Let me tell you, when it became clear that the 2015 Subaru WRX photos circulating around the net were real, my first reaction was to chuckle and shake my head (that, and saying to myself, “oh, Subaru…” in a South Park “oh, Butters…” kind of way). I had the same reaction when Subaru presented its LA Auto Show Legacy Concept earlier this week.
Why, you ask? Well, more or less for the same reasons, as in regards to the WRX, this year’s impressive NY Auto Show sports concept remains freshly imprinted in my mind, while in the second case, because I imagined how the production Legacy would look like (Josh Byrnes did more than that).
To be fair, Subaru isn’t the only automaker presenting over-the-top, and sometimes, even cool looking studies, supposedly previewing production cars only to heavily disappoint when the time comes to introduce these models in dealerships. We’ve seen this scenario play out numerous times in the past and will continue to do so in the future, but for a company like Subaru that tends to think differently in many other areas, one expects more, and not more of the same in this department.
And yes, I do understand that Subaru was never a brand of the likes of Alfa Romeo or even Fiat when it came to design, with the Japanese carmaker mostly treading between outright quirky and unreservedly boring, but some of its latest concepts received very positive reactions, and it’s a shame that it never really followed through.
In other words, when Subaru states that the Legacy concept “provides a look at the styling cues for future Legacy models”, to see what it really means, all you have to do is check out its recent prototypes that promised the same and compare them to the production cars they ended up inspiring.
As always, we’re open to your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below the virtual jump.
Concepts and production cars shown below include the WRX, Impreza and BRZ concept. You could say that the BRZ study is the only one that came close to the production car.
By John Halas
PHOTO GALLERY
SUBARU LEGACY CONCEPT
