Jerry from The Good Life drove a Volvo. So did Lovejoy. And so did Simon Templar, aka the Saint. These are good reasons not to buy one. However, now that Volvo is a cog in the Ford empire it is trying to shed its middle England image for something more zingy. And by and large it’s succeeding. The V70, however, shows that at heart the Swedes still like to build very traditional, very safe and very large estates. You’d be surprised how good this car is. And if you stop and look, how handsome it is as well.

Volvo V70: In a range starting at £22,985 and ending at £39,785 the big diesels are the stand-out choice. As will all big estates, avoid the small petrol engines, which offer both poor performance and, relative to the diesels, poor economy too.