Volvo V40 Cross Country lands

Remember 1997? When everything was black and white and Apple stores were all fields? That's when Volvo first got a road car (the V70), jacked it up a bit, made it wear a plastic nappy and put Cross Country badges on it.

They're at it again, plugging the not-terribly-capable-off-roader-but-also-slightly-rubbish-road-car niche that's confounded our predictions by being HUGELY popular (no, really - BMW's X range account for one fifth of global sales).

This is the V40 Cross Country. It's based on the really very good Volvo V40 five-door hatch, only ride height's been increased by 40mm to 173mm and there's an alloy-style body kit. It also gets a set of optional 19-inch rims, and a honeycomb grill.

There's only one all-wheel drive model, though - a 250bhp, 295lb ft 2.5-litre T5 petrol engine that's shackled to a six-speed automatic gearbox. The rest of the range is made up of a 1.6-litre petrol and three diesel engines.

We'll bring you more after its Paris motor show debut.

Like it? Or is it a just a hatchback in muddy boots?