It’s inevitable that sooner or later someone is going to crash into you. And when he finally does come pranging in from behind, I don’t want my kids to be one of the first things he hits. So whatever crash data the manufacturers give out to prove that putting extra child seats into what would otherwise be the boot of a compact car isn’t actually dangerous, I’m still not going to let my children test the theory.

The Honda FR-V’s solution to this common concern of the family driver is simple. It sits three in the front and three in the back, leaving a nice big boot to carry your luggage and soak up the bulk of other people’s suicidal excesses. And for this reason alone, if you need a sixth seat it deserves your undivided attention.

And even if you don’t, it’s still worth a look. By the standards of some compact MPVs, the FR-V has a pretty inflexible interior: the outer rear seats don’t slide and none can be removed, but a neat piece of design means that even quite a small child can travel up front with his or her parents. That centre front seat slides all the way back until it hits the rear-seat squab, so a child can still sit “in the front”, but remains sufficiently rearward not to be hit by an airbag designed to restrain an adult.

The system, however, is not perfect. The FR-V turned up with a plastic sign draped over the centre front seat opining how wonderful it would be if your baby could travel up front with you, only for its handbook to specifically preclude such a possibility. Under no circumstances should a rearward-facing baby seat be used up front.

Problem two occurs when you need to carry six people. You cannot then have any small child in the front as sliding back the centre seat will crush the legs of whoever is directly behind, so it’s older children and grown-ups only, at which point elbow room becomes so limited you end up feeling like a tinned sardine.

There are two petrol-powered FR-Vs available, with a 1.7 litre engine and five-speed gearbox or a 2 litre with six-speed. Diesel power is what everyone wants in this class but it won’t be in the FR-V until later this year, though given it will be the same superb 2.2 litre engine already in the Accord, the wait should be more than worth it.

In the meantime the 2 litre 148bhp car provides competitive performance and a comprehensive list of standard equipment which, if you choose the Sport model I drove, includes climate and cruise control, leather covers for the wheel and gearlever, and alloy wheels for a reasonable £16,400.

The six-speed gearbox, however, is not quite the bonus you might expect, as Honda has misjudged the gearing and made sixth too tall, presumably in an attempt to maximise economy and refinement. In the event, however, so glacial is top-gear acceleration that you are forever shifting down to fifth to regain speed or even maintain it up inclines.

Also, engine refinement is hardly an issue when there is so much wind noise. At an 80mph cruise there is a persistent whistle that I could not live with. At first I thought the problem might be specific to the test car but it has been complained about elsewhere.

The FR-V also brought the niggling suspicion that Honda’s usually exemplary construction standards are not being maintained. The cheap plastic on the centre console looks downmarket next to the interior fittings of, say, a Ford C-Max, and the footrest came adrift a number of times during my week with the car. It’s a small point but perhaps significant: in all the years I’ve been doing this I can’t remember anything ever falling off a Honda.

Otherwise it performed well. There’s good room front and rear, the boot is competitively large, and dropping the rear seats (which fold flat into the floor) requires neither brute force nor a degree in automotive engineering. Because the seats cannot be removed, its ultimate load capacity is rather less than rivals that let you leave the rear chairs at home, but for most people most of the time it will accommodate their friends, family and luggage with ease and space to spare.

All of which leaves me reasonably well disposed towards the FR-V. Like so many Japanese products, it breaks no real new ground but takes someone else’s original idea — the Fiat Multipla offered 3x3 seating six years ago — and refines it. If you don’t need the sixth seat I’d say a C-Max is still a better bet, and come what may you should wait for the diesel. But if you like the idea of your child being in the front with you as much as you hate the idea of them sitting in a rear crumple zone, then the case it makes for itself is real and compelling.

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