| Week at the Wheel | Hyundai i800 |

Inside & Out:

It's a bus. And, for us, that's what makes it so cool; tell your pals you've bought a small Korean MPV and you'll be laughed out of The Frog & Truncheon before you can say, "I still know how to party." However, rock up to pub quiz night in one of these - especially in black and possibly with a red stripe down it - and you'll be an instant ironic hero. Seriously though, there's just something innately cooler about carrying your family around in a massive bus than in an MPV.

The i800's van-based proportions mean it's absolutely cavernous inside for both passengers and luggage, and maybe that's what's so cool about it - that it's so singular in its purpose, with no recourse to fancy design flashes to hide its bulk and intrude on space. The boot is a huge 851-litres in size - well over twice the capacity of a Ford Focus's - and there's an embarrassment of leg and headroom for both back rows, as the middle bench slides fore and aft. The sliding side doors also mean it's really easy to get the kids in and out and, when you're stuck in a ten-mile tailback outside Euro Disney, they can play rounders or something in the cabin while you're listening to IDM.

Up front it's as you would expect ergonomically and aesthetically, but built slightly better than you might have hoped for. The dash top is of that spongy plastic that probably costs pennies more to manufacture, but makes all the difference. The plastic silver stereo surround is horrible and the design lacks any flair, but thoughtful touches like controls for the rear heat and blower velocity, and a little pocket near the auxiliary jack to actually put your iPod into (a surprisingly common oversight), show some thought was put into the realities of living with the i800 day-to-day. Bizarrely, though, the driver can have his or her bum warmed, but the passenger can't.

Engine & Transmission:

It's a beast of a car that will potentially carry eight people and all their paraphernalia, so it needs a big, torquey engine. And it gets one. The 2.5-litre CRDi diesel has 168bhp at its disposal, but more importantly, has 289lb.ft of torque from 2,000rpm. That's plenty, but it starts to tail off 500rpm later, which on the throttle pretty much feels like the definitive narrow power band. That said, it always feels just about enough to lug the porky people puller along with enough ease - though a 14.5-second 0-62mph sprint tells you all you need to know about the performance. And, because the i800 is a big car/big engine combination, it's not very good on the old carbon dioxide emissions either - spewing out an executive barge territory 225g/km and delivering 33.2-miles from a gallon of derv. A £210 per year VED tax bill awaits owners annually, too.

Is it even worth talking about the transmission on this? The five-speed manual box works well enough, but it's clunky and awkward, mostly because the link between the stick and the actual gearbox is long and dog-legged. It's effective, and that's all you can really say.

Ride & Handling:

The driving position is like that of any van you've ever driven: high to the point of feeling tilted forward. It's comfortable enough, though, and the ride, although bouncy, feels secure enough unless you hit a particularly wavy motorway patch. Most of the time you'll avoid the seasickness so often associated with cars this big that attempt to be comfortable via very bouncy suspension springs. Obviously the handling of this beast is a moot point, because anyone stupid enough to fling this into a roundabout with any sort of velocity deserves the consequences... well, that's what my wife said, anyway. Fortunately, we didn't end up crawling out of the car while it rested on its roof, but obviously there was more body roll than a free introductory session at Weightwatchers in January.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

Value for money is the i800's raison d'être, as the Koreans say. This car, with a standard spec sheet including electric windows, air conditioning, alloy wheels, a heated seat, rear parking sensors and tinted windows, costs £19,580. Of course, that would be a lot of you were buying a hatch - and there is the issue of it being Korean, which if we're honest will still be an issue for some - but when you decide to have the number of kids that should necessitate two cars, you really can't complain. We've already gone through economy, which is where you're going to take the biggest hit, but even that's not too bad in terms of its 'per person' output - assuming you're not in it alone most of the time, in which case we'd question your sensibility as a consumer. It has a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty too - and nothing even from Germany will match that.

Overall:

The tangibles are all about right: it's cheap to buy, reasonable to run (all things considered), well-equipped, good quality and decent looking (for a van). Plus, unless you have a total aversion to driving big clumpy vans - you drive a Transit for a living, or you've got no spatial awareness, for example - the i800 is a proper riot to drive. Most MPVs leave us cold because of their lacklustre design and over-the-hill connotations, but somehow, despite technically having both those qualities, the big Korean van has a unique kind of kudos. Maybe it's just because, ultimately, it's an absolutely brilliant family car (even for families with only 2.4 children), or maybe it's because it looks like the type of thing Tim Westwood would rock up to Bognor Regis in for a massive mash up with his crew. Big up.