We’ve talked about the importance of design and being seen in a cool looking convertible. Unfortunately, all is lost if a stiff seat causes you to wince in pain or your rear passengers are hysteric over a lack of legroom. All of a sudden, you want to put the top up, tint the windows, and park under a bridge.

Comfort is important, as the folks at Toyota are obviously well aware. The Solara convertible features big, comfy seats with ample room for front and rear passengers, and all of your everyday controls are logically-placed and easy to use. In the Solara, Toyota offers a very inviting space to enjoy a long road trip or a leisurely weekend drive. Chrysler also builds a comfortable ride, but the PT Cruiser’s seats are less inviting and the location of some of the controls is questionable. The Mustang is a bit tight in rear seat room, and the Mini Cooper’s rear accommodations are suitable only for stick figures.

4th Place: Mini Cooper Convertible
Mini – it’s the perfect descriptor for the interior of the Cooper convertible.

A quick look at the rear seat dimensions tells the story: all of the competitors have at least three and a half inches more rear legroom, and they offer at least three more inches of rear shoulder room. The Mini Cooper convertible ranks well for headroom (38.1 inches), which is good, since the slight rear seat space will have you sitting on your legs and you’ll need the extra height for clearance. Unless your friends lack lower appendages and have a shoulder span of about 12 inches apiece, the Mini Cooper convertible should be considered a two-seat roadster with extra cargo space. However, should such rear passengers exist, they’ll enjoy one undersized cupholder and massive headrests, provided at the expense of driver visibility.

Front seat passengers are granted better accommodations. While the front buckets are large enough for most adults and offer excellent bolsters, they lack both a center armrest and a usable door armrest. Given that drivers will most often have one hand on the steering wheel and one on the slick shifter, the issue of armrests becomes moot. But, on those long stretches in sixth gear, the elbows start looking for a place to call home.

3rd Place: Ford Mustang Convertible
With its third place ranking, it may appear that we’re dissing the Mustang convertible when it comes to the comfort category. Truth be told, the 2005 Ford Mustang convertible offers a very inviting interior – but it loses points when compared with the more spacious Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible and Toyota Camry Solara convertible.

Up front, the driver and passenger enjoy ample room, with the Mustang mostly meeting or beating the competition in terms of comfort. Comfortable, well-contoured front bucket seats offer stiff bolsters, padded armrests in the center and on the doors, and surround a short shifter placed right at the driver’s fingertips. It’s a great place from which to watch the miles roll by.

Back seat passengers will also enjoy the ride, thanks to generous shoulder room and soft, deeply bucketed seats. As comfortable as it sounds back there, there are a few reasons passengers might want to be the first to yell “Shotgun!” In particular, the rear seatbacks are too vertical and lack any significant headrests, riders out back will have to make do without any cupholders or storage of any kind, minimal legroom, and top-up headroom is the worst of the bunch.

Indeed, if the 2005 Ford Mustang convertible’s interior has one significant flaw, it is the lack of rear seat room and comfort.

2nd Place: PT Cruiser Convertible
Give it up to the PT for having comfy seats. The driver and front passenger are treated to large chairs that sit up high and have ample, but pliable, side bolsters. The seat bottom is near perfect in length, and the heater function works great. Rear seat passengers are blessed with the same comfort – soft seatbacks with a slight recline and supportive cushioning. An added touch on our 2005 PT Cruiser GT tester was smooth leather on all of the seats.

With all of that praise, it may seem curious why the PT Cruiser ranked second in the comfort category – it was the little things that forced the Chrysler into the #2 slot. While we enjoyed the great vantage point the front seats offered, taller drivers will likely wish the seats dropped down a bit lower, and anyone adjusting the seat height will have difficulty reaching the power button when the door is shut (make sure to pack some Band-Aids in the glovebox for those scraped knuckles). And that back seat, while offering the most leg room among the vehicles in this test, comes with insignificant headrests and limited shoulder room makes it feel less spacious than the king of convertible comfort, the 2005 Toyota Camry Solara.

1st Place: Toyota Camry Solara Convertible
As the contemporary counterpart to yesteryear’s Buick and Oldsmobile boulevard cruisers, it should come as no surprise that the 2005 Toyota Camry Solara convertible wins the test for comfort.

Seating will accommodate four large adults, and every passenger will enjoy plenty of leg, shoulder, and headroom. In front are well-padded yet firm buckets that would accommodate Today Show weatherman Al Roker…before he had his stomach stapled. Door and center armrests are padded, and the leather on our SLE tester was top-notch. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes, allowing for easy entry and a suitable driving position. Unlike the others in this test, the Solara convertible included seat bolsters that were on the soft side; the result is a front seat that is easier to slide onto, but fails to keep its occupant planted when the Solara is driven around a sharp corner.

In such situations, rear seat passengers can brace themselves with the outboard armrests (the only one here with usable rear seat armrests…each side even has its own cupholder!). The rear seatback is set at a comfortable angle, the seat bottom provides good thigh support, and massive headrests protect rear passenger noggins.

Between the commodious design of the seats, the firm but supportive cushioning, and the useful and padded armrests, the 2005 Toyota Camry Solara convertible clearly deserves to be deemed most comfortable.