Latest Legacy rendition takes Subie doin'.(Subaru Baja)(Evaluation)

Subaru doesn't ``do'' demographics... that's straight from the com- pany's mouthpiece.

That being the case, it was hard for us to pin down just where Subaru is aiming the latest rendition of the Legacy-a car-based trucklet named Baja. We heard much ado about surfers and the like, but even the surfer crowd is an ambiguous fold. And, with Subaru looking for 24,000 Baja buyers annually, it may need to hang more than 10.

Subaru will find buyers, even if they're mostly the same up-streamers who adore Subie's stable of practical all-wheelers; even if it has to snag them with something that isn't all that new.

With Baja, Subaru is doing something it already did with the Brat, the cute two-seater with a truck bed that Subaru sold here from 1977 to 1987. Baja is a car with much of the utility of a small truck.

But don't call Baja a Brat-and don't think Baja buyers will look for the mere cute factor. The Baja is heavier and more powerful than the Brat, and lacks its rear-facing ``fighting chair'' seats in the cargo bed. Outback-like cladding that extends to the plastic fuel flap contrasts the featherweight character of the Brat and, instead has the 3485-pound Baja looking strong and bulky. Add a set of 16-inch Bridgestone Potenzas dressing prominent alloys, raised suspension that affords 7.3 inches of clearance, a set of optional roof-mounted rally lights and a pair of chrome rally bars and Subaru has possibly concocted a legitimate pickup-beater for rally enthusiasts.

Yet the Baja shouldn't be considered a pure truck, even though Subaru-issued comparison data often pit it as the cream of the pickup category and NHTSA dubs it a light truck for CAFE purposes.

For starters, Subaru has employed all of the goodness of its all-wheel-drive stability to the Baja's unibody frame, making its rack-and-pinion power-assisted steering sturdy and confident on roads where the majority of pickups would be bouncy and jittery and would struggle to maintain control. Pothole-ridden freeways and choppy dirt roads are managed with a grace unknown to the truck crowd. It doesn't hurt that the Baja has four-wheel independent suspension and spreads weight a bit more liberally over the rear axle than your traditional pickup.