So meet the V50, Volvo's handsome, handy-size estate with all the right ingredients for a keen drive. The S40 has the most precise steering ever found in a Volvo, and a handling balance able to entertain while staying Volvo-safe, and for the V50 there's the added draw of a T5 AWD version. Could this be a hint of a future 4WD Focus RS in disguise?

Not necessarily. The Volvo is front-drive-biased and uses a Haldex clutch while, elsewhere in the Premier Automotive Group, Jaguar has a rearward-biased transmission for the X-type. And who knows how the Ford will be? What I can reveal, though, is that a test run along a windy dirt road can elicit amusing powerslides if the mood takes you (provided all electronic traction aids are turned off), as torque heads rearwards having given up on the spinning front wheels.

Back out on proper roads, the V50 proves a fine blend of calmness and alertness, perhaps over-firm in ride but devoid of rattles and buzzes. The power delivery is smooth and not given to the pause-and-whoosh elasticity of past turbo Volvos, while cruising is quiet and painless with a distant, deep harmonic hum. But does it feel like a 217bhp car? Frankly, no.

It's very adhesive on slippery roads and of course it's a capacious estate. I like the translucent, 'floating' centre console, too, with its B&O remote control look. Other powertrains are offered - a pace-sapping auto, a non-turbo 2.4 and a 2.0 turbodiesel, for example - but clearly the T5 AWD is the one to go Audi quattro-chasing.