The Mercury Milan cabin is quite tasty. Our silver Milan Premier came with black leather with contrasting white stitching on the seats and steering wheel, black-and-white switchgear, black-and-white instruments with chrome rings, and lots of satin-finish metal panels to set off the black and white. If you don't like the satin and patterned aluminum trim, there's a Wales Mahogany interior trim option at no charge.

The deeply bucketed front seats were especially cozy. We felt more like we were sitting in them than on them.

The rear seat folds down in 60/40 fashion, enabled by an easy-pull latch on each side, to eliminate leaning over the decklid opening and fumbling for seatback latches. The interior is roomy enough for a 6-foot, 4-inch passenger to sit behind a 6-foot, 4-inch driver, with real headroom. The rear door panels are scooped out for more elbow room. The rear armrest packs two cupholders, for a total of six.

With the seat down, you get the 15.8 cubic feet in the trunk plus another 46 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats, making it into a once-in-a-while station wagon. A fold-down front passenger seat is standard on all 2007 Milan models, adding to the vehicle's versatility.

Storage cubbies are all over the place, two in the console, one quite large one at the top center of the dash with a latching lid, two more in each front door pocket hollowed out to take a Big Gulp cup, and one in the bottom center of the dashboard, all of which add up to convenience and ease. The quality of design and materials for a car in this price class was generally quite high, satisfying to touch and look at.

The premium eight-speaker sound system played our favorite compilation CDs exactly as they sound at home on our high-end equipment, minus a bit of bass.

We thought there was too much glare off the main instrument cover, likewise with the radio face and the otherwise lovely analog clock.

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