Company cars often perform two roles – firstly as a business tool for a busy corporate week and secondly as family transport when quality time with the wallet-drainers matters most.

As we have had a lengthy relationship with the Kia, I thought I would get the family verdict and got a surprising answer from the back seats – it’s the car that killed I-Spy.

It seems that in that awkward period between leaving a booster seat and reaching teenage years, rear seat passengers are treated to a face full of door during car journeys, as the low seats and high window line conspire to spoil any chance of playing ‘car snooker’ on long journeys (same as real snooker, but you ‘spot’ rather than ‘pot’).

It seems their peers are equally unimpressed by the view. One even resorted to sitting on a football before a sharp word from the front seat resumed scenery-less seating.

However, it’s not a problem that can’t be sorted by Uncle Nintendo and Auntie iPod, so from the front seat at least, journeys have continued to reaffirm that Kia is fit for business.

The car’s most recent trick is its tire (sic) rotation service announcement, which requires a quick visit to the dealer to get the car’s boots changed around so they wear evenly.

This may be my only chance to assess the dealer network too, as with 20,000-mile service intervals it will barely go near a garage in its lifetime.

However, Kia’s network is likely to get increasingly busy with the volume of cars hitting the road. Kia continued its best-ever year in September by posting a fifth consecutive record month’s performance in the UK new car sales market by delivering 11,608 new vehicles to customers – a 19.3% increase on 2011.

That takes its sales for 2012 to date to 52,899 vehicles – a massive increase of 22.3% compared to this time last year, giving it more than 3% of both the fleet and retail markets.