With the arrival of the impressive Sorento off-roader, the Carens can now be thought of as an "old school" Kia, in which quality is a smaller consideration than low price.This is a little unfair. Kia has been producing some pretty decent budget models over the last few years, and the Carens mini-MPV has generally been popular among CARkeys writers. On the other hand, low cost of ownership is still one of its major advantages, and it's significant that the 2003 model year Carens has, despite interior and exterior styling modifications, been kept at the same price as the older versions.The six-seater layout did not survive the update (the Carens now has only the five-seat option), but the range has been widened to include, for the first time, a two-litre turbo diesel option, which adds £900 to the price of the equivalent petrol car.Even with that premium, the Carens is not expensive by the standards of the class. The car tested here is an LX (the lower of the two trim levels) with a five-speed manual gearbox (there's also a four-speed auto) and it costs £10,895. For this you get an awful lot of passenger room both front and back, and decent luggage space, even if the latter is compromised by the fact that the boot floor - which admittedly can be removed to reveal extra compartments for odds and ends - is above knee level.The engine is stronger than the quoted performance figures suggest. 0-62mph in 13.5 seconds doesn't sound very impressive, but there's a lot of mid-range grunt, with maximum torque way down at 2000rpm, and an unladen diesel Carens can easily deal with most overtaking situations. I didn't try packing the test car with passengers and luggage, but I imagine it would still pull quite strongly.The official economy figures are good, too, though I was disappointed not to be able to get 400 miles from a tankful. I thought this was going to be easy until I realised that the fuel gauge creeps down very slowly to begin with and then starts to plummet from the half-full marker downwards.Handling isn't a major issue in a car like this, but I do feel that it's important for an MPV to be easy to drive. The Carens gets no more than a grudging "OK" here. Both the handling and the ride suggest that the driver is sitting on top of the front wheels, even though this is far from being the case, and there's a strong suggestion that major understeer could result from going into a corner slightly too quickly or encountering an unexpected damp patch at the wrong moment.Suspension development isn't a Kia strong point at the best of times, and even though most owners won't worry about it I think it would be a good safety move to keep the front end in particular under better control.There's a lot of standard equipment on the LX, to the extent that nothing you pay more for on the higher-spec SE is of any great importance. That being the case, the low purchase price has to show up somewhere, and a quick glance at the interior reveals where the cost-cutting has been going on. The dashboard is a large lump of none too stylishly shaped plastic, the minor controls seem flimsy, and the major controls do not give a sense of quality. The navigation system fitted to the test car was basic but effective, a description that could be applied to almost everything else in the car.Whether or not this matters to you depends entirely on your reasons for buying a mini-MPV. If you want something flash or refined, look elsewhere. But your requirements may be different. Motoring journalists generally want to be excited by cars, and they get all depressed if they're not. In the real world, there are people who want something spacious and cheap which will get them from A to B without any fuss. The Carens could be better than it is, but it does the job well enough.Second opinion: For me, this car really hits the spot from the point of view of original cost, good mid-range pull and very fair economy for a quite bulky vehicle. The 2003 front-end restyling, similar to the Sedona, makes a big difference to the appearance, although the rear end is still rather uncompromising. Of course, if you want space at the back, you can't expect svelte. The new interior is improved by the chunkier feel of the switches and the use of a fair amount of metal-effect trim. I thought the gearchange was a bit floppy, but there's a good Hyundai engine at the far end of it, and the Carens can steam along pretty smartly. Really, though, you just can't get away from that price - only £230 more than the Ford Fusion 1 with much less space and a smaller turbo diesel engine. Even the LX diesel Carens has an auxiliary electric heater for quicker cabin warm-up from a cold start. If nobody's eavesdropping, I'll confess I started out thinking our test car was a £12,895 SE. Oops! Ross Finlay. Engine 1991cc, 4 cylinders Power 111bhp Fuel/CO2 40.4mpg / 185g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 13.5 seconds Top speed 107mph Price £10,895 Details correct at publication date
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