In official crash tests by Euro NCAP, the Venga was awarded four stars out of five although it wasn’t without its problems. During the frontal impact tests, the driver’s seatbelt was partially cut by the lower seat rail – a serious flaw. Kia acted quickly to provide a solution and recalled all the cars affected, fitting a protective sleeve. All new cars have this fitted at the factory, but if your car is an early model then it’s worth checking that the work has been carried out.

After being re-tested by Euro NCAP the Venga was given a full five stars for safety.

Basic boot space is an impressive 440 litres while a storage compartment underneath the boot floor extends this further to a maximum of 570 litres with the rear seats in place. The rears seats slide backwards and forwards in order to further increase boot space, but it does cut down on rear passengers’ legroom. Dropping the rear seats is simple and done with the pull of a lever.

They also fold down completely flat bringing the total volume available in the rear to 1,253 litres.