Confessions of a Stock Legacy GT Owner

[JVranicar]

I found LegacyGT.com in 2007, not too long after I purchased my very slightly used 2006 LGT MT. This site has been my go-to resource for LGT ownership ever since.

 

Two weeks ago, after about 18 months of consideration, I decided to finally pull the trigger and purchase a new VW GTI. I went with a 2017 carbon steel gray 6-MT SE.

 

I normally keep cars for about five years. But I drove that awesome, stock LGT for nine years because it was the best car I ever owned. I suppose I decided to sell it only because I was attracted to the lure of new car technology, primarily when it comes to connectivity.

 

I've mostly been a lurker on this site, rarely chiming in or asking questions. But I came here probably five times per week to learn more about the good and bad of these excellent, well-built Subarus.

 

I want to share a few confessions from the perspective of a non-modded, stock LGT owner. Here goes:

 

1) Max Capacity, you are by far my favorite LGT.com poster. Thanks for all you do to help those who own these vehicles. You not only educated me on these cars, you did it in an entertaining way. If I lived on the east coast, I'd take you out for a drink to celebrate all did for me and all you do for LGT owners. You are the best.

 

2) I decided early on that I would not take my LGT to stage 1 or 2. That's because I read about so many problems those who did had with their turbos failing. But I did have my mechanic remove the banjo bolt filter. I would have never known to do so if I had not found this forum.

 

3) I often rolled my eyes at the majority of you who took these cars off the stock turbo grid only to have your turbos fail. I felt like a minority keeping my LGT completely stock and often wondered if doing so would lead to my car's ultimate demise based on the warnings I read on this site. But it never happened. I never had ANY mechanical issues with this non-modded vehicle. Not one. In the end, my stock LGT won. I feel like many of you who modify your turbo set-up on these cars lose. What I read on this forum every week helps to prove this out.

 

4) Lastly, I have to admit that while I really enjoy driving my new GTI, I miss the feel of the LGT. The GTI is fast and has plenty of go, but it doesn't have quite the same spirit that my stock LGT had. That says a lot about the 4th Gen LGTs considering I say this about a car that is 11 model years older than my new VW.

 

I sold my LGT last week at 105k miles. It was difficult to see it leave my driveway one last time. But I feel good about who I sold it to...a guy who now owns his seventh Subaru. This new owner works for a Goodyear Tire shop which means he'll take care of my favorite car of all time. He promises to keep me informed on how the car is doing. Hell, I might even buy it back from him some day.

 

We are now a one Subaru/one VW family as my wife owns a 2014 Forester. While I don't have much of a need to come to this site anymore, I will still visit here often because I love the sense of community that can be found here.

 

Good luck to all you remaining 4th Gen LGT owners. If you happen to own a stock model, speak up more to vouch for the fact that a LGT can be a great car even if God forbid, you decide you don't want to take it to Stage 1 or 2 or 3.

 

Sincerely,

 

JVranicar

[MTBwrench]

Stay stock stay happy! Well... besides the tune.

 

Edit: I will say though, you're only at 105k miles. Many of us modded guys are at 200+k miles. While I may agree that most of what you say about staying stock is right, I think it's really more of a "past stage 1 you really need to invest in quality components and effort, and work within safe limits" type of deal. You'll notice many of the guys running stage 3 power reliably(myself included) have spent quite a bit of money ensuring so, and aren't pushing our setups nearly as hard as they can be.

[Rhitter]

Stay stock stay happy! Well... besides the tune.

 

Edit: I will say though, you're only at 105k miles. Many of us modded guys are at 200+k miles. While I may agree that most of what you say about staying stock is right, I think it's really more of a "past stage 1 you really need to invest in quality components and effort, and work within safe limits" type of deal. You'll notice many of the guys running stage 3 power reliably(myself included) have spent quite a bit of money ensuring so, and aren't pushing our setups nearly as hard as they can be.

 

And they still break

 

Stage 1 (i.e. just a tune) is a huge improvement over stock. Power delivery feels much smoother. Problem is, I wanted more power.

[The 2Fiver]

It's a huge improvement over stock if you really convince yourself. I found that I kept asking myself if it was really that impressive. Sure, it hits full boost earlier and gets off the stock tune but stage 1 legacy is still a slug.

[jah77clash]

Damn, I was a smidgen too late texting you about this car, I'm in OP. You already had a verbal yes. I felt like I should have offered more than asking. You don't see them manual and unmodded.ever.

 

Also, it's a relief that you advocate leaving the engine alone. It's upsetting to see all the beat up Subarus in the used market. I was convinced they're just weak engines designed to fail but really it seems that people break them.

[shralp]

I remember driving away from Nate Wade Subaru in Salt Lake City in my '05 GT wagon 10 years ago after buying a one way ticket on Southwest Airlines to fly out and drive it back to Portland, OR. Coming from my recently sold '98 GT wagon, I remember 30 minutes into the drive declaring to myself, "oh my god this car has so much power why would I POSSIBLY want to modify it!?"

 

... And here I am 10 years later with a '05 GT Wagon Stage 3+ street legal but pretty much track only car with everything aft of the front seats ripped out

 

At least that '08 5 speed Outback I bought last summer allows me to try to not break my original declaration. Oh wait, I'm stage 2 AccessPort with and Cobb DP and UP. I swear this is all I'm gonna do though!!

[MTBwrench]

Says the guy asking about LGT brakes....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LatentWagen]

Thanks for your post, OP. Keeping a car stock is an exercise in restraint and patience! There are fewer and fewer people who walk that line. Maybe one day an unmodified '02 WRX or '05 LGT will be a sought after car, who knows?

 

I never had ANY mechanical issues with this non-modded vehicle. Not one. In the end, my stock LGT won. I feel like many of you who modify your turbo set-up on these cars lose. What I read on this forum every week helps to prove this out.

 

While I understand where you're coming from here, I think you may be missing half of the equation. To make a statement like that, you need to have owned and driven both stock and modified.

 

Most people who have done both, would agree that it's the bone stock setup that "loses" to put it as you did. Since you've been around you've probably read this stuff 100 times, but just in case you haven't: if you are looking for a better experience, get off the stock tune. Reliability will increase; so will power, mileage, and driving enjoyment. The car will be smoother, faster, and happier with a tune. Done right, stage 2 only makes things better. Pushing high boost levels will start to impact reliability, but you can make great power with a healthy stage 2 setup at low boost (I run my ~195k setup at 16PSI most of the time).

 

Once you've driven around at stage 2 for a while, switch back to bone stock and re-evaluate your thesis

[shralp]

I know MTBWrench, I'm hopeless . But seriously, having the '05 for a track toy is allowing me to keep this '08 much in the spirit that LatentWagon suggests. I actually planned to stay stg 1 just to get off the factory tune but after picking the car up from Cobb after the DP/UP install (both were horribly Ohio rusted/heat cycled into oblivion), they informed me that they had loaded their stg. 2 map. It's been so long since I'd been at stg2 I guess I forgot that's really all you need to dip a toe in Stg 2 waters. Trying to pat myself on the back restraint wise by choosing to "only" bump up to LGT brakes, mine were so salt hammered that I couldn't pass up a great price when a super clean rebuilt set showed up on here a few weeks back

[HAMMER DOWN]

IMO these cars reliability as more to do with the combination of proper maintains for driving conditions, environment and how the car is used/driven.

 

OP, I glad you shared you positive ownership of a car we all .

[BoozeRS05]

Great post. I've spent countless hours on this forum, saved countless dollars, and a huge thank you is well deserved to all the people who take part in it. This forum has been an extremely valuable resource to me for almost a decade now.

 

That said, my 3 modded turbo Subaru's have been rock solid reliable since owning them. I've had two original motor & turbo LegacyGTs, modded, each go over 162k miles and counting.