The Subaru Legacy is a mid-size car built by Japanese automobile manufacturer Subaru since 1989. Part of the original design goals for the Legacy model was to provide Subaru a vehicle in which they could compete in the lucrative North American midsize market against competitors Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima. Higher performance variants of the Legacy are offered as competitive alternatives to compact executive cars such as the Audi A4, Alfa Romeo 159 and BMW 3 Series.