THERE is a bit of BMW beating beneath the bonnet of this people carrier from Toyota.

But don't get carried away by thoughts of business class performance, this is a car aimed squarely at families who rank sense much higher than swanky style.

Nothing wrong with that of course. Toyota has made a good living for years by supplying sensible cars to sensible people who simply want a safe and reliable way of moving themselves and their families from A (home) to B (school, office, supermarket).

Now, with a 1.6-litre diesel doing the work of the former 2.0-litre Toyota unit, they will make their journeys using a bit less fuel and in about the same time - the performance remains much the same.

Which means driver and passengers will have time to explore the interior of a car that has been bought by more than 52,000 Brits since the original version arrived here in 2002.

The choice of the BMW-derived diesel engine comes a bit after the Verso was given a thorough makeover, designed to keep the versatility but add a dash more style and comfort.

The Verso is built in Turkey and was designed in the South of France and comes with prices ranging from £17,770 for a 1.6-litre petrol model without the third row of seats, to the £23,995 of this car, with seven seats and a comprehensive list of standard equipment.

Aimed at adding a bit of style, the latest Verso comes with a revised interior that includes a nicely legible set of instruments, with the speedometer reading to a rather optimistic 160mph.

You'd hardly call the plastics on display plush but they do look hard wearing and they're fitted with an obvious attention to detail. The interior door releases let the side down, looking like black plastic tongues, not the elegantly sculpted efforts you might have hoped for.

But now to the practical nature of this latest Verso, which starts with three rows of seats that can morph into 32 different permutations.

The middle row slides forward and backwards, while the third row are more suited to modestly sized and athletic teenagers, and younger. With all seven seats in use the boot is reduced to sports car proportions, but with them dropped into the boot floor, there's more luggage space than you'll find in a Focus.

However many people are on board, they'll enjoy a ride that never gets bouncy, even on the worst a British road can throw at the car, but stays short of limo-like on even those rare perfect surfaces you find on newly repaired motorways (until the trucks get at them).

The driver won't be encouraged to explore the edges of Verso performance, reined in by steering that puts lightness much higher in its list of priorities than giving a feel of the road below and an engine that encourages higher gears and doesn't feel remotely sporty.

That's good for the more serious business of saving money on running costs - the test car showed 52mpg after several hundred miles of mixed use, some of it a high speed on motorways.

The journeys were eased by £650 worth of excellent satellite navigation that ranks among the better systems tried in recent months.

On a practical note, that same system comes as standard on the Verso Trend which still manages to save £1,000 on the posher Excel grade tested here with an identical engine.

It seems a no brainer to go for a Trend version, especially if you can live without automatic wipers, brighter headlights, auto dimmer interior mirror and touches of leather around the cabin.