Given the Toyota Corolla Verso's compact MPV status, most attention inevitably focuses on the internal arrangements and just what you can do with the furniture. Other very salient features of the Corolla Verso include a newly-developed platform.
A McPherson strut front suspension is meant to improve cornering stability while in the back a torsion beam arrangement is used to maximise space. Toyota engineers insist that it can offer driving dynamics not usually associated with the compact MPV species.
In looks, it has a substantial profile but then it is taller and wider than its predecessor. Internally, there's a strong quality feel: everything feels superbly nutted and bolted together.
The driving experience, which was on straight-ahead and well-surfaced Spanish roads near Seville, showed a car that was stable and precise in its behaviour. It is quiet too, due to the application of new sound-deadening materials and an acoustic-glass windscreen.
Corolla Verso will come here with three power units, the very clean and green 2.0 D-4D diesel with 116bhp and the VVT-1 1.6 and 1.8 petrol engines with 110 and 129bhp. All feature in the larger Avensis. It's the 1.6 that will account for 75 to 80 per cent of Irish sales.
The airbag armoury includes a knee airbag first seen on the Avensis. Four disc brakes are standard and there is ABS with EBD or Electronic Brakeforce Distribution. Service costs have been reduced. For the outgoing Verso it was between 5.4 and 5.8 hours per 100,000 kilometres or 62,000 miles. Now it's down to 4.2 hours.
Three levels of specification will be offered here. There's no word yet on pricing: Toyota Ireland people are still in negotiation with Toyota's European headquarters in Brussels.
The 1.6 in entry-level form should retail below €30,000 considering that its bigger sibling, the Avensis Verso is €36,300. The current prime player in the segment, the seven-seater Zafira has pricing that starts at €25,355. Another more recent seven-seater arrival, the VW Touran begins at €26,455.
Corolla Verso then is all set to make its mark in Europe and Ireland, in the most expansive of segments. Given the power and strength of Toyota these days, it's virtually a certainty their ambitious sales targets will be realised.