Motoring: Ford's Kuga is a 4x4 it's very difficult to dislike

Let's get this clear up front. My family definitely doesn't need a 4x4. We don't live on a mountain top, accessible only by boggy cart tracks. We don't tow large caravans. And we don't have the kind of "lifestyle" that you see in car ads, jumping off jetskis and hang gliding off mountains. For us, the perfect anti-4x4 is Ford's Kuga.

Initially, my wife wasn't convinced about the Ford. She was sick of being obstructed by lumbering 4x4s on the school run and didn't much fancy the idea of joining the SUV bandwagon.

"Just try it," I told her. "If you don't like it, I'll take it back." Three months on, the Kuga is still a fixture in our driveway. To be honest, I think Katie has forgotten that it's a 4x4 at all. She's certainly never used it off-tarmac and if I added a towbar, she'd wonder what it was for.

For her, it's a family estate with a pleasantly high-riding driving position. Neither she nor I can detect any difference in handling over the long-term Ford Focus family hatch which the Kuga replaced. Like that model, show this car a straight, well-surfaced road and it serves up a good standard of ride comfort and refinement. The ride is reasonably firm and that's one of the things that helps the Kuga resist body roll when cornered vigorously, plus it's also less liable to become unsettled over bumps in the road. The accurate steering makes it easier to position the car too.

Inside, we've all had to get used to a little less space than we've been used to in the past, the Kuga being one of those increasingly rare cars that doesn't pull all manner of packaging tricks out of its hat. Space in the back is tight for anything other than my kids and passengers who have been long in the body have found headroom an issue when getting in and out. On the flip side, this high seating position has proved to be a huge bonus for shorter friends, though those with short legs have found the need to shift their seat forward to such an extent that the heavily-raked windscreen starts getting very close.

For baggage, it's a more cheerful story. Usefully, the second row of seating has a 60/40 split and can fold completely flat to maximise the load space.Underseat storage beneath the second row with further storage under the floor of the luggage compartment area offers even more practicality.The Kuga has a generous luggage capacity of 1,355 litres when in two-seat mode, while the enclosed luggage compartment achieves a volume of up to 410 litres.

The 138bhp 2.0-litre TDCi diesel engine is a good match for this car. There is ample pulling power of 320Nm at 2,000rpm, which basically means that you don't have to row the car along with the gearlever in low to medium-speed urban motoring. The 0-60mph dash is achieved in 10.4 seconds and you can push the speedometer all the way up to 114mph.

Economy is excellent and we've achieved fuel consumption of around 40mpg on a regular basis, with closer to 50mpg on longer runs. CO2 emissions are kept to a low 159g/km.

These impressive numbers are also aided by the Kuga's electronic on- demand four-wheel drive transmission. This clever system directs up to 50 per cent of the engine's torque to each individual wheel when it's needed, depending on the terrain you're experiencing. In the unlikely event that you will actually want to start driving your Kuga up and down hills, the maximum approach and departure angles of 21 and 25 degrees respectively mean this newcomer to the Ford range should but useful.

There are two trim levels available in the Kuga; Zetec and Titanium. We went for the plusher version which includes part leather trim, rain sensing wipers, automatic headlights, cruise control, blue tinted glass and dual climate control.

Overall, I think that in giving up trying to sell us a conventional 4x4 and instead concentrating on a niche cross-over vehicle, Ford might just have hit on something. The Kuga looks great, it'll hopefully persuade a few 4x4 drivers to downsize into something more suited to their requirements and in basing the main range around a 2.0-litre turbo- diesel engine, Ford has made a powerful statement regarding the environmental credentials of this sort of vehicle.

Perhaps the Kuga's most impressive achievement is that it's a four-wheel drive car that targets an urban clientele but which it's virtually impossible to take exception to. OK, so with our Kuga we join the train of 4x4s on the school run. But these days, we feel comfortable about doing it.