You’d expect a car with ‘tall’ bodywork to be inherently ponderous when it comes to tackling the twists and turns of country roads.

Yet that’s not the case with the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross – for two reasons. Because it uses a crossover design that stands slightly lower than its rivals, this car is less likely to tilt when corners are taken at higher speeds.

But the second reason is more of a surprise and should put a smile on the face of the driving enthusiast.

Just pushing a button on the centre console waves a magic wand to change the handling set-up to such an extent that this go-anywhere model takes on a personality approaching that of a sporty saloon.

Left to its own devices, Suzuki’s latest generation Allgrip technology is an impressive piece of kit as a system channelling 90 per cent of driving power to the front wheels and varying the amount of drive to the rear to maintain optimum grip in all normal driving conditions.

With the help of integrated control, it also changes engine, transmission and stability gadgetry to cope with driving in snow and will lock up to give traction in extreme situations such as mud or sand.

Sport setting is something else, however. With the steering tightened, an extra 500rpm added to throttle input and the amount of torque to the rear wheels increased from 10-30%, the S-Cross is primed for fun progress in an instant and proves to deliver far more rewarding travel over ‘interesting’ routes than you’d expect to find in this class of car.