Expensive but BMW 530d Touring will deliver

TIME was when motor companies offered us cars that came in three sizes — small, medium and large.

Of course there were varieties of these cars, some with roofs, some without and some with a boot, others with an extension at the back. But nowadays, it seems, these traditional formats have been swallowed by a tsunami of SUVs for which most people will, apparently, queue up to get into. Big ones, small ones, funny ones — it does not seem to matter.

The enduring result of this seismic shift has been to greatly affect various time-honoured types of car, such as the venerable saloon, which is currently in a terrible state of flux and struggling — a bit like the polar bear — to cope with a pretty drastic change in circumstances.