A real cool customer This ‘small’ SUV is big on space and will get you out of a tight corner

HOW big is a small SUV? Well, my fridge-freezer went kaput a few weeks ago and a friend gave me her old one, even though it looked like it came from a staff canteen in the Seventies, to keep me ticking over until I bought a new one.

I finally got round to doing that last week, but when it was delivered, all I could do was let the deliveryman take the absolutely banjaxed one away, plug in the new one and wait until it got down to freezing temperature so I could transfer all the food from the stopgap one.

Where that left me, last Saturday morning, was with a spare fridge-freezer. My local council recycling centre takes white goods for free, so I managed to ‘walk’ the unit to the back of the Volvo XC40, wave my foot under the rear of the car to make the tailgate open automatically, then gently slide the fridge in. Yes, I had to move the passenger seat all the way forward, and I had to give the fridge a quick shimmy sideways to make sure the tailgate closed again, but the good news is that it actually fit and, for the first time in weeks, my kitchen looks mercifully uncluttered again.

In practical terms, the XC40 doesn’t have the biggest cargo area in the world with all fives seats in play (at 460 litres, it’s pretty much par for the segment), but it offers 1,336 litres with the seats folded, which they do very easily, and fully flat.

And that, I suspect, will be top of the list for most looking to buy a premium SUV like this. Space is a huge consideration, and the XC40 scores well all over. There are deep door pockets that easily hold 750ml bottles of water, a large storage area under the centre stack, and decent legroom in the back, even though the width isn’t quite as generous.

But there is an overall sense of space I found rather pleasant, and more generous than I was expecting. Maybe that was due in part to the panoramic sunroof – nothing makes a cabin feel light and airy like sunshine beaming down to the footwell. My test model was the upscale R-Design version of the car, and it comes at a price. The entry-level petrol model with front-wheel drive costs €38,900, but this 2.0-litre diesel all-wheel drive, with lots of bells and whistles added to the standard spec, checked in at €63,425. Now I don’t dispute that every cent of the money was on show, because it was, but that is a serious wedge for a compact crossover and, indeed, over €15,000 dearer than the entry-level version of the bigger XC60.

All come with the smashing Sensus touchscreen, a tablet-style infotainment screen mounted vertically instead of horizontally, which actually makes a great deal more sense because more information can be displayed simultaneously. The stereo on my car was Harman Kardon with Dolby ProLogic II surround-sound and 13 speakers.

There’s also a 12.3-inch Active TFT virtual cockpit display in front of the steering wheel, and it’s all very well laid out. My car had heated leather sports seats, electronic driver and passenger seat adjustment, a security box under the driver’s seat, front and rear reading lights, and just an overall sense of deep comfort and luxury.

This is Volvo, and the list of safety aids is exhaustive, with not just pedestrian detection, but cyclist and large animal detection too. It even takes partial control of the steering if you need to take emergency evasive action.

The optional extras were everywhere – 360-degree parking view, automatic parallel and perpendicular parking, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, keyless entry and start, heated washer nozzles and heated windscreen, adaptive cruise control, 20-inch alloys over the standard 18-inch, dual integrated exhaust pipes, and lots, lots more.

Above all, though, the XC40 drives well, though it’s maybe a little less sharp on the steering front than some of its rivals, even cars in the sub-premium mass market. The diesel engine offers plenty of power when needed, and a 0-100kph sprint of a tidy 7.9 seconds. Top speed is 210kph.

I can see all the reasons why a panel of motoring writers judged it European Car of the Year this year, but I don’t know if that shared opinion is down to the fact I had a very high-spec model. Nonetheless, it is a very handsome car – though maybe not necessarily at its best with a manky old fridge-freezer in the back.