Clio estate is loading up

	Likely to be revealed at next month's Geneva Motor Show, the car will go on sale later in the year

In a bid to increase the car's appeal, the French firm is planning a first for the range - an estate version.

As you can see from this image, produced with the aid of top-secret information gathered by our spies across the Channel, the load-lugger isn't the most radical design. But with Skoda's Fabia line-up showing there is strong demand for small estates, plus the need to counter slow sales of the Modus MPV, bosses have good reason for adding more practicality to the model's range.

Although the Clio estate - which might be called the Break in the UK, as in France - won't get an MPV-style sliding rear bench, it will boast fold-flat seats and a storage compartment underneath the boot floor.

Likely to be revealed at next month's Geneva Motor Show, the car will go on sale later in the year. Most variants will have the superb 1.5-litre dCi turbodiesel, with up to 106bhp. A price of around £700 over the hatch has been mooted, so the range would kick off at just under £11,000.