| COMFORT AND EQUIPMENT RATING: |
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You might expect a big MPV like this to lurch and wallow in bends and upset its occupants, but the C8 is very well damped and gives its passengers a smooth, fluid, nausea-free ride. This is true whether lightly laden or loaded right up, but the latter condition gives smoother progress over badly-maintained road surfaces which can trigger a fidget - more heard than felt - with little weight on board. Noise levels are low, apart from some diesel clatter when the engine is cold, and the engine is almost inaudible at motorway speeds. Wind roar is quite low, too, although curiously variable. All seats prove comfortable, with height adjustment up front (electric on the test car), and the steering wheel is adjustable for rake and reach. The automatic, and very effective, air-con is independently controllable for left and right sides, there are two more separately-controllable outlets for centre passengers, and the rear row also gets its own vents. This is the main point of an MPV, and the C8 obliges with lots of legroom (for the first two seat rows, at least), a flat floor and uncluttered front footwells. There's room to squeeze between the front seats from the front to the next row, too. The five rear seats (the rearmost pair is optional) slide individually over a 15cm/6in range, and the front seats can be swivelled half a turn to face rearwards. The rear seats also fold, recline and tip out of the way in usual MPV fashion, but they are very heavy to remove despite their aluminium frames. So it's just as well that they have little wheels to help with their transportation, and that they click easily back into place. The backs of the front seats have flip-up picnic tables plus map pockets and a small shelf, while the rear seats become tables with cupholders if folded flat. Storage slots and pockets abound, albeit lacking in rattle-reducing rubber linings. The two flip-up glovebox lids on top of the facia uncover unexpected oddments opportunities, there's a drawer under the front passenger seat, and the centre console has a cooled drawer and a pull-out section with a cupholder, another cupholder/ashtray and a place to store the cigarette lighter if the socket is being used for, say, a phone charger. But there's no underfloor storage, none of the in-car bins is very deep, and boot space is not great with seven seats installed - a Grand Espace does better here. A rear bench for three children is an alternative option to the two rearmost seats, which makes the C8 an eight-seater - just. Naturally, there's a 12V socket in the boot. Our mid-spec test car featured a single-slot CD player and a small-screen sat-nav, sharing a display below the three central dials. The stereo controls are mainly conventional, and largely duplicated on a column stalk, and they share head unit space with controls for the sat-nav and telephone. All are further controllable by a turn-and-press button in the middle of a circle whose segments activate settings menus for the stereo, the telephone and the sat-nav, and also trigger a trip computer and a deeper car-settings menu. Higher-spec C8s have a large colour screen in place of the centre dial and small display. The eight-speaker stereo has a clear, convincing sound.
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