The interior of the Nissan 350Z is a cockpit designed for driving, helping the driver quickly become one with the car. The carbon-fiber colored cloth seats are form-fitting, supportive and comfortable, made of a soft material that grips the body in the corners. The driver's seat features a mound in the center to prevent the driver from sliding forward. Aggressive side bolsters grip the waist to hold the driver in place. The leather seats in the Touring model seem a little firmer than the cloth, and are available in charcoal, burnt orange or frost. Either cloth or leather is a good choice in this case. The supportive seats and a driver's dead pedal mean you never feel like you have to hang on to the car. The seating position should be good for drivers with long legs; I felt a little close to the wheel when the seat was adjusted for my legs. It's worth noting, however, that this feeling went away the moment the key was turned in the ignition.

Tilt the steering column and the main pod of gauges moves with it, ensuring a good view of the big tachometer and flanking speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges. Nestled in three pods on top of the dash are a voltmeter, an oil pressure gauge and a digital trip computer. They look cool, but reading them requires more than a glance. Two toggles to the right of the steering wheel operate the trip computer, used to check outside air temperature, distance to empty, speed, average mileage, and average speed. It has a stopwatch function (to check out those 0-60 times), and a tire-pressure monitor for 18-inch wheels. With the Trip Computer, the driver can program a shift light to come on at a certain rpm. The small red indicator on the tachometer begins flashing abut 500 rpm before the preset engine speed is reached, when it comes on solid. You can program it for the ideal shift points for acceleration or fuel economy, then let your peripheral vision pick up the indicator. If you don't like this feature you can turn it off.

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The interior of the Nissan 350Z seems to suggest a carbon-fiber racecar tub. The material surrounding the shifter and forming the center dash looks like carbon fiber. Likewise, the large expanse of gray material lining the door panels suggests carbon fiber in appearance. The quality of the materials is okay, though some of the pieces would never be allowed in an Audi. It looked austere at first, but quickly grew on us. Stylish interior touches, such as the inside door handles integrated into aerodynamic pods for the side vents, give the 350Z a racy, modern look. Passengers often grope for the door release the first time they try to get out, distracted by the big grab handles adorned with genuine aluminum and relieved by the Z's dot motif.
Stylish audio controls include a big volume knob, clearly marked buttons for channel seeking, and six station buttons that can be preset simply by holding them down. We confess we were too focused on entertaining ourselves with the car to turn it on, and we drove various models of the Z on both coasts. Below are three large knobs for the automatic climate control system, which comes standard. Nicely designed wiper and headlamp controls are mounted on short stalks. The leather-wrapped steering wheel looks and feels great, and comes with cruise controls on the right spoke. Overhead are well-designed map lights and a bin for sunglasses. Power window switches are auto-up/auto-down.

The Nissan 350Z is not the best place to drink things. There's a pair of cup holders in the center console, but they're mounted too far rearward for use by the driver and passengers will find them awkward. It might be best to ditch the cup holders and use the center console for storage. Another cup holder is mounted on the passenger-side dash. It pops out with the press of a button, feels flimsy, but works well and is an easy reach for the driver, just past the audio controls. The firm suspension makes drinking hot coffee from an open cup while underway a risky proposition on all but the smoothest highways.

At first it doesn't seem like the 350Z offers much in the way of storage. For starters, there's no glovebox. Cars without the navigation system get a nice lined storage pocket above the radio, but it's saddled with a lid that registers high on the bogusity scale: Pressing a button opens it, though the one on our pre-production car was reluctant. But closing it, rather than simply pressing it back down, requires grasping it between thumb and finger, pulling it out and carefully pressing it closed. An owner will adjust to it, but it's not our favorite feature. There's a small, lined ashtray-size compartment on the center tunnel and there's a spot on the outside of each seat for a pen or pencil. Turn around and the picture brightens considerably where a thoughtfully designed system of storage compartments provides handy places to stick stuff.
From the driver's seat, you can access a large lockable box that's bigger than a shoebox but smaller than a breadbox. When stopped, but without getting out of the car or opening a door, it's easy to flip the passenger seatback forward via a handle in the center of the seatback. Then, it's a simple matter to open a lid that reveals a storage bin. The lockable lid has a quality feel to it and the bin is lined to keep things from rattling about. A smaller bin is mounted higher and somewhat more awkwardly toward the center that could hold a map, checkbook, PDA or cellphone. Identical bins on the driver's side are accessed when standing outside the car by flipping the driver's seatback forward.

Cargo rides in an hourglass-shaped well, squeezed in the middle by the shock towers and the big strut-tower brace that ties them together. (That cross brace is functional: hatchbacks flex and the Z's chassis engineers wanted to ensure a rigid monocoque.) The Nissan 350Z offers more cargo capacity than a Mazda Miata, but less than a Porsche 911 or Boxster or a Mitsubishi Eclipse, more than an Audi TT, but less than a TT with quattro. We're comparing small boxes here. An avid golfer at Nissan swears two golf bags will fit in the cargo compartment, if you pull the big woods out of the bag. Nissan says fitted luggage will be available for the 350Z. And coming up with your own system to compartmentalize the cargo area might make it better for carrying stuff.