TESTED 8.3.22, BARCELONA, SPAIN ON SALE APRIL PRICE £27,990

TESTER'S NOTE Alas, no rear wiper. Are we witnessing the slow and unsteady death of this most useful (if expensive to manufacture) piece of equipment? MP

The first question was about how to list the new Citroën C5 X under one of the online menus we have. How do we categorise it? Is it an estate, an SUV, a hatchback, a crossover, a large family saloon, a compact executive car or what? And in answer: yes, yes it is.

Citroën, prolific maker of many small cars, has also made some great big ones in the past, but it's fickle about how often it does so mostly, one suspects, because while they're often cool, they're also not universally popular.

And the market for big cars from conventional (by which I mean non-premium) brands is shrinking. They call it the D-segment. That which contains the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia, Volkswagen Passat and historically a dozen others from mainstream brands, or "a segment that to all intents and purposes is sad, boring and steadily decreasing", according to Citroën's engaging CEO, Vincent Cobée.

Nonetheless, Citroën is launching a new car into it. It's a new big car that the French firm hopes is none of the above; a car created with a willingness and a readiness to be different".

The C5X, then (pronounced 'ex', not 'cross', although they won't mind too much either way), is a 4.8m-long, 1.8m-wide fastback/hatchback/estate (look, whatever) with a raised ride height to give it a crossover/SUV-ish appearance without all of the frontal area of an actual SUV. The looks without the inefficiency.