See Every Photo of the 2020 Subaru Legacy

Stronger bones also make for better noise cancellation. To the Legacy's stronger base, Subaru has added thicker window glass (sound-insulated on the front windows and windshield), more robust door seals, and numerous aerodynamic tweaks for various exterior trim components to further quell road and wind noise.

Subaru claims that, between the beefier structure and other measures, the 2020 Legacy is three decibels more hushed at highway speeds than its predecessor.

If not for its newly available 11.6-inch vertically oriented touchscreen display, the Legacy's interior would look about as un-new as the exterior.

The materials are said to be nicer, and the detailing is more upscale, but boy, that screen steals the show.

There are reconfigurable tiles for on-screen menu shortcuts, so owners can lay out the screen's functions to their liking, and air-conditioning functions are relegated to the bottom of the screen.

Users also can split the screen into two, displaying two sets of information simultaneously, one above the other.

In an un-subtle dig at some competitors that have introduced new touchscreens that lack physical knobs for the volume and tuning functions—manipulating those functions using touch-sensitive controls is usually annoying at best, frustrating at worst—Subaru notes that its 11.6-inch screen is flanked by actual volume and tuning knobs.

The dashboard-dominating display is standard on the Premium, Sport, and Limited models; on the range-topping Touring, it adds navigation (nav is optional on the other trims with the 11.6-inch display).

The base Legacy doesn't get the big screen; instead, it has two 7.0-inch displays stacked on top of one another, with one handling infotainment functions and the other reading out climate-control info.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone-mirroring integration is standard across the lineup.

Subaru's schtick of late, besides its nearly lineup-wide standard all-wheel drive and placing dogs prominently in its commercials, is safety.

The Legacy has as standard the company's EyeSight camera-based active-safety suite, which includes automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and new this year, a self-steering lane-keep system that uses steering inputs to keep the sedan from wandering out of its lane.

There also is a new camera-based driver facial-recognition feature, which can pick up on whether the driver is distracted or fatigued and warn him or her via a visual and audio alert.

It's optional on the Legacy Limited and standard on the Limited XT and Touring XT models.

In terms of passive safety, Subaru says that the new Legacy's lower center of gravity and suspension development make for more agile handling. After all, it's better to not lean on eight airbags, automated emergency braking, and such if you the driver can avoid the accident with quick reactions and a stable, sharp-handling car.

Backing up that allegedly improved handling are an updated 2.5-liter flat-four and a new turbocharged 2.4-liter flat-four shared with the larger Ascent three-row SUV.

The 2.5-liter is essentially carried over from the last Legacy, yet some 90 percent of its components are new; it makes 182 horsepower and pairs with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).

Subaru installs the 2.5-liter engine in the base, Premium, Sport, and Limited trim levels.