Car review: Hyundai i800

Price £21,355
MPG 33.2
Top speed 112mph

As every father knows, granting a wish to a child is one of parenting's more rewarding tasks. However the desires that spring from a young mind can be tricky to fulfil. "No, Daddy doesn't think a unicorn would like to live in our small urban garden…" But just occasionally we get the chance to be our very own Dad'll Fix It. This happened to me last week when my nine-year-old daughter said that more than anything she'd like to "go in a van, a high one with rows of seats". Misty eyed, I pulled my own crumpled wish list from the back of my wallet and put a thick line through Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and in its place scrawled in smudged capitals: Hyundai i800.

To the untrained eye, the i800 looks like a large metal box on wheels. After spending 10 days in it and covering almost 1,000 miles across England and round the Brecon Beacons, I can tell you that it is a large metal box on wheels. But what a box! Hyundai, as you will be becoming increasingly aware, is a vast Korean automotive brand that produces cars as quickly and effortlessly as Namibian rugby players let in tries. The cars are cheap, but that in no way means they are shoddy. Last month Auto Express named it as the fourth best overall car brand in Britain. Currently there are 10 models in Hyundai's UK line-up, stretching from the feisty i10 to the gargantuan iLoad. All the vehicles carry the "i" prefix, except the off-roader which is called the Santa Fe – clearly the black sheep of the family. The "i" doesn't stand for anything, but lets you know you're in the same branding bucket as innovative, trendy, edgy products. iPad = i800, do you see? Well, that's the thinking anyway. Cool or not, don't doubt the seriousness with which the Koreans take their cars. All new models come with a full five-year unlimited mileage warranty. It's like buying a car from John Lewis.

The i800 comes in at number two on Hyundai's size chart. It's marketed as a big car for big families. In reality it will mostly see action as a big car for mini-cab firms, and particularly for airport transfers. But for the 10 days the car was my daughter's heartfelt wish, the i800 lived the dream. It provided comfort and transport for my wife and I, our three kids, a slobbering hound, a mother-in-law, two nieces and all the clobber associated with a week's holiday in the wilds of Wales.

Unlike most MPVs, which have room for seven and often offer very little in the way of load-lugging, the i800 seats eight in three rows and has a boot so spacious it makes a Manhattan loft look pokey.

You couldn't call it luxurious: it's defiantly basic, but in an agreeably robust, no-nonsense way. But it's not an austerity auto – there are frills. It has privacy glass, sliding rear doors, air bags, heated front seats, aircon, parking sensors, a decent MP3 music system and an unexpectedly lively 2.5-litre diesel engine. It's surprisingly nimble and responsive on the road. And the cabin is exceptionally quiet. I could easily hear my two young (and very politically correct) nieces singing from the back row as we surged over one of the stunning cols of the Beacons: "Baa baa rainbow sheep, have you any wool?"

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or visit theguardian.com/profile/martinlove for all his reviews in one place

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