tilt steering wheel, flip-out side rear windows, rear defogger, tinted

windows, and courtesy dome lamps.

And you've got to say this for Villager designers: When it comes to

seating options, they're definitely pro-choice: they allow passengers to

choose from 13 different seating-and-cargo configurations.

Behind the driver's and front-passenger captain's chairs are two more

captain's chairs. In the rear is a third row bench seat with room enough

for three. The backs of the second row captain's chairs and third row bench

can all be folded down. Or, after tilting the rear bench seat cushion upward,

the bench can slide forward as much as 50 inches.

Folding down any of these seats requires a mere flip of a lever, and

in the case of the removeable second-row captain's chairs, it's a one-handed

process.

After the second-row seats are removed and the rear-bench seat is folded

upward, the Villager offers 126 cubic feet of cargo space. In the minivan

universe, everything is relative: 126 cubic feet is modest compared to

the Dodge Grand Caravan or Ford Windstar, but it's roomy compared to the

Honda Odyssey's 102 cubic feet.

Moving from the front seat back to the rear is fairly painless, although

the fold-down armrests on the second-row captain's chairs limit the pass-through

space to about eight inches. The front and second-row captain's chairs

are quite comfortable, but passengers on the rightmost or leftmost seats

on the third-row bench will feel themselves listing toward the center.

Driver's seat headroom was sufficient for our 5-foot-11 test driver,

but taller passengers in the second or third rows may feel a bit scrunched.

Rear legroom is also a bit limited--unless, of course, you're a typical

minivan buyer and your rear passengers are children.

Our test model was equipped with the power front seats--eight-way for

the driver (including a power lumbar support feature) and four-way for

the passsenger. But when reaching for the power switch, your forearm gets

pinched between the seat and the armrest.

A flat cupholder pulls out and snaps down from the console side of the

front passenger's seat, and there are integrated cupholders on the backs

of each of the rear seats.

One feature we really liked was the separate rear-seat climate control

and stereo control switches--complete with two headphone jacks--built into

the modular armrest to the left of the second-row captain's chair. Ditto

the info center on the smart-looking, digitized instrument panel of our

test van. A push of a button yields such data as fuel economy--both average

and instant--and the number of miles before the fuel tank is empty. And

for the globally-minded, the info center can convert everything to metric.