The front bucket seats look and feel like they were designed for racing, but that doesn't mean to say they're too narrow or too hard. We found them very comfortable, with enough fore/aft adjustment to suit tall American drivers regardless of age (including our tall and, shall we say, experienced correspondent). The driver's and shotgun seats can be reclined all the way down into what Scion calls a sleep position.
The rear seats recline through 10 stops and 45 degrees of recline to convert the interior into a conversation bin. With seats up, there's more than 26 inches of cargo length there; with the second seats dropped, almost 60 inches; and with the front passenger seat folded over, almost 104 inches of cargo length available.
Attention to detail is evident in the mechanical seat position memory on the front bucket seats, the 60/40 split folding rear seat, the dead pedal for the driver's left foot, fully closing vents, and a cover for the stereo faceplate.
The three-pod instrument panel is amber-illuminated, deeply tunneled and easy to use, day or night, as are the balance of the instruments and controls.
The Pioneer single CD system that comes standard features a user-customizable welcome screen, MP3 capability, four speakers and 160 watts. A 10-inch subwoofer is optional and XM Satellite Radio is available at extra cost. The head unit has been redesigned for 2006 with a knob for volume control, a welcome change. And all 2006 tCs get new steering wheels with audio controls built in.
The iPod upgrade allows owners of the nearly ubiquitous music player to not just listen to iPod tunes through their car speakers, but actually control song selection through the car's stereo head unit. If you don't have the extra cash or don't have an iPod, all tCs come with an auxiliary minijack on the console to allow you to listen to your own music through the car's speakers. However, it doesn't allow control of the player like the upgrade does.
