THE Citroen C4 Aircross, which will launch around June, is a pretty two or four wheel drive sports utility estate with good underpinnings based on the Mitsubishi ASX.

But the Nissan Qashqai rival will use Citroen's own very good 1.6 110bhp diesel and 114bhp petrol engines with five or six-speed manual gearboxes. There will also be a 2.0-litre turbo diesel with 140bhp.

The diesel models will have the four wheel drive system, which will alternate between two and four wheel drive automatically when needed.

But there will also be a transmission lock to keep it in four wheel drive all the time for particularly bad conditions.

This sounds like an excellent system for the majority of road users, who only need extra traction in snow and ice or when pulling a caravan or horsebox out of a field.

Two wheel drive will give best economy most of the time for road use which is exactly what you want.

Not much is known about the inside yet, but expect excellent equipment as we have seen in upper C4 and DS4.

That should include alloys, sat nav, reversing camera, USB and Bluetooth, plus traction and stability control.