I can only now fully appreciate the sheer space provided by Kia’s new mini MPV, the Venga, after watching it being driven away and me getting into our next test car (it’s a tough life). Lovely though the new one is, it felt rather dark and claustrophobic inside in comparison to the high ceiling of the Kia with its amazing panoramic roof and enough head room for a gorilla – or indeed my husband!

Watching Doctor Who with the kids, I saw the similarities to his faithful Tardis. Rather innocent but intriguing on the outside, and surprisingly spacious on the inside with delightful nooks and crannies, sliding seats, hidden compartments and space, space, space! Has the Tardis got sliding seats? Oh well…

It’s not a luxurious car like its also-recently-launched big brother the Sorento (video review coming soon), but has many redeeming features. One of the models (the diesel, the one on test here) proudly displays the Ecodynamics badge which it has earned through its low fuel consumption (over 62 mpg on a combine cycle) with CO2 emissions of only 117g/km. This model doesn’t come cheap however, but the gains over the course of its life would soon add up. This, together with the seven year warranty offered by Kia do make it a very attractive proposition.

But what I might be inclined to do is to wait a bit until a few second hand ones come on the market, so that I could take advantage of Kia’s used car programme. This tops the depleted warranty back up to seven years if the car is less that 18 months old or with less that 18,000 miles on the clock. Then a Kia Venga would really be excellent value. Or you could take the view that this makes buying a new one less of a risk because you wouldn’t have much trouble selling it after 18,000 miles?

Either way Kia seem hell-bent on taking the worry out of buying a new car, and with products coming along so much better than their predecessors they’re starting to appeal to our hearts as well.