Peugeot's Bipper Tepee may not be the compact little family car you dreamed of owning but it could very well be the one you need. Jonathan Crouch reports

As the entry-point to Peugeot's now wide range of MPVs, the Bipper Tepee plays an important role. Its van origins are ultimately a help rather than a hindrance, giving the vehicle its sturdy build, functional design and 5-seat interior space that's huge when you consider its tiny dimensions.

Peugeot once left the business of producing people carrying MPVs to its French partner Citroen. No longer. Today, the brand has an impressively wide range, from the utilitarian Partner Tepee to the more car-like 308 SW, from the sleek and family-friendly 5008 to the huge 807 and Expert Tepee models. The entry-point to this sprawling line-up is the Bipper Tepee model we look at here.

From on the outside, such a varied range of vehicles designed to fill essentially similar roles can look like overkill. Peugeot would counter that its MPV collection is carefully structured to meet the varying needs of modern families. That would make this car, their Bipper Tepee, the vehicle for the family that needs a small car with a lot of room and may not have a whole lot of cash to spend on it. Yes, it's based on the marque's Bipper van and is basically the same car as Fiat's Qubo and Citroen's Nemo Multispace but since all these designs sit on advanced supermini underpinnings, this isn't such a problem.

So let's stop trying to label this car and instead see it for what it is. A very compact four-to-five-seater family car that's supermini-sized, so smaller than you'd expect an MPV to be. That means it's tiny and nippy enough to twirl you round the tightest underground supermarket carpark, yet large enough to use on the average family holiday - a pretty tough brief to fulfil if you think about it. Peugeot has also created larger Partner Tepee and 5008 compact MPVs for busy families but if you don't need the seven-seat options they provide, then you may well be better off with this one.

There's an upright driving position in the Bipper and good forward visibility. The view to the rear is restricted by the tapering rear windows and thick C-pillars but there's a wide rear screen and the flat back of the vehicle helps when parking - as does the tight turning circle. You feel comfortable too thanks to a wheel that adjusts in and out as well as up and down, plus the dash-mounted gear lever is close at hand. This, as well as the light steering, is a boon in typical stop/start urban motoring.

On the move on faster routes, you wouldn't obviously mark this down as van in disguise. The unyielding van suspension has been softened for passenger use, though not enough to exacerbate the kind of bodyroll that all high-ish sided cars suffer from to some extent. This one compensates with mild, relaxing road manners, plenty of grip and reasonable refinement.

Overall, your experience on the open road will depend quite a bit on your engine choice. We'd council you to avoid the entry-level 75bhp 1.4-litre petrol version which will make you pay for the £1,000 up-front price saving it offers with feeble pulling power that sees sixty from rest over 16s away. At first glance, the spec sheet suggests that the alternative 70bhp 1.4-litre HDi diesel unit is even slower, but with 160Nm of torque - that's nearly 50% more pulling power - the diesel is a much more compatible companion in day-to-day motoring. In this guise, this car is, quite simply, as fast as it needs to be.

If you thought a van-based people carrier would be a utilitarian thing in look and feel, the Bipper Tepee should exceed your expectations. The chunky exterior styling has more than a hint of 4x4 about it, with those large protruding bumpers and flared wheelarches. The bumpers and the side rubbing strips also serve as useful protection for the kind of parking knocks that vans and MPVs have a habit of picking up. The front and rear light clusters are also mounted high up out of harm's way and the Bipper Tepee benefits from its van counterpart's convenient access points.

At under four meters from nose to tail, this Peugeot is no bigger than a Fiesta supermini, so certainly doesn't have room for the kind of third row seating that's an option on the French maker's larger Partner Tepee. Still, within the confines of its compact shape, there's still plenty of space inside. More headroom, for example, than you could possibly find a use for, plus legroom is ample for four adult-sized passengers. There are also a reasonable number of internal storage areas, including a large glovebox, and the hose-clean flooring is sensible on a car like this.

A large tailgate opens up the whole rear of the vehicle revealing a 356-litre boot (a little more than its Fiat Qubo design stablemate) with a very low loading lip, and that's just below the parcel shelf. Stack your goods to the ceiling and there's lots more capacity but the Bipper really shows its commercial vehicle origins when you fold the rear seats and there's 884-litres to play with. The back seats can be lifted out too, returning the vehicle to something approaching its original cargo-carrying state with up to 2500 litres on offer but most of the time, buyers will have that rear bench occupied by passengers. Access to it is through the twin sliding side doors and although the aperture isn't particularly wide, the sliding design does stop your offspring re-sculpting the bodywork of adjacent cars when they exit.

PRICES: £9,995 - £12,595 - on the road

List prices suggest that you'll probably end up paying between £10,000 and £12,500 for your Bipper Tepee, with a £1,000 premium for the 1.4-litre HDi diesel model over the 1.4-litre petrol version. That means pricing virtually identical to Citroen's Nemo Multispace. Compared with Fiat's also near identical Qubo model, you'll find that the petrol Bipper model is around £200 more but that the diesel variants cost about the same before you start talking discounts. Either way, it's about what you'd pay for an ordinary - and by contrast, pretty impractical - supermini. There's an optional 2-Tronic six-speed semi-automatic gearbox if you go for the diesel.

Rivals for this car apart from its Citroen Nemo Multispace and Fiat Qubo design stablemates can mainly be found amongst the ranks of more car-like but less practical supermini-MPVs like Citroen's C3 Picasso, cars which, model-for-model, will cost a few hundred more. Or you could find another £1,500 or so over this Bipper and go for a very slightly bigger family hatchback-based van-MPV like a Peugeot Partner Tepee - a useful alternative if you need the option of seven seats.

Running costs are low, with group 2 insurance on most models and nearly 62.8mpg on the combined cycle from the diesel version which puts out only 119g/km of CO2, returns that respectively fall to 42.8mpg and 155g/km if you go for the petrol model, pretty much identical to the Nemo Multispace but slightly better figures than are returned by the rival petrol Fiat Qubo. Residual values will probably see this car return around 42% of its value after three years and 30,000 miles.

The qualities that manufacturers routinely build into their commercial vehicles translate very well to the bottom end of the MPV market. Citroxn appreciates this better than most and though the Bipper Tepee is the smallest such model that the marque has brought us, it's also arguably the most space-efficient. Compared to its similarly-priced Fiat Qubo design stablemate, it doesn't look quite as trendy but offers a slightly bigger boot with the seats in place and marginally better running costs in petrol guise.

Overall, as long as you're not expecting too much in the way of creature comforts, it's hard not to like this French contender. It's a no-frills way of catering for the family's transport needs, so the rather basic specification and lack of power can be easily forgiven. Neat handling and a tough, adaptable cabin make it a great tool for ferrying the kids around. The funky 4x4-style looks will also count in its favour, meaning that if you don't tell anyone it's a van, they'll never know.