Once the preferred transport of hacky-sackkicking New Agers, Subarus have dawned upon a new age of their own.

Consider the 2005 Legacy. The wheelbase and track have been increased not only to improve the midsize car’s ride, but its handling and interior space as well. The Subaru’s engine now also sits farther down, lowering the car’s center of gravity for reduced lean in tight curves. Similarly, redesigns of both front and rear suspensions further benefit handling while at the same time increasing the Legacy’s level of passenger comfort. Added to that, the American-built car’s greater use of aluminum and high-strength steel has yielded up a chassis structure with improved overall stiffness.

However, the most apparent difference in the new Legacy lies with its styling, which, while still rendered oddball by a paragonshaped grille, looks far less targeted at trustfunded Berkeley undergrads majoring in Tibetan throat-chanting than it once did. Couple these traits with the most sublime interior that Subaru has ever offered and you have a comfortable, quicksilver-swift car built for what the industry calls its European sport sedan and wagon intenders.

The 2005 Legacy lineup consists of a naturally aspirated 2.5i and turbocharged 2.5 GT lines, each with a sedan and wagon available in both standard and high-trim Limited models. These cars, which share their platforms with the more SUV-like Subaru Outback, use the same horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine tuned to generate 168- and 250-horsepower respectively. Subaru mates the engines with either a manual or a five-speed automatic transmission equipped with a manual shift gate and shift buttons mounted on the steering wheel. All Legacy models have Subaru’s “Symmetrical” all-wheel drive system (which, according to company literature, achieves a unique dynamic balance by means of the car’s near-horizontal transmission of power from its longitudinally-mounted boxer engine to its rear differential), as well as antilock brakes, front-side airbags, and head-protecting curtain side airbags.

The test car was a top-of-the-line 2.5 GT Limited wagon, identifiable as such by its 17 inch alloy wheels and functional, intercooleraspirating air-scoop. The turbo GT wagons start at $31,000, and this one’s slate-blue paint job offered a contrast to the taupe color of its perforated leather seating for five. Up front, the Subaru’s heatable forward buckets faced a leather-wrapped wheel and smartly styled electroluminescent dashboard outfitted with clear and logical instrumentation. In the rear, excellent thigh support offsets the somewhat limited headroom.

The interior felt refined and commodious, with lots of visibility and legroom all around. The Legacy’s tailgate offered a low lift-over and ample cargo area once the wagon’s 60/40-split rear seats folded down to form a platform as nearly horizontal as that promised by the “symmetrical” flow of its power delivery.

If that last observation sounds as if Subaru’s trying to sell its public on the New Age notion that it’s got its automotive chakras properly lined up, it must be onto something. For no matter what your major, driving the Legacy provides lessons in poetry as well as physics.