Once seated, drop your left hand to the side of the driver's seat bottom and you'll feel the control for lumbar support. Perched on the door panel is the easy-to-use controller icon for the remainder of the seat's eight-way adjustability. Still not comfy? Near your left knee on the dash is a switch to electrically reposition the accelerator and brake pedals (standard on LX). Not only is this adjustment convenient, but it's a significant safety factor in moving shorter drivers away from the steering wheel's frontal airbag.

Before you is an array of distinguished, readable gauges, including an atypical but welcome oil temperature gauge. In the center of the dash (a long arm's-reach away) are the simple-to-use controls for the sound system and climate controls. (The LX model features handy steering-wheel mounted buttons to operate these remotely.) The dash is broad and minimally sculpted, with periodic blisters and brows to emphasize different areas and a thin streak of imitation wood across the bottom of it for visual relief.

Crown Victoria models can be configured to seat five or six occupants. The five-passenger LX Sport features two front bucket seats with a floor-mounted shifter and center armrest/storage bin bested between them. The standard six-seat models employ a split front bench seat with an old-fashioned column shifter. The six-seat configuration offers compelling versatility, but that front center seat is not attractive given its hard seat bottom cushion, next to no legroom (there's a big transmission hump there), and a lap belt instead of a shoulder belt (no upper body retention). Any takers? Only little people are likely to "volunteer" to sit there.

The rear seats offer lots of elbow-stretching room, plenty of headroom, but little knee room. The rear center seat is a better deal than the front center seat, with tolerable legroom (straddling your feet around the smaller driveshaft tunnel), a softer seat cushion and a proper shoulder belt.

There are several reasons why live rear axle suspensions have fallen out of favor in automobiles, and one is the useful room they subtract from the cabin and the trunk. In the Crown Vic's case, one victim is that rear knee room we mentioned, another is its trunk configuration. It may sound silly to criticize the the trunk because the Crown Victoria leads its class in trunk capacity, but clearly it could be both larger and longer if the Crown Vic enjoyed a modern, space-efficient rear suspension.

Outward vision is a mixed bag. The big windows provide a panoramic view of all that's good, bad and ugly around you. But the mirrors are much too small, particularly the rear-view mirror which has to be adjusted just so to barely do the job. The driver's dual sun visors can be arranged to effectively defeat late-afternoon glare.

For 2003, safety is enhanced by a load sensor within the front (outboard) passenger seat that can prevent its airbag from deploying if no occupant is detected, plus a chime to remind that occupant to buckle-up if detected. These represent two more ingredients in what Ford calls its Personal Safety System which already provides dual-rate airbag deployment depending on driver-seat position (and vehicle speed), plus pre-tensioning and energy-managing belts. Even ABS (with panic assist) is now standard, as are rear LATCH-system child seat anchors, while front side air bags are now available on the LX. If this sounds like an impressive compliment of safety equipment, it is.