This Idea may well be the best idea Fiat ever had.

And perhaps, along with the Nuovo Panda, it represents the company's way forward.

It certainly proves once again one thing. That what Fiat Auto does best is build small cars. The Stilo experience hasn't been its greatest success story, though I personally think it is a fine car.

The Idea (pronounced id-ay-ah) is aimed at what is becoming the fastest-growing part of the MPV niche, itself one of the fastest-growing in the whole car scene.

Mentioning some of the key direct competitors should put the Fiat offering into immediate perspective. Opel's Meriva, Ford's Fusion, Toyota's Yaris Verso.

The segment is in one sense rewriting the small car. Because the small MPVs are crossing the line between supermini and compact family cars.

In the same way that the Zafira/Scenic class blurred the line between compact and large cars, vehicles such as the Idea are pulling buyers from both the classes it bridges.

It is great for the customer, of course, because now there's even more choices, in space, style and price.

As I write, I'm not finished with it, but I've travelled over 600 miles in the car, under as wide a range of driving conditions as you can imagine.

So far, I'm impressed. Very.

Idea is a good-looking car, one of those where the proportions and the angles seem to have come together in a very sound way.

Though in basis a small car, it is tall, has very short overhangs, and the front end style is as good as you'll get anywhere. Very coherent.

The side view would be slabby except that it is broken well by a crease along the doorhandle lines and a well-placed rubbing strip.

The back is simply shaped, with clear visibility in mind as well as easy loading. The review car comes with smart alloys.

It is the very cab-forward style of the windscreen which I think gives the Idea much of its stylistic attraction, almost in a continuous line with the bonnet.

Inside is a very successful exercise in good people packaging. That tall cabin makes for a 'sit-up' driving position which actually makes progress less tiring than if you are sitting down in a normal car.

It may have something to do with the visibility of the traffic ahead (and behind). You can often see over the cars in front and make earlier adjustments to your driving.

The instruments are in a central binnacle, quite easy to read, though it is clear that the placings are for LHD cars and the speedometer is the furthest away dial in our case.

But the whole instruments/radio/climate control stack is a fine exemplar of how these things should be done. There is no surfeit of buttons and switches, and those that are there are large and clearly labeled.

The gearshift is neatly placed in an extension of the centre stack area, and works easily through its five slots. However, the pedals are a little close-set, and for somebody with my wide foot it is too easy to hit a pair of pedals at once. There's a left-foot rest that I don't like, and without it there would have been room for a wider placing of the pedals.

All this is something you get used to very quickly if you own the vehicle, and especially if you are a twinkletoes. So don't count it as a serious gripe.

Storage solutions abound, and begin with a matched pair of lidded compartments on the dashboard top, either side of the instrument binnacle. They actually turned out to be very practical, and can easily hold maps, books, glasses, and even a typical camera. On the passenger side there's an open tray under the dash, while a central open box behind the handbrake is quite a useful size. The pair of bottle-holder indents to the front of that area proved perfect for water supply. Two shelves at the top of the windscreen are also practical.

The review car also had some drop-down central overhead drawers, which we didn't actually use. I think I'd prefer the big glass sun-roof that is an option. But part of the central overhead console is one of those excellent panoramic mirrors to keep an eye on the kids in the back.

Overall it is a four-seater, though three children could be comfortable in the back. There's a facility to use the centre slim seat as a flipped over divider and cupholder, and there's also a variety of ways to fold and flip the seats. The rear seats can be reclined to a 'relaxed mode' or the whole seats can be moved forward to optimise luggage space.

The 1248cc MultiJet diesel engine has a 70bhp power output with a perky 180Nm of torque at fairly low revs, and is a willing little performer even if it doesn't break acceleration records. It also averaged over the last 600 miles a decent 50mpg, a lot of those most recent ones being short trips around town. On the motorway it was hitting 57mpg, and I suspect that when the engine gets another 5,000 miles on it the frugality will get even meaner.

The wheels-at-the-corners design makes the Idea a right good handler and very neat to deal with narrow streets and turns of South of England towns. And on the long motorway runs that are something we don't have in Ireland, it was tireless in its work and proved comfortable enough to leave no aches or creaks of ageing bones.

The review car was the top of the range Emotion specification, and includes as standard window airbags for protecting front and rear passengers in a side impact. Rear parking sensors also come with the package and the dual-zone climate control is rapidly becoming a must-have.

All in all, this new Fiat faces up to the competition in a very substantial way. It has the potential to help lift the company from its financial doldrums.

But it already should be raising the motoring public's perception of what Fiat can do when it really sets its collective designing mind to it.