Toyota Verso

Taking bland practicality to new levels of neutral respect, the Verso fails to get pulses racing but remains quite useful. If you are Mr Dull from Dullington in Dullshire.

• Comfort

  Seating for five is fine, but you shouldn't really put anyone older than five in the rearmost seats. It's a seven-seater, but not for very long journeys. Based on a platform that shares much with the Avensis, it rides well-enough, is quiet enough and sensible. But there aren't many dollops of surprise and delight.  

  

• Performance

  The two-litre diesel is the volume seller, but the UK also gets 1.6 and 1.8-litre petrol engines and a 2.2-litre diesel. The 1.8 petrol is smooth and responsive, not needing much work to get the best out of it and the 145bhp it produces makes the Verso into a decent little performer. With 124bhp, the two-litre diesel tells a satisfyingly predictable story: competent, quick enough and quiet.

  

• Cool

  Cool in the same way the average housebrick is cool. It's functional, does a job very well, but there's just no emotion. 

  

• Quality

  It's the usual Toyota fare inside - strongly built, with surfaces that feel as if they'll survive years of abuse at the hands of tartrazine-addled toddlers. However, its sensible right angles look as if they've been designed by a slide rule rather than any imagination or flair.

  

• Handling

  Not based on the Auris as you might think, but on a new platform. However, Toyota doesn't do laugh-a-minute handling well and so the Verso is about as entertaining as a DIY tax return kit. The body roll has been kept in check and the car feels perfectly safe and secure, but it's totally devoid of anything resembling fun. Toyota is pitching the Verso as the perfect vehicle for the family who'll head off to the Alps for a week and stop off for a lap of the Nurburgring on the way back, but don't believe the spiel. It's pretty dull.

  

• Practicality

  At last! Something the Verso does very well. There are some nice, sensible (who'd have thought it?) touches. Seats that fold flat one handed, plenty of space when you flip them, sat-nav voice that only plays through the driver's side speaker so that you don't annoy everyone else, lots of airbags. This is a car that only makes a case for itself in terms of practicality. 

  

• Running costs

  Let's not mess around here - buy the diesel. It'll return 50mpg and is in the reasonable VED Band F (£125) and 21 per cent bracket for company car tax. Like its predecessor, residuals should be strong.