Last year’s class winner is still one of our favourite mid-sized tow cars. The Superb gives you the benefits of four-wheel drive but asks few compromises in return.

At 44.1mpg fuel economy is just over 4mpg worse than the two-wheel-drive version, and much better than most four-wheel-drive SUVs. Cornering is stable whether towing or not, with none of the lean and wallow of some off-roaders.

Pushed really hard through the cones for the lane-change test, the Superb 4×4 matched the Superb Estate and BMW X1 and was never pulled off course by the caravan. Only when slowing from 70mph did the Al-Ko ATC system detect the tourer wandering slightly.

The Superb 4×4 needed 13.6 seconds to go from 30-60mph, which is a little longer than the lighter Superb Estate. From 30mph the outfit stopped in 11.6 metres, also trailing the estate slightly. In the hill-start test, the handbrake needed a firm pull before it would hold. However, car and caravan reached the top of the 1-in-6 test slope without fuss.

On paper this model doesn’t have the luggage space to match the Estate, but we still found enough room for all our holiday gear. We’d prefer to look under the boot and find a full-size spare rather than a repair kit, but Skoda confirms it can be used when towing if necessary, albeit it restricted to 50mph.

If we could, we’d take the cheaper and more economical estate, although if you head to grassy pitches in all weathers, this is still the car to beat.