Comfort

Within the 2005 Toyota Avalon’s true five-passenger interior you’ll find large and supportive front seats designed to accommodate a wide range of body sizes and shapes. Longer seat tracks and a tilt/telescope steering column allow taller drivers to stretch out and shorter drivers to sit a safe distance from the airbag. One curious oversight is the lack of power-adjustable accelerator and brake pedals, even as an option.

Our Avalon Limited’s power driver and front passenger seats were covered in soft perforated leather and included seat heaters to take the chill off on cold mornings and fans in the seat bottom and back to keep you cool on hot afternoons. Other welcome touches include power lumbar support and an electric bottom cushion length adjustment to help drivers find the ideal level of thigh support.

The subdued noise levels of our Limited test car’s cabin provided the kind of comfort perfect for day-long drives. There’s little wind or road noise to intrude, though the interior doesn’t quite match the cocoon-like quality that is the trademark of vehicles from the automaker’s Lexus brand.

The Avalon’s cockpit is a driver-friendly place. The biggest fault, in fact, is that the cover for the audio system refused to stay latched shut and, when it did stay closed, proved hard to open again. A small matter easily rectified under warranty, perhaps, but it stood out in light of the overall high standards we’ve come to expect from Toyota products.

Move to the back seat and you’ll find the passenger compartment almost as accommodating as it is up front. Topping the rear seat’s list of strong points are long rear doors that swing wide to make getting in and out a breeze.

Once inside you’ll find enough width to install three car seats – or even three good-sized adults. Generous legroom and the flat floor means there’s plenty of room for all to stretch out. There’s even a power rear sunshade that will allow you to keep the sun’s rays off your passengers’ delicate noggins with the touch of a dash-mounted button.

The backseat’s neatest trick, however, are the levers on the lower edge of the outboard seats that recline the seatbacks up to ten degrees. While that may not sound like much, it means the difference between someplace you’d settle for on the way to lunch with your co-workers and a premium space you’d agree to ride in all day without hesitation. Even the center position, the weakest link of most back seats, provides a good perch with plenty of padding and generous foot room courtesy of that flat floor and the recessed aft edge of the center console. If only there were seat heaters and a DVD entertainment system back here, we’d gladly let somebody else drive everywhere.