Don’t expect anything other than excellent SEAT Toledo safety levels. Like its stablemate, the Skoda Rapid, the SEAT Toledo has achieved impressive results in European crash tests. The Euro NCAP safety body has awarded the Toledo five stars overall. Standard safety kit includes ABS, ESP, driver and front-seat passenger airbags, head airbags, side airbags for the front seat passengers, seatbelt reminder for front seat passengers, fuel line cut-off on collision, child seat fittings on the rear seat, headlight levelling and daytime running lights.

In terms of bootspace the Toledo will be tough to beat. With 550 litres of available luggage space, you can’t complain, but you’ll have an even more cavernous loadbay in front of you when you fold the rear seats down. It’s not a completely flat loadbay however, because the rear seatbacks leave a step. Official stats tell you that there’s a total of 1,490 litres available but since a test with water is impractical, it’s fair to say that it’ll easily accommodate four or five sets of golf clubs.

That’s pretty pointless with a driver and passenger only, but three golfers and all their kit can be carried in comfort. If you compare the Toledo with rivals, it’s also a winner. The Ford Focus has 363 litres with the rear seats in place and when they are folded flat this expands to 1,148. It also fares well when you put it alongside the VW Golf that has 350 litres with the rear seats up and 1,305 when flat.

If you are considering a Vauxhall Astra the Toledo still holds all the cards: the Astra a load space of 312 litres and 1,070 litres. So, the Toledo will be great at ferrying stuff around, but what about people? Well, there are five seats which means that you could fit five people in, but in practice it’s only fit for four because the rear middle seat isn’t that large.

There’s plenty of head- and legroom in the Toledo as well as a couple of bottle holders in the central console and in the side door bins. There’s no central bin inbetween the driver and front passenger on lower-spec models, just a couple of small rectangular cubbies. Storage nets in the front seatbacks for rear-seat passengers are a welcome addition.