2004 SUV of the Year Interior Features, Options, & Review

Interiors
Interior design can make or break cars, trucks, and SUVs in the marketplace. The insides of this year's crop of sport/utility contenders runs from the almost extravagant, near-perfectly executed leather and wood and aluminum interior of the Touareg to the edgy but Spartan vinyl and fake wood of the Cadillac SRX. Staffers dream of the Chrysler Pacifica's more generous interior in the SRX, or perhaps, the SRX's engine and dynamics in the Pacifica.

"The interior isn't half as artful or well-executed as in the Pacifica or Touareg," Matt Stone says of the SRX.

Porsche Cayenne center console

"The SRX's interior design is jarring, chock-a-block," adds Ron Sessions. "The third seat is practically useless--no legroom."

Conversely, VW doesn't even try to fit a third-row seat in its first SUV. The seating positions are tall and upright, with lots of leg- and headroom, for an executive-sedan feel. Contrasting with the SRX's 1970s German-car interior styling, the Touareg blends high-quality leather seats (butterscotch in color in our tester), with red gauge lights surrounded by aluminum rings, real wood and aluminum trim, and blue lighting for heating/air-conditioning system readouts.

Third-row seats always play a part in the Sport/Utility of the Year decision because they can represent such efficient flexibility, although we don't consider them necessary features. The availability or lack of a third row says a lot about the mission of the vehicle. Neither the Touareg nor Cayenne offers one, but they have lots more cargo space than the sporty, tight FX35/45. This is one of those issues that's most dependent on buyer's needs.

The Murano, X3, Endeavor, RX 330, and Rainier also can't carry more than five people. All their manufacturers, except BMW, offer other SUVs with minivan-like passenger capacity, if that's your need. Nothing celebrates its interior capacity more than the Pacifica. It's designed as a 2+2+2, with center-row bucket seats and a tight fold-down third row (Chrysler will offer a seven-passenger version, with a bench-seat second row, later in the model year).