Toyota Corolla Verso

Logic seemingly plays no part in car sales. The average Irish household comprises three persons

Toyota Corolla Verso
Toyota Corolla Verso

Logic seemingly plays no part in car sales. The average Irish household comprises three persons. That's down from over four per household in 1946, and 3.34 in 1991. In Dublin city, the statisticians estimate it at 2.5 persons per household, down from just over three in 1986.

So, of course, the biggest sales growth in cars this year is not in the small supermini town cars, but in the big people carriers, or MPVs as they are known. Sales are up 54.3 per cent this year.

And not just any people carriers: no, the biggest rise has been in seven-seaters. Clearly we can expect a population explosion any day now. The fertile Irish nation is preparing itself for a baby boom the like of which has not been seen since de Valera had the comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, enticing Irish males to father 14 kids to a man. This time, however, we're going to be ready.

There are enough people carriers in the country to mobilise the nation. This time we won't have to turn to the donkey and cart, or the crossbar of a bike.

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In the car industry there's long been a debate over whether seven or five seats are best. Obviously to cut costs the five-seater option was pushed by most manufacturers. However, Opel saw a seven-seater niche and filled it. Its Zafira became king, the only real competitor being the five-seater Renault Scenic.

Now Renault has introduced its seven-seater Grand Scenic, and Toyota joins the party with the seven-seater Corolla Verso.

The greatest attraction of the Zafira was the fact that on an everyday basis it was a more than competent five-seater with a good boot, yet offered the opportunity to deploy an extra row of seats if you are caught short of transport at a five-a-side game. The seats simply folded into the floor, unlike other seven seaters where you have to haul the seats in and out to change the layout. This usually requires an engineering degree: aligning the runners and catches to a chorus of clicks, bangs and colourful curses.

Now we have another simple foldaway seven-seater - the Corolla Verso, and it's been a real eye-opener for us, one of the most impressive cars we driven this year.

So what's so great about the Verso? Well, from behind the wheel it all feels remarkably well put together. The most telling sign is the excellent sound-proofing in the cabin. Toyota works hard to reduce noise, vibration and harshness in its cars and the Verso is a testament to a job well done.

Wind noise is negligible, the engine sounds like it's been smothered by a dozen pillows and the ride and handling is comfortable and steady with no rocking motion, despite the Verso's height.

The inside is very well designed. We have always regarded Toyota's interiors as a little drab, but the new Verso is far from that. The high sweeping roofline offers not only tasteful exterior styling, but an airy cabin with plenty of headroom.

This combines with the large expanse of glass and the enormous side windows to let plenty of light into the cabin and there's excellent visibility from all seats.

The sweeping windscreen is well matched to the long stretched dash covered in tasteful plastics that curves round to face the front seat occupants, while the dials are clear and well laid out, including the dash-mounted gearstick that's just to hand.

You get the impression that the plastics could withstand the battering of a party of 12-year-old demolition experts and still survive. This cabin is on a par with many of the more stylish Europeans.

But there's also the performance. Sure, it's not going to overtake a Ferrari, but our 1.6-litre really impressed us with its ability to cruise comfortably at 70 mph with four adults on board. It gives the impression of a much more powerful engine block and at no time did we feel underpowered.

For our money, it's the engine we'd opt for. It serves all your needs, so why spend more? We also managed a very healthy 34.6 mpg. Given that it's a car you would use for long-haul journeys, we'd opt for cruise control for motorway stretches.

In terms of safety, the Verso comes complete with five airbags as standard (incidentally Continental Europeans get nine). All seven seats feature three-point seatbelts, including a very tidy belt built into the roof for the middle passenger in the second row.

Our test car also came with Toyota's new in-car entertainment package. Designed specifically for the Corolla Verso, it features two LCD screens built into the headrests of the front seats. Complete with wireless headphones, it offers owners the chance to keep the kids quiet on long journeys.

A DVD player is housed under the driver's seat, and the system also allows you to hook up the screens to the likes of Playstation. At €3,000 it's a tad expensive, but if it keeps the kids quiet for any length of time, we can see several parents readily opening their chequebooks.

So to the all-important seats. Toyota's new Easy Flat-7 system allows the seats to be folded down in one move, without even having to remove the headrests. There are 32 seating combinations in total. One can only imagine the young employee who was a fan of transformer toys being ordered to work this out.

The second row of passenger seats is comfortable and each seat is on a set of runners, so it can be moved forward or back and reclined up to 30 degrees.

The all-important back row of seats is really only for exceptional circumstances, though you could fit two young kids in there without difficulty. That's the difference between full-size seven-seaters and these mid-size offerings. The seats are there and work just fine, but they would not suit an adult for any long journey, and you have to adopt a certain knee-in-face position if you are any way tall.

Bootspace is also at a premium with the third row of seats up. It's one of the smallest in the segment when all the seats are in use - a mere 90 litres - but you may just be able to get the five-aside-team to the pitch with their gear stacked to the roof.

If you were going to be using seven-seats every day and need bootspace as well, you'd probably opt for the larger MPVs. As the mid-range MPV market hots up, some larger models are moving in to take some share, most notably Hyundai's Trajet, given its competitive pricing at €28,650.

With all these new arrivals on the market, now is the time to shop around for there's a lot of good quality in this market at present.

In the battle between five and seven seats, for our money we'd be swayed by the benefits of having the extra row of seats in reserve.

You do, of course, pay a premium for the extra seats and it's in the region of €5,000. That's a lot of cash to be spending on the chance you might have to give a lift to a few stragglers from the pub one night, or do the big school run every other week. But for those with enough regular visitors to the last row, the car is well-priced and good to drive.

With this new Verso, Toyota has stolen the mid-range crown from the Zafira. It might be at the upper end of the price bracket, but with its strong reputation for reliability people seem prepared to pay for the Japanese marque and it's sure to win over many new converts to the seven-seater sector, regardless of their family size.

It promises to be an interesting battle, particularly with a new Zafira due out in the next 16 months. It will be aiming to retake the lead. But for now the Opel has met its match.