FAVOURED by many a family the midi-MPV continues to make great ownership strides with car buyers.

Bringing plenty of room and more than a bit of fun to the market is the SEAT Altea which is also particularly frugal of the fuel front.

In the Altea Ecomotive, SEAT has delivered a neatly put together cross between a compact people carrier and a conventional hatchback and the latest version of this enjoyable piece of five-seater family transport not only offers an above average, comfortably spacious cabin but also comes with changes which boost the Altea's already laudable green credentials.

The Altea is taller than your average family hatchback, providing some excellent headroom which adds to the airy feel of the cabin.

With a capacious interior and a good sized boot there is much evidence of a cleverly designed interior. In addition there are numerous cabin storage areas. SEAT points out that there are more than 30 such facilities on board, plus a sufficiency of bottle and cup holders.

SEAT has also been generous in its standard kit with every Altea including the likes of Switchable Traction Control, Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) with Emergency Brake Assist and six airbags as standard, plus remote central locking with deadlocks, engine immobiliser and child locks.

A two level floor to the boot and the flexibility of a rear seat which can split, fold and slide forward to increase luggage bay area further are also welcome additions to a pretty flexible interior boasting a family sized 409-litres of luggage bay which can extend to 1,320 litres depending upon seat configuration.

The excellent level of headroom helps to deliver ease of access for all passengers on board, the step-in and step-out of the cabin operation helping to make the exercise a much easier proposition even for less able occupants.

The driving environment features some neat instrumentation in clear and easy-on-the-eye dials beneath the hooded dash while the switchgear elements have that  comforting feel of SEAT's parent company, Audi/VW to hand.

A slightly higher driving position in comfortably supportive front seats adds to driver comfort on the move and, with the way ahead driver friendly, the SEAT Altea proved very easy to drive and park up.

It handled well, answering the nicely weighted power steering sharply while delivering a neat and very tidy ride.

Powered by the 1.6-litre turbo diesel paired with a smooth slotting five-speed manual gear change the Altea Ecomotive did show some decent mid range punch while also delivering a pretty relaxed motorway performance.

Economy, too, proved another big plus, the standard Stop/Start system working agreeably well through townl to help the 103bhp diesel engine deliver some very user friendly fuel figures.