The Subaru Legacy's appeal has grown as news came about a "JNCAP Five Star Award". The acronym there stands for Japan New Car Assessment Program. It's annually held by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the National Agency for Automotive Safety and Vicitim's Aid. It's basically a parallel to the Euro NCAP.

The five star award is usually given to the car that performs best in terms of safety performance. A segment from the test even includes an assessment of how safe are the pedestrian's legs after a collision.

Here's how the Legacy scored:

Full-wrap frontal collision test: Driver's seat - Level 5 (highest rating)／Passenger's seat - Level 5 (highest rating)

Offset frontal collision test: Driver's seat - Level 5 (highest rating)／Rear seat - Level 4

Side collision test: Driver's seat - Level 5 (highest rating)

Neck injury protection for rear-end collision performance test: Driver's seat - Level 4 (highest rating)／Passenger's seat - Level 4 (highest rating)

Pedestrian head protection performance tests: Level 5 (highest rating)

Pedestrian legs protection performance tests: Level 4 (highest rating)

This is not the first time a Legacy delights the JNCAP officials. In '09/'10 it was proved to be the best Grand Prix safety car. 2 years before that, the Impreza held the same title. Also, in 2009, the Subaru Forester and Exiga were crowned "Ecvellent Cars"

So then, the Legacy is proving itself to be quite a character. Rigid enough to hold on to its paint work yet kind the fragile bones of the pedestrians. Not to mention all the clever gizmos inside that prevent it from crashing in the first place. And don't worry about the weight of the thing. We are pretty sure that at the very least, the 2.5-liter boxer engine under the hood provides more than enough oomph.

Subaru Legacy Tourer (2012)

Source: Subaru