THINK again if you reckon all MPVs are boring buses and all 4x4s are road-hogging monsters. The new Nissan Pathfinder combines the best elements of both in a Tardis-like body - compact on the outside, spacious inside - to mix family car comfort with mountain goat agility.

Best of all, being nowhere near as tall as a typical SUV, it has a lower centre of gravity and so handles like a road car, providing the best of all worlds. Yet it seats seven. And the fact that prices start at just £24,000 means Pathfinder is set to take the 'Discovery sector' of the 4x4 market by storm when it goes on sale at the end of March. In fact just as the Nissan X-TRAIL has done with the 'Freelander sector'.

It was engineered in Cranfield, Bedfordshire and will be built at Nissan's NMISA factory in Spain. Pathfinder is a seven-model range aimed squarely at the active, get-up-and-go family, and becomes the sixth offering in Nissan's expanding 4x4 portfolio. Hence 4x4x6x7.

Its rugged styling - derived from the 2003 Dunehawk show car - is both practical and good-looking. So Pathfinder will be a superb tool for adventurous families keen on outdoor hobbies such as sailing, mountain biking, rock climbing, trekking, paragliding, riding, skiing, furniture collecting... Oh, and it's equally adept on the school run.