End of rental Corolla Verso review

Did you ever sit in any of the seats apart from the driver's? For any length of time?

Well, no.

But, in 5 seat mode, there's acres of space in the back. My mum reckoned it was great - seats just the right height for a pensioner to get in and out of......

In 7 seat mode, there's less space, but it's a good compromise between passenger and boot space.

If you're in the market for a 7 seat MPV, I can see how it would be attractive - it's vastly better than the Pig's Asshole and Scenic (which are only 5 seaters anyway) but lots smaller than something like a Fuglypla, even though it has the advantage of an extra seat.

It's still 'HFM', though, as the list price of the rather pathetic mid-range petrol version is around the same as the Passat.

Ah yes, the same price a seven seat Passat estate?

It's a different type of car, it doesn't fit into the Passat market.

Trim quality - did anything rattle or fall off or are you whining that it's not got a soft touch mid section in germanic grey-black dullness?

No, nothing fell off, but the dash is made from nasty, hard plastic, the cubby in the top stopped opening when you pressed the button and the door cards were really badly scuffed.

Scuffed door cards means poorly looked after, the hard plastic is only on the centre panel, the top cubby is an acquired art to open...

'Poorly looked after' as in I used them?

There's hard plastic on the top of the dash, the door cards, the centre console, in fact, if it's not fabric, it's hard plastic.

Yeah, my ideal car would have an interior swathed in velvet on every surface.

George Castanza?

Fraser

...If it was socially acceptable, of course.

The velvet fog.

Fraser

Guide to trim quality

Soft trim, no rattles: reasonably well screwed together. Soft trim, rattles: scary. Hard trim, no rattles: well put together. Hard trim, rattles: not brilliant but not bad.

Did it rattle? No...

I don't understand your obsession with hard trim. It's not like you're going to lovingly caress the dashboard every time you use the car, is it?

Do you wear your seatbelt? If not, then I can understand the fondness for a soft dashboard: it means you have slightly less chance of injuring yourself.

Is it a biker thing?

The Saab has a "soft touch" trim on the dashboard and wooden funkiness on the front. The Accord had fake wood and soft plastic on the dashboard top. The difference to me? Almost nothing. I only know that both have a soft dashboard top because when I lift my cradle out there's a very short term indent in the material.

You completely miss the point. If you have a "significant other" and four kids plus a dog, the Passat becomes very, very expensive...

It's a tactile experience. Soft trim has more of a quality feel than hard trim.

But it's not something drivers regularily touch up... surely?

German dashboards are very nice, every other car seems inferior :)

On the other hand, every German dashboard I've used has been characterless, dull and has acres of dark plastic, soft or otherwise.

Slab sided Saab part wooden dashboards, now, that's something else... :p

Saab dashboards have nothing on German, and 5/10 years down the line the german dash will still be looking like new somthing that I have never seen in any other car.

And the Audi TT dash has loads of character :)

Audi RS4

You wont get much better than that :)

Dude, check my (six year) old ride...

Where's the character? I see some styled instruments, but hey, Alfa Romeo, Rover 75, shoot a whole bunch of cars now have similar cowling arrangements for the main instruments...

Oh and acres of dark plastic (maybe it's soft feel maybe not)...

Ewww. It looks like any other Audi. And there is a *lot* of dark plastic.

Now this is different.

Better? Dunno. Different for sure. Ruthlessly ergonomic too. Not to mention the curiously out-of-date but "classic" instruments, even my diesel looks similar to this (aside a different scale on the tacho):