A friend of a friend used to have the previous model of FIAT's Panda 4X4 and dearly wished to Letraset the bonnet with the words 'Strange Rover', his somewhat apt description of the oddest little off-roader.
And that would have been my own feeling about this seeming curate's egg of a vehicle - part super-mini, part Jeep, part weekend warrior. The Panda 4X4 always seemed to me to be the type of car driven by librarians or research assistants who went paintballing - but took it way too seriously. Sensible enough for visiting auntie's for tea and scones but just edgy enough to ferry a bunch of camouflaged nerds up a forest track with four gallons of Dulux on board.
Now, sad though I am to say it, I have become a nerd. While I don't quite feel the desire to slather on the greasepaint and sit round the pub talking about 'kills', I absolutely loved this little car.
It's daft as a brush, really. Take a tiny car designed to nip around a city with 2.4 kids looking bright and cheerful and 'funky' and change all the suspension settings, raise it up a good bit, thrown in even 'funkier' interiors and four-wheel drive and ta-da, a genuinely cool little SUV.
Initially, it's all so much Panda. Great little car. Most of the usual toys, cheap as chips and handles like a dream, even with its increased ride height.
Take it off-road though and it's true spirit shines through. It's not at all half-assed. FIAT have taken the of-road element of this seriously and have built a fighting fit little mud-plugger.
Its 1.2 engine has just about enough grunt to pull it up hill and down dale, even coping with a 30 per cent gradient with relative ease. Indeed, it bounces around ruts and gullies like a Labrador puppy - amiable, bristling with enthusiasm but slightly too ambitious for the challenges presented to it.
It would be utterly defeated by the problems guffawed at by its larger rivals, but that's not the point. This new Panda is fun in the forest but it would really shine in an Irish winter. Just imagine slushy roads, muddy paths, sleet, hail, snow, ice - the Panda would be the perfect foil for those conditions.
There are a few quibbles. The gear ratios appear to have been altered to make the off-road experience better but that makes on-road driving more unpleasant with second gear feeling a little short and the 1.2 engine hasn't enough grunt for what feels like the natural change to third.
FIAT say they will be introducing a 1.3 litre diesel at some stage next year and that would be the preferred option.
In fact, a diesel Panda 4X4 - fresh, fun, eco-friendly and funky enough for suburban fashionistas not to feel people are staring at them in a bad way - could just make SUV's cool again.