You don’t have to spend what the premium brands charge to buy a capable heavyweight tow car. The Hyundai Santa Fe shows that there are impressive big 4x4s out there with more modest price tags.

Yes, £39,000 is hardly cheap, but the SE Premium model is crammed with standard kit, and you can buy entry-level versions of the Santa Fe from £34,150, even with the automatic gearbox fitted to our test car.

At 60mph the Santa Fe is reassuringly stable. At 70mph we could feel the car and caravan moving around a little, especially when the wind picked up. The Al-Ko ATC system detected a slight wobble from the caravan when slowing from high speed, but nothing worrying.

In the lane-change test the Hyundai also performed well, coping as speeds increased and only becoming a little wayward on the fastest run.

With 325lb ft of torque and four-wheel drive, the Santa Fe had no trouble towing up a 1-in-6 slope. It accelerated doggedly, too, taking a respectable 12.5 seconds to go from 30-60mph.

Inside, the Santa Fe has space for seven (five-seat versions are also available). There’s decent space for those in the front and the middle, although headroom is rather tight in the third row.

With the rearmost seats stashed away, we found room for a full load of holiday luggage. Our practicality testers were very impressed with caravan-friendly features such as trailer stability control, self-levelling suspension and towing electrics which power the fridge and battery as well as the road lights.