Those front seats are mounted on a Volvo-devised cross-body beam that runs from the bottom of the B pillar (the post between the front and rear doors) that adds strength to the car's shell and that helps provide protection in the event of a side impact.
Each of the car's four doors has a beverage holder, and additional cup holders are located in the center console between the front seats with two more in the center console that folds down from the back of the back middle seat.
The rear seatbacks fold forward to provide enlarged luggage space, and the front passenger's seat (SEL and Limited versions) also folds down to provide space for a 10-foot long ladder or other object to fit inside the Five Hundred with the trunk lid closed.
All seats feature what Ford calls "command" view of the road, with seat bottom cushions that are some four inches higher than those of a typical mid-sized sedan, yet some two inches closer to the road than those in the Freestyle crossover wagon.
The dashboard has a covered storage compartment in its top center section. The center stack has audio controls at the top with climate and other controls beneath. The dashboard has either silver or wood-grain trim with metal used for the door releases and around the base and top of the gear shift lever. We found the switchgear well designed and easy to use.
One cautionary note (well, actually two of them): A steeply raked windshield can reflect a lot of glare off the top of the dashboard (at least it did in the car we drove with a tan-colored "Pebble" interior; "Shale" and "Black" interiors also are available), and a driver wearing sunglasses can have trouble reading the darkly colored gauges in the SE and SEL models. The Limited has much easier to read light-face gauges. Next Page