Manufacturers of small MPVs whose interiors can only seat five people often tell me that this is all that buyers really want. And until I tried Citroen's C4 Picasso recently, I must admit, I tended to agree. After all, I don't have four children or hoards of elderly relatives. But I do need seven seats as it turns out. Living with a car like this opens up all kinds of possibilities. You find yourself offering lifts to people: agreeing to be the non-drinking party-goer. Suggesting the kids invite their friends around for sleep-overs. The fact that this flexibility is possible in a car without van-like styling and with a relatively affordable price-tag is good news for me.

There's no doubt that the C4 Picasso utilises its available space very well. That wheel at each corner stance doesn't just look good, it also maximises space for the all important passenger cell. There are always going to be compromises involved in packaging three rows of seats into a car 4.59m long (for reference a Ford C-MAX is 4.33m long, a Volkswagen Touran measures 4.39m, a Toyota Verso 4.36m and a Vauxhall Zafira breaks the tape at 4.46m) but the ingenuity of manufacturers in reducing the day to day impact of these compromises is where they earn their corn. The most common solution is to sacrifice a little room in the rearmost row and target these as 'occasional' seats for kids. The Citroen offers more space in the footwell on the rearmost set of seats although the raked roofline takes its toll for taller passengers. The more important middle row of seats reaps the benefits and offers more leg and elbow room than any of its competitors. Most of the time, users like me will probably use the car configured as a five-seater, it provides 576m of loadspace beneath the parcel shelf. Lose the second row of seats and there's a colossal 1,951 litres of room to play with. Many customers will be swayed by a showroom demonstration of how easy or otherwise the seats are to fold and the C4 Picasso looks set to score in this department too. The second and third rows of chairs can be folded away under the floor without the need to remove the headrests to provide a flat surface that's ideal for loading. The whole design is a good deal more intuitive than the system used on the Vauxhall Zafira. Access to the back seats is good as well. Press a control on the edge of the outer middle seat and the seat cushion flips up to the seat back, the seat then slides against the back of the one in front. No more clambering with muddy feet over the middle row of seats or tearing the pockets off your trousers trying to lever yourself through a minuscule gap.

Although the C4 Picasso's athletic stance is the first thing to catch your eye, the second is the wide-angle panoramic windscreen that rises up and over the front seat occupants, doubling vertical visibility in the front to seventy degrees compared to 35 degrees in a standard MPV. Vauxhall may have already offered a similar thing as an option on the latest Astra but this is the first time it's been fitted as standard to an MPV and the effect is just stunning, the sheer acreage of glass in front of the driver being at first a little unnerving. One of my colleagues described the feeling behind the wheel as like being in the cockpit of a jet fighter. Citroen's designers have slimmed down the windscreen pillars and through this, the effect of airiness and front visibility has been increased still further. It's not just a styling affect either, the added field of view making it easier to spot motorbikes, cycles and pedestrians coming while preventing the usual craned neck when negotiating small roundabouts. At present the engine choice extends to a 143bhp 2.0i petrol engine or 110bhp or 138bhp HDi diesels but more powerplants will doubtless join the roster as sales ramp up.

As I've already said, the seven-seat practicality allied to striking design and affordable pricing sold this Citroen to me. Were I looking to buy in this sector, I'd feel that I couldn't afford to ignore it.