Ride, handling make this Legacy likeable

Wieck Media Services

The 2008 Subaru Legacy 3.0 R Limited comes with a three-liter, six-cylinder engine with maximum 245 horsepower mated to a five-speed automatic transmission that can be shifted manually.

The styling was somewhere north of vanilla. I had no problems with that. The car was an easy driver. The women loved it. That made the 2008 Subaru Legacy 3.0 R Limited sedan all right with me.

There also was the matter of the left hand, swollen and painful from whatever it was that bit me on a recent trip to New Orleans. The doctors said the bite caused cellulitis. They gave me antibiotics. The medicine worked. The hand was healing. But some pain lingered. I needed a car easily controlled with one hand on the steering wheel. The mid-size Legacy 3.0 R Limited sedan, the top car in the six-member Legacy line, filled the bill nicely. It has a base price of $31,295 and as tested with leather seats, premium sound system and power sunroof was $31,940.

My longtime friend Michelle Dawson, a real estate agent, volunteered to drive a bit to give my left hand "a rest." "Wow!" Michelle exclaimed after a few miles behind the wheel. "Great car! It really does handle easily. It's so smooth!"

A few days earlier, an underground steam pipe had exploded in midtown Manhattan. We have two daughters living and working in New York.

"How's your hand?" my wife, Mary Anne, asked immediately after hearing the news. "Much better," I said. "Swelling's down." "Good," said Mary Anne. "We've got to drive to New York to check on the girls."

The "girls," who are strong, independent, gainfully employed women, already had called to tell us they were OK. But try explaining that to a mother on a mission. We loaded the Legacy 3.0 R Limited with emergency supplies — bottled water, that sort of thing — and drove to New York.

Mary Anne slept while I drove. That told me something. She does not sleep easily in cars, especially sports cars with hard rides. "I like this car," she said.

The Legacy 3.0 R Limited sedan has a dual-mode suspension that can be adjusted for a harder, sporty ride or for a softer, limousine-like "comfort" ride. I switched the suspension dial on the floor-mounted console to "comfort."

My youngest daughter, Kafi Drexel, is a medical reporter for a New York TV station. "Let me drive us to my apartment," she said. I accepted the short-term chauffeuring. "Hey, Dad," she said after driving the Legacy 3.0 R Limited. "I like this car. This is the kind of car I want."

Before I left New York, I received a text message from longtime friend Lydia Bendersky, an official with the Organization of American States in Washington. A car nut in need of a new car, she wanted to pick my brain. I showed up in her driveway with the Legacy 3.0 R Limited.

"You know that I only like convertibles," Lydia said. Then she did what she always does: "Keys, please."

Lydia drove us to and from a Washington restaurant. "Again, what kind of car is this?" Lydia asked as we were returning from the restaurant. I told her. "Hmm," said Lydia, "I really like this car. Does it come as a convertible?"