient hooks on the inside of the boot near the lid for one to hook these packets of food too. Nice touch! Thus far this was only the second saloon car I had driven that came with these hooks, unlike the hooks-a-plenty of an SUV. When I reached home, I removed the key from the ignition, and tried both the boot release from the remote and the button inside the car. Both were unresponsive. Very strange. I will need to investigate this further tonight.

I look forward to getting to know this "Optimus Prime" more in the next days to come.

First Drive

My name is Paul, and I am one of the three winners to Motor Image's "1-Week Date with Subaru Legacy" facebook contest. I collected the car at the Toa Payoh showroom today, along with 4 colleagues.

First Surprise - Seating Capacity

We went there in 2 separate cabs, and returned in just one car (the Legacy) as planned. However, we were all pleasantly surprised that we could all fit into the legacy comfortably and with lots of room to spare still. Moreover, there were 2 tall adults among us - I am one of them and standing 1.93 meters tall.

Second Surprise - Not the GT

"Eh....boh turbo one ah..." exclaimed my surprised colleague. Well, I already knew this at the briefing held the day before.

Third Surprise - How to Drift?

So off we went in the Legacy, heading to Balestier for lunch. Along Balestier road, I had to perform a u-turn to get to the other side of the road. I was immediately surprised when my left hand reached out for the handbrake....it wasn't there! I made the u-turn nevertheless and I must say, the Legacy's turning radius is surprisely small despite its large body. Maybe that's why the handbrake wasn't incorporated? Well, I later discovered that the Legacy uses an electronic-parking brake system after I parked the car. And so our next thought....how to drift in the Legacy? Just kidding, I am not intending to find out.

I did more driving in the Legacy after work, and had a better look inside and outside of the car. At quick glance, the overall Legacy bears some resemblance to the current Camry. From a distance, its rear look a little like one of the older BMW 7 series. What it did not resemble was its predecessor which I kind of fancy actually. My ex-boss had one and I ever sat in it. The current Legacy seemed higher above ground but of course, still very much lower than my own Forester XT. The dash board and information dials are elegant. and very pleasing to the eyes. I thought I had turned on the headlights by accident but no, I did not. The dials are innocently illuminated even during the day. And check out the "spines" on the bonnet, which gives the Legacy its menacing yet cool style!

Fourth Surprise - Honk Honk

The Legacy's horn is excellently loud alright....when successfully activated that is. I was surprised (shock in fact) when I wasn't successful at activating the horn with my right thumb on 2 occasions tonight (thank goodness the brakes on Legacy are responsive). You see, I needed to rest my palm on a large part of the steering wheel's centre and push hard to be able to activate the horn. I guess the roads will be quieted for the next 1-week as the usual horn-trigger happy me is being "handicapped".

Fifth Surprise - Only Driver's Seat has Electronic Controls

I was complimenting Legacy's electronically-controlled seat to my girlfriend and had excitedly wanted her to experience the same in her seat next to me. She wasn't able to find the control knobs so I took her hand and guided it to when I thought the controls were. Surprise! I couldn't find them either! She kept exclaiming "same, same" (like in my Forester XT) and soon I realised why - the front passenger seat can only be adjusted manually, like my own car.

Well, that concludes my first day with Legacy. Do stay tuned for the rest of my adventures with Legacy.