Up front are two bolstered bucket seats astride a multi-purpose console. The seats are anything but conventional. They're extremely comfortable and also smart, performing tricks when necessary for safety or saving space. The front seatbacks incorporate mechanisms to guard against whiplash from a rear-end impact. During such a crash, the seatback moves rearward to reduce acceleration forces on the rider's back and neck, as the headrest pushes forward and upward slightly to meet the neck and head as they are thrust backward.

The rear bench seat accommodates three passengers easily, and features three-point safety belts in all three seating positions, which are anchored in the backrest. Individual seat-back sections in the rear seats move to two different positions: one with a 30 degree tilt for comfort, the other more vertical at 25 degrees. The latter is useful when a few more inches of space would make room for more gear in the rear.

The rear seatback also folds forward easily to form a flat cargo floor.

That back cargo bay can be fitted with available convenience items from Volvo, like a container for shopping bags or a table that pops up from beneath the second-row seat, for use with an optional third seat sized for children. (A new $1300 Versatility Package includes the third seat with integrated booster seat, and the folding table.) For infants and toddlers, anchors are in place to secure two new designs for rear-facing child safety seats. One style fits infants weighing up to 20 pounds, and another works for toddlers up to 40 pounds.

Luxurious appointments include power controls for virtually all equipment and an automatic climate system, with deluxe audio equipment and an optional Dolby Surround Pro Logic stereo with nine speakers and in-dash four-CD compact disc player.