What’s in a name? Well, Picnic would never have made me want to buy the Toyota of that name, however worthy. Avensis Verso doesn’t exactly drag me towards the showrooms, either, though it is a bit less, well, sunshine, songbirds and flowers? But the Verso (Toyotaese for MPV variant) based on the Avensis is a car prepared to do much more than hang around while you munch the paté and quaff the champagne.

It replaces the Picnic in the Irish market. It can be configured for six or seven occupants. If some of those spaces are never needed, it makes a 4/5-seater with lots of luggage space and a great view of the world.

The driving position is high and upright, with very clear visibility all around. The instruments are well shrouded from glare, and the really large centrally-located speedometer is just what’s needed to keep out of speeding trouble (there’s a thing about high vehicles, in that you don’t realise you’re going as fast as you actually are if you’re not used to it).

The centre stack controls are high to hand, the radio system being typical of current Toyotas and very much user friendly. The twist-knob for the heater temperature selection is an example of how these things should be designed. The storage areas include a flip-lidded space on the middle of the top dash, where a mobile phone can live when you’re not supposed to be using it.

The passenger seats are good, though because they’re designed to be packed three abreast in the second row if you’re configuring economy class, they felt a little on the narrow side. But there’s really good leg and head room for the tallest person. The pair of seats in the very back of our review car flip over, to give some extra luggage space in the rear, or to provide table facilities. I guess most of the time they could be left in the garage. There’s a tonneau cover to keep all that might be in that area out of view when necessary.

Over the period of the review, the car endeared itself to us in many ways, not least because of its driveability and comfort. But it also showed its absolute right to the multi-purpose-vehicle label when I needed to bring a bed to my daughter's house in Dublin. There are very few non-van vehicles that can comfortably take a 6'6" length of load and all the other bits and pieces that come with a fullsize bed.

And what impressed even further was the ease with which the rear sets of seats could be taken out to accommodate that load. All I needed was somewhere to store them for the time I was away (the dining room worked).

The car was the 2-litre petrol version with a feisty performance for what is a fairly large car. The Verso is as good as these things come in terms of handling, actually more car-like than some. In fact, it drives much more easily than its bulk would suggest.

So for a tad under 32,000 euros, it should do the job nicely if you need to transport a large picnic basket and the people to guzzle its contents, to somewhere there’s the weather to enjoy it in.

Wouldn’t mind driving it to Italy at the weekend myself ...