With so much emphasis put on sport sedans, their big wheels, short sidewalls, and impressive slalom speeds approaching, and in some cases, eclipsing those of outright sports cars, I found more than a little comfort driving the Hyundai Azera home last night. Sometimes, a pillowy ride is just the right thing. Remember when a cushy, all-smothering ride was once the thing that separated a good car from a cheap car? Tastes do change, but maybe we took a wrong turn.

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Our 2007 Hyundai Azera is finishing up its stint in our long-term fleet. We've had some tangles with a hard-to-clean leather seat and a fallen-apart mirror but for the most part we've had warm thoughts about this car. A lot of us were surprised by its lux features "for a Hyundai" -- seat heaters, refined door jambs, steering wheel-mounted audio controls, and a wood-accented interior -- and how comfortable it was to drive. While others felt like there were some quality issues that still needed to be addressed.

Keep an eye out for a future wrap-up to see if this car will be missed.

Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 18,449 miles

Once in a while my back likes to play tricks on me and stops bending. That's one of the reasons I like seat heaters so much.

All this week when I woke up in the morning, my back has been nice and inflexible. But the 5-level seat heaters in the Azera really help. They warm the seat backs as well as the cushions. So by the time I get to the office, I feel a lot better.

I wish my desk chair had seat heaters. And my couch. And my kitchen chairs. And...

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor @ 18,250 miles

I just spent a week with our Long Term Azera, capped off with a road trip from Long Beach to Las Vegas. It's a very good highway car. The engine is smooth and willing which makes hills and passing a breeze.

The stereo is also very good but there's no AUX jack - I had to use a cassette adaptor to listen to my iPod. Other than that, the long stretches of open road flew by smooth and silent.

Brian Moody, Road Test Editor @ 18,111 miles.

This weekend we found ourselves at the local Scandinavian furniture retailer (you know the one) looking for furniture that would make us appear more stylish and organized. Alright, so we went for the cheap hot dogs and pickled herring. But, as luck would have it, we also ended up buying some furniture.

As expected, everything we bought came in a series of flat-pack boxes. Upon wheeling the cart full of boxes out to the car, I realized that I might have made my life a little bit more difficult by bringing our long term 2007 Hyundai Azera along for the ride. Because the boxes weren't that bulky I was sure I could fit everything in the car, but I wasn't sure I could fit all that Scandinavian sensibility in the trunk. These days, trunks just never seem to hold what you think they should what with all their braces, sound equipment and wheel arches taking away a lot of usable space.

It's not the end of the world, but I'm not real big on having nearly 200 pounds of unsecured fiberboard and glass furniture floating around inside the cabin with me, but I didn't think I'd have a choice.

I figured I'd start with the trunk and once that was full, I'd stuff the rest in the back seat and hit the road. When I stopped I was surprised to see that there was still a little room left in the trunk. I thought about going back into the store to get some more herring, but decided to shut the trunk before it all fell out and headed for home.

The trunk in the Azera is enormous. Whatever the engineers did to keep the rear suspension and chassis odds and ends from robbing valuable cargo space really worked. There's tons of room and there's no need to be a Tetris wizard to pack the trunk full of stuff. Kudos, Hyundai.

Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 16,924 miles

On Saturday morning, the passenger-side mirror on our 2007 Hyundai Azera decided to take a more relaxed approach to its role in life. A week or two ago, an editor mentioned that the side mirror had come loose while the car was in her care; she told us that she'd remedied the situation by popping the mirror back into place. We huffed and puffed and slammed the door really hard a few times, but we weren't able to duplicate the problem.

However, the issue returned on Saturday. It seemed to have taken place overnight; I noticed it first thing in the morning. Maybe the mirror just wanted to take things easy over the weekend.

I was able to nudge the mirror back into place. It's power-adjustable, and that feature wasn't compromised. The issue will no doubt surface again, though; we'll have the dealership take a look during our next service visit.

Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @16,580 miles

Here's a simple device that made grocery hauling (not shown) better this weekend. It kept my milk from floating around in the trunk.

Why don't all cars have one of these?

Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor @ 16,347 miles

 

So remember that post I did complaining about our 2007 Hyundai Azera's non-popping trunk lid? Well, Hyundai PR called me up to explain that the key fob's button is designed to do just that: unlock and release the trunk lid. He said that the lid doesn't "fling open" because that's how it is in "refined cars." "Well, I'm not expecting it to fling open...nowadays cars can pop the lid even a little bit," I responded. But he reiterated how since it's a "refined" car it's not going to "fling" the lid open and hit you in the chin, like car trunk lids used to do in the old days.

Also, he said it's a safety issue, as Jaymagic had mention in the comments of the other post, if you do hit the button accidently, the lid won't fling open leaving all your cargo exposed to the world. So there you have it.

Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor

I had my arms full when I made my way to our long-term 2007 Hyundai Azera last night, so I was happy to see on the key fob that it had a trunk release button. Unfortunately, when I pressed it while walking toward the car, nothing happened. I pressed it again. The trunk lid didn't even budge. But when I dropped my bags to try and open the lid, it was already open, just barely.

So the trunk release only unlocks the trunk, it doesn't pop it open for you. I guess I'm really spoiled, but most cars I've experienced that have the trunk release button usually at least open the trunk lid for you, even a little bit. All I need is a little opening so that I can fling it open with my elbow or foot if my hands are full. Can't do that if the lid is still closed. Might as well just get rid of that extra button on the key fob since the unlock button will do the same thing.

Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor

About 83.7 percent of reviews and road tests concerning a new Hyundai starts out with something to the effect of "Hyundais used to be garbage back in the 1980s, but have gotten progressively better ever since. This [insert model name] is yet another example of exponential improvement." Much has been said on this blog hailing the Azera's interior design and quality, but after driving it back-to-back with the all-new Veracruz SUV, I must say that yet another improvement has taken place.

The Veracruz's materials are even better and the overall design more stylish -- I particularly like our test car's Black/Saddle two-tone interior. Maybe it's because I drove a 2000 VW Jetta VR6 for six years, but I'm also a big fan of the Veracruz's cobalt blue dash lights (that are also found in the Santa Fe and Elantra). The Azera's lighting is a color mix-and-match, with the center stack in particular harkening back to the last generation of Toyota and Lexus (much like the rest of the Azera).

James Riswick, Associate Editor @ 15,609 miles