If you haven’t got time to read this review, I’ll make it simple: the Volvo XC90 is probably the best large SUV currently on sale, and certainly the best Volvo has ever made. If you want to know why I think that, read on.

Let’s deal with the first part of that statement, because it does need a caveat. The Volvo XC90 is not an off-roader and never has been. It’s decent at towing and can go further off-road than a conventional car due to its additional ground clearance and all-wheel drive.

But it hasn’t been designed for difficult terrain, like a Land Rover Discovery or a Toyota Land Cruiser. Customers will want the car to perform on the road. Having said that, the Land Rover Discovery is one of the best-selling cars in this sector in the UK. But the thousands of new models sold each year aren’t clogging up the UK’s green lanes and destroying unspoiled countryside. They are used predominantly on the road.

Now that’s out of the way we can get to grips with what most large SUV customers actually want.

Škoda’s flagship model has matured into one of the most desirable cars in the upper-medium sector.

The first generation in the current Superb line (the badge has appeared on Škodas in the distant past), was perhaps an oddity. Technically similar to the Volkswagen Passat, its long wheelbase liberating space not found anywhere else in the class, it seemed to be favoured by savvy private buyers as well as minicab firms.

The second generation Superb was more sophisticated, a car that could comfortably compete with the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia on ability, value and image. And, of course, it had them beaten for space and comfort.

The third generation model is tasked with competing in a sector where mediocrity no longer exists and falling sales have rooted out those less desirable models.

SEAT’s performance in the UK has often outshone its sales elsewhere in Europe. It has grown every year since 2009, while in UK fleet, the brand posted an 11% improvement in 2014. There could be more to come as the range expands.

SEAT will launch a small SUV next year, similar in size to the Audi Q3, and at the Geneva motor show in March it showed the 20V20 SUV concept, which is larger and is likely to go up against cars such as the Range Rover Evoque around 2020.

Between those two launches, there is expected to be a Nissan Juke-sized SEAT SUV. The SUV and crossover sector is the fastest growing in Europe, so it makes sense for Seat to have models that appeal, where previously there were none.

Whetting our appetites is the new SEAT Leon X-Perience, its devil-may-care attitude to spelling indicative of the freedom its ability might give to people driving it.