The Carens was awarded four stars for adult occupant protection in Euro NCAP crash tests. That’s not a poor result by any means, but alternatives like the Mazda5 and Vauxhall Zafira gained the maximum five stars. Six airbags are standard and electronic stability control (which corrects the cars line during skidding) is available as an option.

The seven-seat version of the Carens is a good choice for larger families, but the downside is that luggage room is minimal when all seven seats are being used with just 74 litres of boot space. Both second and third-row seats fold flat (the middle row has a 60/40 split) and the mechanism for folding them is very straightforward. There are plenty of useful storage compartments in the cabin including a large central cubby and big door pockets too.

One quirk that doesn’t quite work is the foot-operated parking brake – it’s especially tricky in manual cars.