How do you think I feel, @
noodlenoggin ?! My wife has a WRX!
OK, no, seriously, I get it. And you know what, it's OK. Different vehicles are just different, to different folks.
I loved my '05 Legacy 2.5GT. I fell in love with it when I took it on a test drive in the summer of 2005, when my wife wanted me to get a 4-door vehicle in preparation for our first child, our then-still-baking-in-her-tummy daughter. I went to our dealership ostensibly with money-in-hand for an '05 WRX wagon, but took the 5MT LGT out for a spin. She was an early-make MY05, and had been the dealership's "Executive Demo" until then, having already 3K miles on her ODO. You know what? I didn't care, I took her home that very night.
I quickly started modifying her (I'm one of the OGs on LegacyGT.com, and among the first to get the vehicle ECUTek'ed), and I - as well as that little girl whose ride home from the hospital nursery took place in that very same vehicle - was heartbroken when I had to give her up. As luck would have it, a fellow enthusiast flew out from Utah to drive her home, and my daughter and I met him at the dealership, giving him a basket of parts and other goodies, and bid our fond farewell to that quick (she wasn't fast...besides, I had another car to really mess around with, at that time) and fun ride.
I went from that car to a '13 Tribeca.
I hated the Tribeca when we first got it. So why did I get it? Because we wanted something larger than the '09 Forester XT that my wife had at the time, so that we'd have more options for family trips, and also so that we could cram my daughter and her cousins (they were all young kids at the time) into the vehicle and do some fun stuff together.

When my daughter asked why we had to get rid of "Winky," her beloved '05 LGT, I told her that our lifestyle had changed - we'd come to a different place in our lives, and this larger vehicle was simply what fit, better, for the moment.
And you know what?
When it came time for me to turn in that Tribeca in 2016, I hated
letting it go. In the intervening three years, I'd fallen in love with it - not exactly madly head-over-heels, but rather, just that I really, really appreciated the utility of the vehicle, and the unflinching and trouble-free way it served us.
Three years later, leasing yet again another Subaru, I decided that I'd go with the '16 Outback 2.5i. I took the car for a bit of a test-drive, and decided that yes, it lacked punch, but I could live with that, especially if I packed her to the gills with all the electronic goodies that the Tribeca didn't have.
I never really bonded with the OB. I routinely bemoaned its lack of grunt, and even though it was completely trouble-free and shockingly good on fuel-economy, I still couldn't get over the fact the car felt just a little unsafe because it drove like it couldn't get out of its own way fast enough. That said, the onboard TomTom never guided me wrong. The 36 presets for my SiriusXM subscription meant I was never bored on even the longest solo interstate ride. Close to 9 inches of ground clearance (even closer to that with my winter tires) meant that I could literally blitz down the "improved roads" that led to various ranges and classes. There was more than enough room for 2 weeks' worth of my daughter's clothes and other supplies for summer camp, plus space to spare for my and the wife's luggage, too, for the weekend jaunt to drop the little one off at said camp. I certainly appreciated the vehicle's utility, but I could never truly get to "liking" it.
Fast forward to this November, where I stepped into the dealership looking to re-up on my lease with a '19 Outback 3.6R Touring.....
I totally thought that was what I'd wanted: just a bit more grunt to send the OB on its way, be it playing Frogger across the thoroughfare from our side-street on my daily commute or having a bit more gusto for two-lane passing and highway merging. I was sure of it.
But as with my chance meeting with the 5MT Legacy 2.5GT back in 2005, a chance test-drive of the Ascent, and here I am.
Do I love the car?
I won't deny that I like it, *_A LOT_*.
I'm not sure if I completely love it just yet. It's not love at first drive, like the turbo Legacy.
But I'm no longer jealous of my wife's WRX.
