The Volvo came with some cool gadgets, like the satnav/TV screen which pops up out of the dash. I'll especially miss the built-in phone system; you simply put the SIM card from your mobile phone into a tiny tray in the dash - unless you drop it down the side of your seat, of course. The system's microphone and speaker are integrated into the driver's headrest and you make your calls by using buttons on the steering wheel.

The V70R has something called Four-C technology that basically controls and interlinks all the dynamic systems - engine, steering and suspension. There are three different suspension setting options, Comfort, Sport and Advanced; Sport mode seemed best day to day. Four-C is also alleged to adapt to your particular driving style, but I can't really say I noticed it adapting to mine.

An evoactive trackday at Silverstone was an ideal opportunity to turn off all this handling wizardry and see what our mighty estate could do on the circuit without electronic intervention. After six laps, a lot of laughs and some incredible oversteer moments, it was time to turn the tech back on, as I still had to drive the car home and the brakes and tyres had taken a real pounding. Fun though the track was, it would have ended up being an expensive day out had I continued lapping.

During the winter months I had to replace the tyres, and with a snowboarding trip to the Alps in mind, I swapped the Volvo's brilliant original Pirelli P Zero Rossos for a set of Vredestein Wintrac performance snow tyres. These tyres were really good in the snow and ice, but unfortunately we only had one day of snow in the UK earlier this year and the Wintracs didn't perform so well on dry roads.

General running costs were low, and there were no real mechanical failures. The 24,000 mile service bill of a whopping ΂£420 was a bit of a shocker, though, but it was mainly because the discs and pads needed replacing. The service guys said they'd never seen such badly worn discs on a V70R.

Apart from its hugely comfortable seats, the thing I loved most about the V70R was its ability to cover big distances quickly. The only big surprise for me at the end of our test was the V70R's trade-in value, a measly ΂£22,000. No wonder I haven't seen any other V70Rs on the road this year.