A little below expectations

My father-in-law bought a new 2002 Avalon XL. Even though he is not very emotional, I could tell that he fell in love with his new car. I had a chance to drive it for a day. Well… after the rave reviews the car has received, I did expect more. I did like the roominess, quite ride, braking and overall appearance. I did not like handling, acceleration, seat comfort and most of all dashboard design.
The car is very roomy. It seats 5 adults fairly comfortably with all passengers having sufficient leg and headroom. The front seats are wide enough to accommodate the largest of us. The ride is very quite. I was impressed by the lack of road noise. The engine is "whispering". Braking was also very impressive. I had to slam on the brakes couple of times (driving in Manhattan always makes you do that) and the car stopped on a much shorter distance than I have expected. The styling of the car is near perfect: it has a slick modern look, yet is not too aggressive. It is very proportionate.
What turned me off the most was that in most positions, steering wheel blocks the view of a dashboard, especially, the speedometer. I have tried to adjust me seat, the steering wheel several times, but as soon as I got comfortable, I lost the view of the speedometer completely. My wife, who is shorter than me had the same problem. Given the smoothness of a ride, it becomes dangerous since you can go over 80 mph and not notice it. The car does lean a lot on the turns (I am not sure if XLS has the same problem). I took couple of highway ramps where I feel comfortable going 50 on my Maxima SE, I had to drop the speed to 35 on Avalon. Acceleration was somewhat dull. Avalon feels a lot like an American car when you step on the gas. Most of Japanese cars in this class are somewhat more responsive to the gas pedal. The seats are roomy (see above), but I do not feel they provide enough support. Most of Japanese and European cars have more comfortable seats (again Avalon reminded me of an American car).
I see the following things need an improvement: I would like to be able to fold the rearview mirrors (parking on a narrow street can cost you a new mirror, as the mirrors are quite big). The rear seats are not foldable. The tires are too small for the car (XL model), the quality of the fabric used on the seats could also be better.
Overall, I think the car is worth the price (after all - it was only $23K)