NO SOONER has Toyota's Corolla Verso gone on sale than it is back to the drawing board to create a completely new model.
In what must be one of the shortest lives ever, the current car is scrapped in favour of a model that is the same but different.
It follows a similar format, but looks much sleeker and loses the old short-but-tall ungainly appearance.
In the process it gains the cleverest seating arrangement in its class, presumably to the horror of Vauxhall, whose Zafira is now overshadowed.
The Corolla Verso offers seven seats, five of which can be folded by a simple, single action into the floor.
This makes the Zafira's folding seats seem unsophisticated by comparison.
This latest incarnation of the Corolla Verso, which was designed in Europe and is being built in Turkey, is said to boast a quality gain of up to 90 per cent, which makes you wonder what on earth it was like before.
Such is the attention to detail that the area around the door locks is now air-tight, which cushions the door-closing action to create a more upmarket feel.
The newcomer is due to go on sale here in May, at which point final specifications and prices will be announced.