You could be forgiven for questioning what a Volvo is doing here along side Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari but it’s a simple fact of life that no matter how rich or posh you might consider yourself, it is always nice to have one car which you can use no matter what, a ‘workhorse’.

After all, Fido wouldn’t be too happy under the bonnet in your Lamborghini! He would however be happy rolling around in the lamb’s wool carpet in your Rolls, but would you be? It’s a dilemma, yes – but here’s the solution.

The Volvo V50 is quite easily the best looking estate car that’s available out there, it’s also a Volvo, which means it’s safe and reliable. If you’ve never driven a Volvo before you might wonder why dull, slow and boring aren’t in that list, they’re not simply because some how Volvos are great to drive.

The mathematics is all wrong. Big, heavy, Swedish, cheap (well, ‘good value’), small engine, this should be a terrible car – it is on paper, when there isn’t a picture printed next to it.

I’ve been averaging at 40mpg – and I’m not driving it gently or slow. As you’re accelerating there’s a significant kick as the turbo kicks in, but then there’s also a pretty significant ‘pluuuuurgh’ as it runs out of steam higher up the rev range. That 3000rpm in-between though is simply heaven, and it’s not difficult to keep the car there all the way from 20-100, which is useful!

The interiors very plush though, the Ikea-chic floating dash is actually a great feature, other than that it’s quite plain, a good stereo, comfortable seating and enough gadgetry to ensure that you don’t feel like you’re driving a pedalo when swapping between the Range Rover Sport.

I’m going to be throwing out some garden furniture this weekend – I wonder if (/hope) the interior's hard wearing!