Kia has been noted in the past as the fastest growing car franchise in Britain. Last year it was replaced by Fiat, which should more accurately be described as the fastest reviving car brand in the UK. Kia actually suffered a 9.9 per cent drop in sales to 35,814. But that's about to change with the launch of its new Cee'd family hatch right now, which many people are claiming is nearly on a par with the Ford Focus. The Cee'd comes with a seven year 100,000 mile warranty which will bolster public confidence no end and almost puts it on a level with the five year unlimited mileage cover of sister brand Hyundai. Kia's big family model is the Sedona people carrier, a seven seat car that will fulfil a useful role for many couples with multiple kids. The Sedona is the second best selling large people carrier in Britain and the biggest seller among private buyers, which goes to show just how much people still want value for money. The market for MPVs in the UK is still growing, albeit at a modest rate. The Sedona makes a sensible alternative to some of the more style-led cars there are about. If you want capacity, this car has it in spades. Modern thinking is that the rear seats should always stay in the car and this trend has grown since the launch of the Vauxhall Zafira and its clever seat stowage system. The new Ford Galaxy and S-Max, which were introduced at the same time as the Sedona, follow this new way of doing things but, of course, stowed seats mean less load volume. Kia has stuck with the old method and still has five removable chairs in the back that fit onto rails in the floor. The seating pattern is now 2-3-2 instead of the previous 2-2-3 and is much more convenient. Getting the seats off is easy, getting them back on is not quite such a simple job but over time most owners would get the knack so it's not a major problem. The seats slide and recline as well as come out and buyers of the most popular model, the mid-range LS, get aircraft-style tables on the rear of the front seats. If you go for the TS then you get extra tables in the back, too. Buyers of the LS and TS also get 14 cupholders in place of the GS's 10! On a more practical note, LS and TS owners will also enjoy the benefits of electric sliding rear doors, a major boon when approaching the car with heavily laden arms or carrying small children. They work off small buttons on the remote key fob but on the test car one of the doors decided to jam open and then stopped talking to the electric circuits. While I was waiting for the Kia breakdown service operated by the RAC (excellent response time of less than 40 minutes even on the day after Boxing Day) I decided to see if I could fix the problem so we could get on our way. One Kia dealer was flummoxed but another suggested that the interior door switches sometimes play up through lack of use, a point worth bearing in mind. In the end, though, it turned out that the door locking mechanism had simply jammed for some reason. We released it by a bit of foot pressure on part of the mechanism that tells you to keep your feet off - because it releases the lock, of course! Under the bonnet of the £19,495 LS test car was a 2.9 litre four cylinder diesel engine (you can also get a 2.7 petrol V6 on the GS). The diesel, which surprisingly only has a five speed gearbox, averaged 37 mpg on a run and 29 mpg round town. You can see why the taxi trade love them. Maurice Hardy Annette's View Kia has shrunk the exterior length of its new Sedona but clever packaging means the car is actually bigger on the inside. It's wider and taller than the old model and looks much better into the bargain as it doesn't have such a beakey nose. The new seating arrangement also makes it far more practical. Previously, if you wanted to carry a load in place of the rearmost bench, or maybe holiday luggage, you could only fit in four people but now that figure's a more sensible five. In other markets, there is an even longer 11 seat version, just as there is the quirky SsangYong Rodius, which also comes from Korea. But while Kia is producing such an excellent model as the Sedona the Rodius stands little chance in Britain, as is evidenced by the number of them you don't see. Build quality on the Kia has been lifted at the same time as the packaging has been improved and while we had that glitch with the one electric door it otherwise performed faultlessly over a three week test in which it was used hard and covered many miles. It's not difficult to see why private buyers take so well to this car, but Kia is also expecting its fleet sales to grow, too. Car: Kia Sedona 2.9 CRDi LS Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 15.0 secs Top speed: 122 mph Bhp: 183 @ 3800 rpm Torque: 268 lb ft @ 1750 - 3500 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £19,495 Urban: 27.7 mpg Extra urban: 44.1 mpg Combined: 36.2 mpg CO2 emissions: 206g/km Insurance Group: 13 Best bits: much more practical seating; better build quality; great value.