SEAT Altea 1.4

We were upgrading/downsizing from a Zafira 1.8 Elegance and were a bit wary about getting a diesel - the usual things of concern - clouds of black smoke, no acceleration, sounding like a tractor. We needn't have been.

I was pleasantly surprised at the acceleration and general "nippiness" of the Altea. Much better than the last (petrol) MPV.

From the back it looks more like a car than the side view (and body description - MPV) would suggest.

At 80 ahem, the 1.9litre engine is probably doing the same revs as the Zafira was at 50, yes this has to do with the gearing, but it is a bonus not trying to get into a higher (non existant) gear because the engine is "revving its guts out" at such a low cruising sped. Top marks to SEAT/VW on that one.

Although we did find ourselves going faster than we intended to for the first few weeks ;)

Space wise internally, the boot is divided horizontally by a parcel shelf that covers the spare wheel bay - be warned if you're shifting bricks and bags of sand, remove this shelf before you get them :).

No spare tyre, but a can of sealant stuff and a little electric compressor are in the spare wheel compartment.

The Reference doesn't come with alloys or locking wheelnuts as an option, but we bought them and had them fitted before we took delivery, Oz wheels from the Seat dealership, made the car look unbelievably better.

This is a personal "feelings and discoveries" review.

Fuel consumption figures, engine size, speed can all be found elsewhere, although we get 40 - 50 mpg (depending on which one of us is doing the driving ;-) )