When a Japanese car maker rolled out a new minivan in Britain this year, one advertisement carried nothing about its styling, safety features or fuel efficiency.

It only spotlighted the seats. "Two to seven seats in 15.6 seconds" was the caption splashed across the centre of newspaper ads promoting Toyota Motor's Corolla Verso, which features five rear seats that fold onto the floor to make room for cargo in a matter of seconds.

"Car makers are increasingly relying on rear seats to differentiate their cars," said Patrick de Bellescize, marketing vice president at France's Faurecia, Europe's biggest car seats maker and supplier of Corolla Verso's seating system.

The escalating race to come up with creative seating is one example of the fierce competition car makers face to set their products apart from an abundance of other choices.

It also highlights the growing importance buyers place on a car's interior - a trend that coincides with the rise in the purchasing power of women. Industry studies show female customers look closely at interior functionality and comfort, while men traditionally have been suckers for horsepower and handling.

The emphasis on seating versatility - or "modularity" in industry lingo - is especially evident in minivan-crazy Japan, where TV ads invariably show families folding and unfolding seats to make room for mountain bikes, luggage and pets.

Take Mazda Motor's remodelled three-row Premacy, to go on sale next spring.

The Hiroshima-based firm makes much of the minivan's seating system, dubbed "Six plus One", that carries a hidden third seat that can be flipped over from inside one of the second-row seats.

The jump-seat concept allows front-row passengers to walk to the back of the car through the middle when the seat is tucked away - a world first. When a third seat is not needed, a storage container can be pulled out of the other second-row seat instead.

"The operation is quick and simple, and can be done with one hand," Kenichi Fukunaga, the model's programme manager, said during a sneak preview at Mazda's R&D centre this month.

Unlike in Europe, where the popularity of two-door compact cars means the focus tilts towards ease of entry, Japanese brands use versatility as a major selling point for small cars too.

Honda Motor's Edix, out in July, is all about its seating concept.

With a sliding seat located between and slightly behind the two front seats, the third passenger is no longer excluded from the conversation up front. Having all three people in the front also frees up more cargo space when the three rear seats are flattened.

In the realm of innovative space utilisation, though, America's Chrysler is a step ahead of the rest.

Its "Stow 'n Go" concept mounted on the Grand Voyager minivan allows the second- and third-row seats to be stashed under the floor completely, yielding as much as 4,550 litres (161 cubic feet) of cargo space - around three times the maximum trunk room available on a Corolla Verso.

"This system is remarkable, using some very advanced technology," Faurecia's Mr de Bellescize told Reuters, marvelling at the innovation as he easily stowed the second-row seats under the floor of the vehicle at the Paris Motor Show last month.

The innovations don't come cheaply. Chrysler forked out $400 million on the system, developed jointly with Ontario, Canada-based seats maker Intier Automotive It's pouring another $113 million into a plant in Missouri to enable production of minivans with "Stow 'n Go".

Still, DaimlerChrysler's US arm says the feature is paying dividends.

"Dealers are seeing increased traffic from customers asking for the 'Stow 'n Go' minivans," a Chrysler spokeswoman said, adding that it has helped the company remain America's number-one seller of minivans.

The improvements in seating don't end at versatility. Seats makers like Faurecia, Johnson Controls and Lear Corp. also compete to make safer and more comfortable seats to offer the added value that car makers demand.

To better shield passengers against lateral collisions, more high-end cars these days come equipped with built-in side airbags. Injuries from whiplash are prevented with high-tech headrests that flip forward when the seat detects an abrupt forward-slump motion in the passenger.

Japanese car makers such as Nissan Motor are also waking up to the allure of comfortable seats - one area where European craftsmanship has long been accepted as superior.

"There is a hope that using a European seats maker will boost comfort levels," Nissan seating engineer Ryuji Matsumura said at the launch last week of the Fuga luxury sedan, which uses seats developed by Faurecia and Japanese partner NHK Spring.

"The Europeans really pay quite a bit of attention to that."