People carriers have a tough job to do. They get taken for granted because, for many families, they are a necessity rather than a car of desire.

Car designers know that and they've responded. The new Kia Carens is one such serious response. Here is a car that carries the bigger family, with seven seats, while remaining stylish and fairly compact. I've taken the Carens, which was just introduced this May, for a test drive and I'm definitely impressed.

Kia has enhanced the look of the car, which is shorter than the older model. It looks so much better now, both inside and out. It has a longer wheelbase than in the past, for better comfort, even though Kia claims to have squeezed more interior space in there somewhere.

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From a practical point of view, this new Carens ticks lots of boxes. It is easy to drive with a light clutch to operate its six-speed gearbox. The engine is modest in size at 1.7 litres and a turbo diesel, with adequate power at 114bhp and enough torque to match.

Out on the road, I found I needed to hit the higher end of the rev counter more often than I would have liked. I regularly cruised at motorway top speeds of 120km/hr and needed to be in the 2,500 rpm rev range to do that.

a little high

I found that a little high and it was probably why my fuel economy figures were about 30% higher than the rated figure of 20.4km/litre (4.9l/100km or 58mpg). On the smaller roads where I kept the revs lower, my economy levels were better as shown on the car's internal dash-mounted computer.

Relative to rival cars like the Opel Zafira with a similar-size engine or the Peugeot 5008 and Volkswagen Touran, both 1.6-litre turbo diesels, the Carens performed well in a paper comparison. That might be different on the road, but I found the 58-litre diesel tank gave me a range of over 820km, which is just a little short of what the car was predicting when I got behind the wheel.

I just loved the flexibility of the car. The extra space within the cabin and boot area gave better and more storage features. The standard cooled glove box is supplemented by second-row under-floor storage at your feet. There is a centre console box, front and rear door pockets large enough to hold drinks bottles and front seat back pockets. The front seat backs also have fold-up tables with cup holders in most versions, and there are cup holders in the second and third rows. The middle-row centre seat folds to create a table.

Moving the seats up and down was easy. Access to the rear seats is a bit tight because the car feels smaller but it's not a lot tighter than competing models, I felt.

The boot area is a bit smaller than the rivals already mentioned. The boot area is rated at 492 litres, extending to 1650 litres with the seats down. The front passenger seat can also fold forwards to give a longer space for storage.

I liked that it offers a space-saver spare wheel. It's tucked under the boot area on the outside, but it's there and is adequate.

The safety package is good for the Carens, which has not yet completed a Euro NCAP crash test. The most recent result was in 2007 and now Kia is expecting a 5-star award for the new model. That's not a surprise as it comes with six airbags, Electronic Stability Control, Vehicle Stability Management and Emergency Stop Signal.

The entry price for the TX grade model is €26,490 or £19,195 in Northern Ireland. It offers the best entry-grade price for the seven-seat segment, while you need to move up to the EX grade to get all of the useful features such as rear parking sensors - always useful in a car this size and shape.

The ownership costs are competitive with €270/annum road tax costs and good fuel efficiency.

This is a car that looks well, is easy to drive, has lots of useful features as standard, and especially on the slightly dearer EX version (about €1,300 more).

Add the seven-year warranty and three years' roadside assistance and the deal could be compelling enough to make you take a look.