Seat Alhambra: ‘Understated but by no means anaemic’ | Martin Love

Its don't-mind-me styling won't win many awards, but this big Seat is road gold

Seat Alhambra
Price 28,395
0-62mph 10.2 seconds
Top speed 124mph
MPG 56.5
CO2 130g/km

It was the last day of the summer holidays and ahead of me stretched an all-day drive from Callas near the south coast of France to Calais in the north. My family were horrified at the prospect of spending "hours and hours and hours" on the go, but I've always loved a road marathon. We started at 6am and the adventure got off to a good start when we found ourselves sharing the carriageway with a pair of Hell's Angels. One of them had a pillion passenger that turned out to be a large dog wearing tank commander goggles, jowls flapping in a haze of drool. Later, we stopped at an aire and queued for coffee behind a couple who'd brought their budgies on holiday in a cage. They were called Flo and Matisse (the birds, not the people). Later still, we drove through a trio of towns in the Loire called Fussy, Bussy and Jussy"