Mazda MPV: A routine visit.

We could have called our year with the Mazda MPV boring-but we haven't. More than once though, including on its arrival in our fleet of test vehicles, we used the word ``mundane'' to describe our red, sporty (yes, by way of its body aero kit) minivan. It may sound boring, true, and it's probably just a matter of semantics, but mundane has turned out to be the appropriate label for the MPV.

``Concerned with the practical details of every-day life,'' is one definition found in a dictionary. And both ``practical'' and ``every- day'' it has been.

Everyday life, for most of us, involves moving people and stuff: kids off to college and home from camp; families off to vacation or out for the evening; outings to the theater and amusement parks; helping friends move, and buying new furniture, gardening supplies or groceries. Then there's the soccer team. We moved 'em all-with nary a complaint.

Seating for seven is pretty standard in today's minivans, but there are a couple of amenities that made the MPV a slightly more comfortable ride for passengers and slightly more useful for cargo duty. The second-row power roll-down windows, for example, got the air flowing, unlike typical minivan rear vents. And there's this advantage: Your kids can throw the change in the tollbooth on the highway, which they've always clamored to do.

The rear-seat entertainment option also made the minivan our family room on wheels: More than one long family outing was made more tolerable with Maverick or My Dog Skip. It may not be every family's solution to too-much-

togetherness, but it worked.

The fold-flat rear seat allowed for easy storage of groceries without the fear of a can of asparagus rolling up to the cockpit. Combined with the removable (and adjustable) middle seats, the MPV provides a good length of stowage space. The only problem: The floor-mounted video player should ideally be repositioned to the headliner in future ...