There's lots of rear-seat head room and leg room. But rear-seat passengers say it's visually confining, providing only a porthole view of the world.

The interior has its drawbacks, however. There's little usable storage space, the radio buttons are small, the interior door handle is awkward, and the exterior door handle is hard to grab and will snap away from your hand if you're in too much of a hurry. And we could not figure out how to open the tailgate without using the key.

Rearward visibility is lacking. There isn't much of an opening to begin with in the rear hatchback, and the spare tire obstructs the center of the window to the point where you may not notice a smaller car driving behind you. (The original concept solved this problem with a video camera, but that was one thing that didn't make it to the U.S. model.)