HYUNDAI I800 People Carrier 2008 on

We have four children under four, so needed a car that could not only accommodate 6 passengers in comfort, but the cargo associated with little people... two double buggy's etc. In short there were very few options on the market!

The review below has covered off all the usual topics... and they have given a very fair assessment of the i800. My wife loves driving the "beast" and feels very safe in it ,she got over the "is it too big?" issue very quickly. Loading the kids in and out is straight forward because the seats are at waist height. When it is raining (which it does very occasionally...ahem) you can all climb in and pretty much walk about!... no more wet back syndrome as you struggle to strap your little darlings into their car seats.

The boot is huge, so if you enjoy weekends away you wont struggle to fit in the essentials and more. When open, the boot door makes an excellent canopy for transferring the kids into prams!

Unlike most MPV's, which look a little naff and generic, the i800 resembles the A-Team Van which does make it quite cool to drive, if you are a bloke of a certain age! You will dwarf most other cars/4x4's on the road including Range Rovers! The tinted windows as standard only add to the kerb appeal in my opinion.

In short this is a MANly MPV, that the wife will enjoy driving. You won't find a more practical vehicle on the road for the money... and yes you feel like "BA Baracus" driving it... what more could you want! ... "I ain't gettin in no plane"... (Que the music...)

As a family, with the kids getting to adult size, we needed to get something larger than the Zafira's we had been running. I had seen the i800 at the Motor show so I was aware it existed and knew it was big. We viewed a Kia Sedona, Ford S-Max and the Galaxy but they didn’t offer a lot more than we had in the Zafira. The big Merc's & VW’s were out of our price range so we headed over to the Hyundai garage to look at a second hand i800.

Yes it's a van with 8 seats, but I love it. It wasn't an instant love, I like big cars and it had all the room we wanted. The test drive did not put me off the car at all, the price was excellent, so it was a quick buy.

It can get a little noisy at 70mph and above, but you can still talk normally to each other so it is not excessive. It doesn't have many toys (air con and some fog lamps is about it) and I only get around 30mpg out of it, but actually given its size I didn't expect anything more.

The high driving position is fantastic, the engine has a lot of power, the car pulls readily and the gearbox is smooth. The car has an amazing turning circle easily getting you out of tight spots in car parks and the sliding rear doors make for easy access. You get a second set of heating controls for the rear passengers and these work well. There is also a nice lot of lighting in the car including ‘mood’ lighting which is basically multi-coloured LED’s and you can choose the colour you wish. The middle seats are a 33/66 split and they slide back and forth, in the normal position everyone have more than enough leg room. The rear seats are fixed in place which is ok as there is still a huge boot area.

We took the car to France and drove over 1000 miles in a week and that really sealed my love for the car. The high seating meant driving on the right was no issue. We cruised along the motorway for 5 hours and the kids all had so much room it was bliss not to hear any arguing about elbows touching. We got all of our luggage and bedding and a weeks shopping in the boot with plenty of room to spare.

So in conclusion, both my wife and I love driving the car around, it gives us everything we wanted in a big family car and for the money I can’t see anything out there to beat it.

Pleasant to drive. All seats are large and comfortable. Huge luggage capacity. Will comfortably cruise at the legal limit loaded up with people and luggage. Goes and stops well. Tows a caravan with ease. Good for the school run. Number of miles left in the fuel tank is a useful feature. Fuel economy is good, given the size of vehicle. Sloping down bonnet was difficult to judge where it ended for parking, but became easier with time. Wallows and bounces a little when empty and on windy lanes. Overall, a much better people carrier than a lot of the other supposedly large people carriers which have seats or luggage space.

It is the best vehicle I ever owned. It is simple basic no fuss.

The pitfalls are the seats don't lay flat to make a bed,nor can they be easily removed to make a van, It only has one heated seat which is just mean. You can't buy pretty bits nor fancy wheels. spoils a near perfect motor