A CAR hire company has found a colourful way to banish boredom on long journeys.

Cries of "Are we nearly there yet?" are all too common from the back seat on family driving holidays.

But Hertz, the car hire company, believes it has found a way to keep bored kids entertained - and it doesn't involve an iPad, computer game or anything requiring a battery.

Instead, they've harnessed the power of old-fashioned 'colouring in' - but on a much bigger scale. In place of sketchbooks and notepads, the canvas is the car itself.

The company has upholstered a prototype car in vinyl, with everything from the seats to the ceiling covered in outlines of images begging to be filled with colour. Afterwards, art works can be wiped away for the next family to use.

The invitation to scribble on something that's normally prohibited is surely too great a temptation for most kids to resist?

The Colouring-in Car is now available at the Hertz Heathrow branch for a trial period. If the design proves successful, the company plans to release more cars.

And given the trend for therapeutic adult colouring-in books, perhaps it won't only be the back seat passengers who are entertained.