You might have noticed that Mitsubishi is a troubled company. Clobbered by falling sales, particularly in the critical domestic Japanese market, rising debt and the recent refusal of its part-owner DaimlerChrysler to pump in any more money, it bears the weight of the world on its shoulders. And the signs are its knees are beginning to buckle.

Yet many of the cars it sells, at least in Britain, are far more deserving than this sorry situation suggests. The new Colt is a sparkling little hatch and if Mitsubishi can find a way of communicating this to a general public either unaware of or indifferent to the concept of a Mitsubishi supermini, it should fly for them.

Similarly, the Outlander estate/SUV crossover is attractive and reasonably capable, the Shogun is more competitive than you’d think, given its age, and the Evolution VIII remains one of the great driving machines of our era. Of course, the Carisma is a joke these days and the baby Shogun Pinin always was, but these are ageing products and do not represent current Mitsubishi thinking.

The new seven-seat Grandis MPV, an upsized replacement for the almost definitively unremarkable Space Wagon, appears to illustrate the point to perfection. Whereas the Space Wagon was a boxy, dull traditional MPV, the Grandis is sleek, swooping and, by MPV standards, astonishingly interesting and attractive.

Indeed, if you judge it on looks alone, I’d say this is the closest to cool that an MPV has yet come. While rivals such as the Citroën C8 and Ford Galaxy look upright and awkward, the Grandis is long, low and purposeful.

It’s clever and smart inside, too. Mitsubishi has grasped the fact that the tallest people are most likely to sit in the front, so while that low and descending roofline means there’s less headroom in the second and third rows than you’d find in, say, a Peugeot 807, it’s normally not going to inconvenience your passengers. But because the Grandis is longer than is average for the class, legroom in the middle row is excellent, which is not so much a bonus for children as for their parents, who’ll delight in not being kicked in the back all the way to Auntie’s.

Most importantly, the rearmost seats fold individually into the floor, so you don’t need to wrestle with them every time you need to create extra space. Anyone who has ever tried to lift a rear seat from a car such as a Galaxy will know what a bonus this is. These seats also tip backwards to provide rear-facing chairs for sheltered viewing under the tailgate or getting out of wellies without spattering the interior with mud.

All of which heads the Grandis in the right direction for being the best new MPV in its class. Sadly, it’s about to be blown off course.

Problem one is that a low roof and a floor high enough to hide a row of seats mean those used to using their MPVs as vans should stay well away. With both second and third rows of seats folded, the Grandis will carry just 1,545 litres of clobber, less even than a Mondeo estate. A Galaxy, by contrast will take more than 2,600 litres. Toyota’s only slightly more expensive Previa will swallow 2,929 litres, almost double that of the Grandis. Nor does it have electric sliding doors, like the Citroën C8/Peugeot 807 clones. Not so multi-purpose, after all.

I find the fact that it’s not exactly great to drive easier to forgive. The 2.4 litre four-cylinder petrol engine is smooth enough and offers performance, economy and emissions in line with or slightly better than you’d expect for the class. The handling is determinedly dull and the ride rather sloppy but the bar is at barely knee height for dynamics among such cars and it just about stumbles over it.

Less impressive is a driving position made poor by a steering column that adjusts up and down but not in and out. There are too many cheap plastics on the futuristic dash for my liking and for this money.

But much more likely to kill sales is the lack of a diesel option — a 2 litre turbodiesel won’t be with us until next summer and anyone with an eye on economy, emissions, range or residual values would be well advised to think hard about this before signing up now. Until then this petrol unit is the only available engine and you can find it in three different specifications of Grandis, costing from £18,499 to £22,999.

Overall, if you need to carry half a dozen passengers and don’t want to look like a van driver, the Grandis has a lot to say for itself. You’ll even get appreciative looks, probably the first time that phrase has ever been used in relation to an MPV. But it’s not the load carrier you’d expect of an MPV in this class and, ultimately, those great looks make a promise the car beneath can’t quite keep.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model: Mitsubishi Grandis Equippe
Price: £20,499
Engine type: Four-cylinder, 2378cc
Power/Torque: 162bhp @ 6000rpm / 159 lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Performance 0-62mph: 10.0sec / top speed: 124mph
Verdict: Good-looking by MPV standards but lacks space and isn't much fun to drive

THE OPPOSITION

Model: Ford Galaxy 2.3i 16v LX, £19,460
For: Still probably the best MPV for those who care about driving
Against: No sliding doors, gruff engine note, firm ride quality

Model: Citroën C8 2.0 16v SX £20,250
For: Spacious, well thought-out interior, electric sliding rear doors
Against: Not exactly what you'd call a looker