Kia Carnival

The Kia Carnival is a big, honest seven-seat MPV that does its job. Not much to look at.

• Comfort

  Slovenly suspension helps the Carnival to slob around in plenty of comfort, even if you're fully seven-up and testing the bumpstops. There's proper space for seven too, so nobody should feel ill, unless they catch the car's reflection in a shop window.

  

• Performance

  Laughably there's a lovely smooth 2.7 V6 with 136Kw and a 0-100km/h time of 10.5 seconds. The automatic box makes hard work of the available power though, so best swap your own cogs.

  

• Cool

  Do you even have to ask that question? Seriously?

  

• Quality

  It doesn't matter how hard they try, everything will feel cheap and grey. And not even interesting grey, but industrial, soul-sapping grey. The grey of nothing. The grey of incessant rain.(that's enough grey stuff - ed)

  

• Handling

  The carnival would be as happy on an open seaway as it is on the road judging by the amount of bodyroll you can generate even with modest cornering effort. Won't be entered into the BTCC anytime soon.

  

• Practicality

  Aha! The reason for the Carnival's existence reveals itself. There's space for seven adults, and the boot is huge, and that's before you lift out the third row of seats and start folding. Taking the seats out is a bit of a hassle, but worth it for the van-like rear compartment with them stowed in the garage.

  

• Running costs

  This is probably one of the cheapest, biggest family buses in the business - you can pick one up brand new starting at around the $33k mark. The 2.7 V6 uses on average 11L/100km. It shouldn't be too much bother to run.