It’s been a long run but the Subaru Legacy has reached the end of the line. The last of the once-popular sedans has rolled off the assembly line at the Subaru plant in Indiana, a victim of the ongoing market shift from sedans and coupes to SUVs and CUVs. Headlight.News has the story.
The very first Subaru Legacy built in Indiana and the last.
Subaru this week ended production of the Legacy, the once-popular sedan that, for many years, was the brand’s best-known offering.
But Legacy fell victim to a trend it helped put into motion when a raised and ruggedized version, dubbed the Legacy Outback, was introduced in 1994. Since then, Subaru has mirrored the broader industry shift, focusing on SUVs and CUVs while demand for sedans and coupes has steadily diminished.
Production ended on Thursday at the plant now known as Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. The Lafayette, Indiana factory originally was part of a joint venture with Isuzu that ended back in 2002. It will continue rolling out a mix of Subaru utility vehicles going forward.
Legacy’s long legacy
Put into production on September 11, 1989, Legacy was the first model Subaru built at its new U.S. assembly plant in Lafayette, Indiana. (The factory was a joint venture with Isuzu which started out building its own pickup.)
Subaru’s sedan was specifically designed for the American market and was followed by a wagon and then, for the 1995 model year, the Legacy Outback crossover. Backed by a marketing campaign starring Australian actor Paul Hogan – best known for his role in the film series, “Crocodile Dundee, the crossover quickly beat Subaru’s expectations and helped spawn a surge in demand for SUVs and CUVs.
Until recently, the Outback was based off the same architecture, and shared basic design cues, with the sedan. But the two were split off with the latest iteration of the crossover and that effective spelled the end for the original Legacy four-door in an era when sedans are becoming little more than an afterthought for most U.S. buyers.
A “bittersweet moment”
The latest Outback no longer shares its underpinnings with the Legacy sedan.
Over the past 36 years, the Indiana plant has produced seven generations of Legacy with total sales of roughly 1.4 million vehicles. In 1990, R.L. Polk declared Legacy the best-selling four-wheel-drive sedan in the U.S.
But demand started falling off the cliff as the new millennium began. Just two decades ago Subaru still was selling more than 80,000 Legacies a year in the year – but sales began to tumble sharply after hitting 84,442 in 2006. U.S. demand plunged 23% last year, according to Subaru data, to just 19,591.
In April 2024, Subaru confirmed it would pull the plug. And on September 18, 2025, the last Legacy, a Marentite Gray Limited trim package, rolled down the Indiana line.
“This is a bittersweet moment for our company and our associates,” Scott Brand, COO of Subaru of Indiana Automotive, said in a statement. “While an important chapter in our history has been brought to a close, we’re already turning the page and starting a new one.”
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The line keeps turning
The Lafayette plant will continue producing the Outback, Ascent and the Impreza, shown here.
While this marks the end of a legacy, so to speak, it’s anything but over for Subaru and the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant.
For its part, Isuzu produced several different models in Lafayette, including the Rodeo SUV and a Honda-badged version, the original Passport. But the smaller automaker pulled out of the American market in 2008 due to fast-declining sales. That left Subaru scrambling for a while – it even teamed up with Toyota to produce Camry sedans there between 2007 and 2016.
But the plant is kept busy these days with demand running at near-record levels. Subaru sold 437,030 vehicles in the U.S. during the first eight months of 2025, down by 168 vehicles. The automaker said last month it still expects to beat last year’s total.
With the new U.S.-Japan trade deal placing 15% tariffs on auto imports, the Lafayette plant is more important than ever for the automaker. With Legacy gone, the factory will realign production of three other Subaru models, the Ascent, Impreza and Outback.
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