28 Sep 05
Life changes when you have kids (or so I'm led to believe, not having them myself).
Things like spur-of-the-moment exotic adventure holidays in far-flung parts of the world are consigned to the nappy bin of history.
Your car has to change too. You can say goodbye to that Nissan 350Z that you'd only just got your hands on and say hello to the world of Compact MPVs.
Over the past few years, the Compact MPV market has exploded. With so many people searching for more child-friendly space, manufacturers are in a constant battle with each other to produce the ultimate family wagon.
Now if your Compact MPV seats five, it's old hat. The latest models seat six or seven in a variety of ways: the Honda FRV and Fiat Multipla have two rows of three seats; the Mazda 5 has three rows of two seats, with an extra seat popping up in the middle if you need it; and the new Vauxhall Zafira seats seven, thanks to its clever Flex-7 seating system.
Toyota's Corolla Verso seats seven, but, despite that, is arguably the most car-like in its styling of all the Compact MPVs. And now it has enough power to keep even the most hardened car-nut dad happy while ferrying the kids between school, the swimming pool and relatives down the motorway.
