The Venture offers generous head room and elbow room no matter which seat you're in. A height-adjustment lever on the driver's seat aids comfort on long trips, allowing you to change your driving position without getting too close or too far from the steering wheel. The fore and aft range of the driver's seat is long enough for drivers over six-and-a-half feet tall. The front seats hold you securely with large side bolsters, yet the seating surface itself is relatively flat, which makes getting in and out easy, while encouraging you to move around on long trips.

There isn't a lot of legroom to spare in the second row of the Venture, however, even in the long-wheelbase versions. The longer wheelbase models add most of their extra space in the cargo area.

Value Van, Plus, and LS come with bench seats in the second and third rows. The seatbacks are split and fold separately; that's handy for carrying two-by-fours and a couple of rear-seat passengers at the same time. But the bench seats are relatively heavy to remove and replace, should you need more space for grandfather clocks or dog cages.

More convenient are the modular bucket seats found in the more up-market models. They weigh just 38 pounds, light enough that plucking them out and leaving them in the garage is not a painful act. Five of them are standard in Warner Bros., and you can order six in LS and LT. The backs of these seats fold flat and compact, and have indentations so cups won't slide off while underway. Folded flat, the bucket seats are easier to stash on your garage shelves than the heavy bench seats.

A combination of captain's chairs for the second row and a split bench for the third row is standard in LT and optional in LS. The LT seems to be the more adult-oriented Venture. Its captain's chairs are more comfortable for adults. The captain's chairs will not recline fully unless they are moved all the way forward, however.

The Warner Brothers Edition comes with leather seating surfaces and cloth inserts, and at least the leather part is easy to wipe up after the youngsters have an in-van picnic. (Only LT offers full leather.)

The Warner Bros. entertainment system features six rear headphones, so the whole brood can be engaged without disturbing the driver too much. A flat panel display folds down from the ceiling behind the driver and front passenger, and faces the rear-seaters. The success of this system is its integration and durability. It's similar to the systems offered by Pontiac and Oldsmobile. By comparison, aftermarket systems we've sampled tend to rattle and shake more, and are prone to interference from other electronics in the vehicle.

Our test van, however, was a long-wheelbase LT. We decided to put its standard load-leveling suspension to work, and hauled a 450-pound motorcycle in the rear for a ride several states away. The full-size bike fit with room to spare, though we had to compress the front fork to get it through the rear hatchback. The seat mounting latch bars in the floor made perfect tie-down points. We don't recommend you try this at home, however.