I've been stubbing a metaphorical toe against the Splash concept and I'm going to have to sort this out right away. The problem is that Suzuki describes the car a mini-MPV, and while I agree with the "mini" bit I'm not so happy about what follows it.Strictly speaking, MPV means "multi-purpose vehicle", but it's more commonly understood as a synonym for "people carrier". Well, I don't see that the Splash particularly fits either of those descriptions, so do you mind if I just refer to it as a small hatchback? Thank you. I feel much better now.The Splash is effectively the same thing as a Vauxhall Agila, though Vauxhall offers a considerably wider choice. There are eight varieties of Agila but only four Splashes, and the one we're looking at here has the 85bhp 1.2-litre petrol engine, a five-speed manual gearbox and the higher GLS+ trim level.For the sake of completeness I should point out that there's also a cheaper GLS specification (with 15" steel wheels rather than alloys, and without front foglights or tinted rear glass, though you can have all these things as optional extras), a four-speed automatic gearbox and a 1.3-litre turbo diesel engine.The diesel is the celebrated GM/Fiat unit, which is excellent, but it adds £995 to the price of the car, and given the low mileages that small hatchbacks tend to rack up you probably still won't get that money back through improved fuel economy before all that's left of the human race is a handful of fossils.Anyway, the 1.2 petrol engine is itself quite appealing. It's impressively quiet most of the time, at least in small hatchback terms, and it performs decently, though not strongly enough to cause the rest of the car any trouble. If you're in the mood, the Splash is quite a lot of fun to drive hard, and if you're not in the mood you can enjoy the ride quality, which is really quite impressive - not soft enough to be wallowy, but not so firm as to be uncomfortable over bumps. It's even better in town, as indeed it should be, thanks mostly to the very light (but not too light) steering and remarkably compact turning circle.Not all the major controls are quite up to scratch, though, or at least not in my experience. The gearlever is mounted high up and close to the steering wheel, which is good, but the shift quality on the test car was awful. Perhaps that was a one-off, but then again perhaps not.One thing that definitely isn't peculiar to the test car is the swept-up side window design. It's very fashionable and all that, but it results in huge C pillars which in turn lead to lamentable rear visibility. This just isn't good enough for a car which is likely to spend a lot of its time being reversed in confined spaces such as car parks. The view up front isn't up to much either, since the front pillars are also quite thick and block out things you really need to be able to see when, for example, you're emerging from a T-junction.On a more positive note, the tailgate opening is both tall and wide, which means access to the luggage are is good. With all the seats up the load volume is 142 litres, or 178 litres if you include the under-floor compartment, and when you fold the seats down (a very easy one-handed operation) you get 573 litres and an almost completely flat floor.There's a lot of space for humans too. The Splash is one of the very few cars on the market in which I, at six foot three, need to have the driver's seat set slightly forward of its rearmost position. With that seat placed where I like it I can't comfortably sit directly behind it (though it's at least possible to do so), but I'd say that the Splash could easily carry four adults of up to six feet in height.The petrol-fuelled Splash has an official combined fuel economy figure of 51.4mpg, which is quite good but probably unachievable if the car is going to be used mostly in town, as I expect most Splashes will. The CO2 rating is 131g/km, and that's going to work against the car when the new VED system comes in next year - annual car tax will be £110, but it would have been £90 if Suzuki had managed to bring the emissions down to 130g/km.Euro NCAP has awarded the Splash four stars out of five for adult occupant protection, three out of five for child occupant protection and three out of four for pedestrian protection. The safety organisation noted that structures in the dashboard could cause injury to the lower legs of the driver and front passenger, though that's fairly common in cars as small as this one.Euro NCAP also noted that a head-protecting airbag is not fitted as standard, so it couldn't perform all the normal tests. The Splash does, however, have six airbags in all trim levels, including two full-length curtain airbags, and Suzuki has impressively made an electronic stability programme (ESP) standard equipment on all models. Engine 1242 cc, 4 cylinders Power 84.5 bhp @5500 rpm Torque 84 ib/ft @4400 rpm Transmission 5 speed manual Fuel/CO2 51.3 mpg / 131 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 12.3sec Top speed 109 mph Price From £10028.00 approx Release date 08/03/2008