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Climb into a Liberty, and the first thing you'll likely notice is that it feels tall in the saddle. Its roomy interior accommodates five passengers and a generous amount of cargo, with 29 cubic feet of usable space behind the second row of seats. Sitting in the Liberty gives the driver a sense of spaciousness with 40.7 inches of headroom, more than other SUVs in this class. Door panels are scalloped out for elbow rests, and a grab handle is provided on the passenger's side of the dash.The seats were noticeably improved for 2005 through the use of dual-density foam, but the side bolsters are still soft, a signal that the Liberty is set up more to absorb vibration than to be slung around corners. And you'll have to order the optional power seats to get seat-height adjustment. The standard cloth upholstery feels like it will hold up well. The Renegade front seats are tailored with unique cloth center panels and vinyl bolsters. The front seats in the Limited are more comfortable. They are chair-like buckets, softer and more contoured than the seats in the Ford Escape. Getting in and out of the Liberty is more difficult than it is in some of the more carlike SUVs. The door openings are relatively narrow, the step-up height is a little higher, the seats have those side bolsters to get past, and your feet must clear relatively high side sills. A grab handle is provided, but it's located on the A-pillar above the steering wheel, not the perfect position to help shorter people swing inside. The Liberty's rear seats are comfortable, capable of holding three people. Two adults should be happy here. There is even more rear headroom than in the front, and lots of space to slide your feet under the front seats, but knee room is limited. Sliding out of the back seat requires a bit of a stretch down, and your legs drag across the fender. So be sure to clean that area before putting any well-dressed guests back there. The Liberty offers a generous amount of cargo space behind the rear seats. Caesar the 160-pound mastiff was happy to ride there. Two full-size garbage cans fit side-by-side back there, too, a feat we haven't seen duplicated in many SUVs. Grocery-bag hooks and cargo tie-downs are provided to keep things from rolling around. An optional cargo organizer opens into a shelf with compartment dividers to keep packages in place, and can be folded flat when not in use. Fold the rear seats down and the Liberty offers a lot of cargo space (69.0 cubic feet), virtually the same as in the Escape. Dropping the split rear seat is a one-hand operation in the Liberty, as the rear seat bottom stays in place. But that means that the cargo floor isn't perfectly flat when the rear seats are folded down, and that is our biggest gripe with this vehicle. Nor are the rear seats readily removable as they are in the Toyota RAV4. Also, removing the rear headrests requires pressing two buttons at once to release them. Cosmetically, the interior features a round motif, with round door handles, round instruments, round air inlets, a round horn pad. Textures and finishes are nicely done. Big gauges use black-on-beige graphics. The Limited adds attractive satin chrome highlights to the instrument panel and doors. The interior on the Limited is particularly nice and executed with quality materials. The Renegade gets silver mini-carbon highlights on the instrument panel that give it a serious/functional look consistent with its rough-and-ready exterior theme. The manual shifter is on the tall side, but works well. The available leather-wrapped steering wheel is comfortable and features well-designed cruise controls. The accessory controls work well and intuitively, and don't look like they came out of a sedan or a minivan because they didn't. The power window switches are located on the center console, however, more awkward than having them on the door. The manually operated heating and air-conditioni
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