WITH the ever increasing onrush of new models in an ever-changing automotive world, some impressive cars of the past can be easily forgotten in the rush.

One such is the quaintlytitled Toyota Picnic which despite its rather twee name was a totally impressive exercise in comfortable transport for six and later seven without having a wrestling match with awkward and detachable seats.

Toyota had gained fans aplenty in the 1990s with its full-size Previa MPV and when the midi MPV Picnic came along it capitalised on experience gained with the larger vehicle.

The accent was on comfort and ride with the finished product, which arriving on British shores in 1997, offering the opportunity of owning a relatively affordable MPV/estate hybrid which had a very versatile view of life with the centre seats having the ability to be folded into a table.

Surprisingly it was discontinued in 2001 being let down by rapidly-dating looks and just too much plastic in the interior.

But as far as doing the job was concerned the Picnic had few rivals.

It appealed to the families who wanted more than five seats and although somewhat expensive gaineda lot ofof fans

Seating was easily accessible and life was easy for drivers who soon got use to the quiet performance of its 2.0-litre petrol engine and 2.2 turbo-diesel.

However, technology at the time did not go as far as the frugal mpg figures we see today and the petrol Picnic could only manage around 31mpg and the diesel being not much better at 36mpg.

Performance was not bad with the petrol version sprinting to 60mph in just 11 seconds.

Much lower than the big Previa, the Picnic answered the call for an MPV estate crossover and although it had a few drawbacks it was certainly one of the clever cars of its time.