Somewhat to my relief, I find that my impressions of the new Kia Carens MPV after living one for a week are much the same as they were when I drove several examples in the course of a single day at the UK media launch.I say now as I did then that this is the best-looking Carens yet, though realistically (despite the provision of seven seats) suitable for no more than four adults. The back row in particular is definitely for children only, if you're prepared to send the little cherubs back there. If they were mine, I'd have doubts about this. Very few seven-seaters look as if they would protect their rearmost occupant in the event of a tail-end impact, and the Carens isn't one of them.I didn't actually put this to the test, but I did use the Carens as the support vehicle at a motorsport event and managed to pack into it everything that required packing without folding down the centre seats.That still left 492 litres of space (more than any small family hatchback with the exception of the Honda Civic and the Skoda Rapid and Octavia) which proved to be more than enough for the purpose.If I'd turned the Carens into a two-seater the capacity would have shot up to 1650 litres. That's quite a lot. I could probably live in 1650 litres.The test car was in the middle trim level for the range, unambitiously called 2. Kia reckons that this will be the most popular of the three available. It comes as standard with 16" alloy wheels, privacy glass, foglights, roof rails, automatic headlights and wipers, folding door mirrors, dual-zone air-conditioning, a luggage net and reversing sensors, none of which is available if you save £1300 and opt for the 1 instead.There are three powertrains available for the 2, and my favourite is the 133bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine with manual transmission.The test car, however, had the 114bhp 1.7-litre turbo diesel, which, apart from being rather noisy, is also much heavier and for that reason spoils the handling considerably. On a damp road it was willing to understeer even at low speeds, and you really don't want that to happen.On the other hand, it provides perfectly adequate straightline performance, and all the major controls operate very nicely, allowing for smugness-inducingly smooth gearchanges. And although the diesel's 60.1mpg official combined fuel economy would be difficult to match, I had no problem at all averaging slightly over 50mpg, which I thought was pretty good.In the course of a week I covered a little over 400 miles, and at that rate the fuel economy would have a significant effect on running costs. If 400 miles is the sort of distance you're more likely to travel in a month, go for the petrol engine instead. It makes the Carens a) more than £1000 cheaper and b) better. Engine 1685cc, 4 cylinders Power 114bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 60.1mpg / 124g/km Acceleration 0-60mph: 12.6 seconds Top speed 112mph Price £20,595 Details correct at publication date
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