Julia and Alan Moore live on Waitakere's wild west coast, with Alan commuting daily into Auckland while Julia's president of her local Playcentre.
Alan's usual commuter is a frugal Toyota Echo, while Julia drives a Subaru Outback - which suits the young family's active lifestyle.
It's a tad thirsty though, and we were keen to see how she'd go in our long-term test car, a Kia Picanto.
The couple are foodies, "We were seduced by Picanto's name, which conjured up something really hot - and as we often wear orange we liked the car's saucy bronzy colour."
Three-year-old Ryan was particularly happy; "I like the orange seat!" was his first comment when I opened the door to that unexpected burst of interior colour," Julia says.
Initially unsure if Picanto would prove too small for two child seats, she soon found the rear unexpectedly spacious, "which we need to fit Kyla's baby capsule seat," and she was pleased at how easy it was to find the sometimes hidden bolts to fasten the child seats' tether straps.
The boot soon proved roomier than expected, too. It swallows a surprisingly generous amount of shopping, but won't accomodate Ryan's enormous pushchair buggy without folding one rear seatback - not possible with both Ryan and Kyla in residence. "If this was ours we'd buy a compact stroller that folds down smaller," Julia says.
The Picanto managed to scramble up and down the family's precipitous drive, but the auto gearbox wasn't at its best on the steep Waitakere hills in and out of town - particularly when heading up the last, rather extreme slope that's responsible for so many smoking brakes each summer. The 1.1-litre unit proved perky enough at other times - Ryan even accused his mum of going fast! - and seemed well matched to the gearing around town, but not on those hills. "I guess it may have made me drive more sedately, which can't be a bad thing with too small children to distract me!"
Most of Julia's running was the 15km trip to Playcentre, where Picanto's compact size proved a winner in the tight parking available.
As for Alan, who drives over the hills then cycles into Auckland, he found Picanto as capable of carrying his bicycle as the Echo, and "it turns out to be a great commuter car."
Overall? "The Picanto's fuel economy somewhat makes up for the auto's performance in the hills. But I couldn't get used to that auto - it did struggle on our roads, which could have been an unfair test," Julia says. Carrying mum and two kids over the hills could be why it's still using around three litres more fuel per 100km than the official claim. "Still, it's a great shopping and baby trolley in suburbia and we loved the high specification level - like the six airbags, the ABS brakes, MP3 player and heated mirrors. A brand-new car with all those features means it's a bargain price. It's easy to spot in a crowd and easy to park in tight spaces. And I didn't get road rage - it's not the sort of car you burn around in, which kept me cool-headed!"