SUVs. Everybody hates them. The devil's spawn. Gas-guzzling behemoths that in the age of $50 a barrel of oil are about as cuddly as a behaviourally maladjusted grizzly bear. So what better way to convince us that SUVs are still cuddly, still to-die-for than to present a new one halfway up an Alp in festive Switzerland.
A little snow, a few mellowing cups of gluhwein and bob's your uncle, the scourge of the schoolrun is a paramour once more. And before you can say Gucci, we're whisking Kia's new Sportage through its Alpine paces.
And how Kia, a relative newcomer to this 4x4 mullarkey have got it sussed. Kia, you see, has taken a long, hard look at 4x4s, and decided how to build a car with an in-built superiority complex. "Big wheels," they say with a wink. "Has to have big wheels, so it looks the part. Size," they add, with a knowing smile. "Has to feel invincible, spacious." And so forth.
But strangely, in this case, it almost works. Very nearly - 90 per cent there. First the bulk of that percentage is goodness. It has big wheels, decent ground clearance, it's reasonably sized for a "small" SUV and it looks almost pleasing. The front view unfortunately is a little bit of a let-down. It's, well, a bit eager. Wide-eyed and willing to please. It looks helpful and pleasant, but in a slightly insipid way. It gets better, though, on the inside. There's a reassuring solidity. Indeed, it's all of a type with most modern Kias.
On the road it's surprisingly pleasant too. It has a passenger car quality that's pretty appealing. It's not noisy or harsh. Tootling along a motorway at 70mph - which, let's face it, is where it will spend the bulk of its life - it's easy to forget you're driving it.
A few grumbles though. For a car this bulky, steering was weighted a little on the heavy side. The engine that will feature in Ireland, initially at least, a 2.0 litre petrol, was utterly gutless. It required a long and patient build up to summon the power for a meaningful passing move. But apart from those few minor quibbles, it's a pretty damn good effort.
With the price pitching Kia are so aggressively pursuing, there's little else to gripe about. The basic model here will kick in at €29,995. For that you get on demand 4x4, air conditioning, front, side and curtain air bags, abs and ebc, traction control 16" alloys, central locking, a cd/mp3 player, front fogs and a couple of other toys.
So far, the new Sportage gets it right. It may need more power and more school-run friendly steering, but in every other respect, Kia's cold hard look results in functional real 4x4. A dispassionate, slightly uninvolving one. But it does what says on the tin.