Quality pertains to two things when it comes to evaluating a brand-new automobile: materials and assembly. From the standpoint of a car critic, it’s unfair to award quality points to a Toyota just because Toyotas have historically proven durable, just as it is unfair to deduct quality points from a Dodge because past models have suffered numerous recalls and part failures. The critic must base evaluations on tangible measures of quality, not theories about what could happen in the future. In this particular contest, the Dodge and Toyota landed in predictable slots based on their merits as new vehicles, but what surprised us was how the Honda Odyssey and Pontiac Montana SV6 slotted into the mix.

4th Place – 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan
Stacked up against the more upscale cabins of the Honda, Pontiac, and Toyota, the 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan’s interior came off as a dour mix of low-rent plastics, cheap fabrics, and monotone color schemes that together made it as hospitable as Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. No, the allegedly sporty white-faced gauges didn’t help. Strangely, the Grand Caravan’s dashboard is covered by a plush, soft-touch surface that should be coating the windowsills on the tops of the door panels, but isn’t. At least the Dodge’s interior bits and pieces were assembled decently, as evidenced by the lack of rattles and squeaks in our test sample. Outside, however, sloppy UAW-style part and panel fit was the rule. Shut-lines for the hood and the tailgate were grossly inconsistent, and neither fit flush to adjoining body panels. Both fascias were slightly crooked, the headlights didn’t feature consistent fit, and the side doors exhibited slight variances in panel gaps. Panel gaps wide enough to stick a finger in, by the way.

3rd Place – 2005 Honda Odyssey
Ouch. If Nissan’s head honcho Carlos Ghosn were running the show, a squadron of quality control freaks would descend upon Honda’s Alabama assembly plant and get the Odyssey’s fit and finish up to standards, pronto. The minivan with the most interior rattles and squeaks, perhaps not surprisingly, also displayed the worst interior assembly quality. Many of the Honda’s bits and pieces didn’t fit together well, and some exhibited excessively rough edges from the production process at the factory. Our test van’s driver’s seat squeaked, the doors on both gloveboxes fit poorly, and the lower dash panel on the passenger’s side was loose. On the outside, the Honda’s tailgate was tweaked off-center as severely as the Dodge’s, and while the hood was on straight it didn’t rest flush with the front fenders. What saved the Honda Odyssey from a last place ranking in our quality category were the materials used to construct the interior. The headliner is a lovely mesh cloth; the hard plastics are all coated with a low-gloss, rubberized finish; and every button, stalk, and knob operates with luxury levels of dampening and refinement. The leather upholstery could be softer, more like the Toyota’s, and the hard door panel windowsills are aggravating, but otherwise the Odyssey’s innards exude quality. Too bad it proves to be only skin deep.

2nd Place – 2005 Pontiac Montana
Don’t bother taking off your glasses and rubbing your eyes – you’ve got it right. In terms of quality, a Pontiac is taking second place over a Honda. But, like the Honda, in many ways that quality is skin deep, in this case a veneer designed to fool the buyer during the test drive but that peels away over time. GM managed this by properly matching color tones and patterns, but the old way of cutting costs to the bone means that the Montana’s interior quality is sleight-of-hand. Rap a fingernail on that matte-finished dash, and you’ll hear what we mean. Open the glovebox door, and you’ll feel it. That’s thin plastic, not at all like the sturdy materials used in the Honda. The brushed aluminum trim is also plastic, but it looks nice, along with the chrome-dipped door handles. The mesh headliner looks like what you’d find inside an Audi, and the seat fabric feels particularly durable while looking upscale at the same time. Though our test Montana SV6 had just one barely audible rattle coming from someplace in the back, many parts wiggled when pressured, and the hard plastic dash had a dimple molded right in during the manufacturing process. We also spotted a warped piece of fake aluminum on the lower part of the dashboard. Outside, the Montana was less impressive. Exposed side molding adhesives that looked like they would fail at about the same time that the warranty expires were off-putting, and Pontiac uses plastic door-track covers where Honda employs real metal. The roof rack looks sturdy but doesn’t feel it, and we noted that both the hood and tailgate suffered minor fit problems.

1st Place – 2005 Toyota Sienna
Though not as dependable as death or taxes, quality from Toyota has almost become a given. Our sample Toyota Sienna, after having been examined more closely than a Beverly Hills plastic surgery candidate, suffered a single exterior assembly flaw. The tailgate was mounted slightly off-center. Otherwise, we couldn’t find one thing out of place. Inside, the results were not as conclusive, thanks to a warped plastic glovebox door, minor gap variances between panels, and some exposed rough plastic edges on the lower door panels. Plus, our Sienna rattled and squeaked more than the Dodge and Pontiac, but less than the Honda. The materials used in construction, however, were excellent. Aside from the fuzzy headliner, only the busy appearance caused by multiple grain patterns, wood trim, chrome décor, sparkly silver plastic accents, and glossy radio and climate control displays put us off. But that’s a design issue. The materials are top-notch, soft where people are likely to touch and hard where they aren’t. The leather upholstery was soft, smooth, and could easily pass muster for use in a Lexus.