For a seven-seat people-carrier, Toyota Verso running costs aren’t too bad at all. It has been designed to be easy to repair with parts such as light clusters made simple to replace. This has helped it achieve low insurance ratings with the T2 diesel a group 6 and the rest of the range group 7 or 8. The 10,000 mile service intervals aren’t as long as alternatives from Ford or Renault for instance, but Toyota servicing is reasonably priced and its dealers have a well-deserved reputation for quality.

All Verso engines use a maintenance-free timing chain and the oil filters are cheaper than before. The engine bay layout is designed to make access as easy as possible – minimising labour time and costs.

Although higher than many modern hatchbacks, Toyota Verso emissions are acceptable considering the size of the car. Toyota’s engines use Optimal Drive technology to maximise performance but keep emissions low. The 2.0-litre D-4D originally emitted 143g/km of CO2 – about average for a people carrier with this power, with economy of 51mpg. From 2013 onwards, these figures were improved to 129g/km and 57mpg. This improved further still from March 2014 with the 1.6-litre D-4D offering 62.8mpg and 119g/km.

The 1.6-litre manual Valvematic petrol Verso can average 43mpg and emits 154g/km of CO2, while figures for the automatic 1.8-litre Valvematic automatic version are 41mpg and 159g/km.

With one of the best reputations around for reliability and durability Toyota Verso reliability shouldn’t concern you.. There’s a three year/60,000 mile warranty as standard but many components are designed to last more than double that time.