VW Sharan SE Nav 2.0 TDI car review – ‘It has more welly than you’d think’

Yes, it's a people carrier, but don't let that put you off

I looked at this car and thought it was going to drive a bit wheezy and puffed out. I don't know if that's an assumption I have about seven-seaters, or whether I got some subliminal message from its eminently reputable face, but whatever it was, I was wrong. The Sharan is not a particularly nippy vehicle, but it has more welly than you'd think, and is incredibly solid and reassuring. Obviously the point of a people carrier is not welly but wellies; can everybody fit into it with their stuff, and do they do lumbar stretches and moan when they get out? Is the middle seat big enough, not just for adults but adults who don't really know each other and would rather die than rub thighs? It is.

It doesn't have a huge boot with the seats up, but if it did, it wouldn't be a car, it would be a bus. With the seats down, you could fit another car in there. The seat-flattening is incredibly intuitive and well-designed, and you finish with a space so airy, you're almost compelled to lug stuff around. The only place there isn't very much space is in the oddment stowage; but who needs a nook for your keys when you've got a table, four chairs and a man in a hammock in your boot? It's big; you've got that, right?