YOU can buy a Suzuki that looks like the car you see here for £13,999, which represents a real bargain.

You can also buy one that looks exactly like the car you're looking at, but it costs getting on for twice that, with a £25,149 bottom line. Add metallic paint (you would, wouldn't you?) and it moves up a notch to £25,759.

That is a significant sum for a car coming from a manufacturer known for cars that are both economical to run - and buy.

But it shows how serious Suzuki is to move its range a little bit upmarket, where the profits are juicier, if you produce cars with a certain zing.

Precisely £1,350 of the new S-Cross TCSS's price is down to the new automatic gearbox, making its first outing and aiming to give the benefit of an automated gearbox (think traffic jams and boring commutes) with the economy of a conventional manual box.

It uses two clutches to ensure the next gear - up or down - is ready immediately to meet the demands of road and driver's right foot.

In the process, it hardly dents the fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions of the manual model. Should you want to, a pair of paddles behind the steering wheel let you play Lewis Hamilton, or pop down a gear or two on a steep descent.

The combination of diesel engine and automatic gears occupy a small but growing part of the new car market, where drivers enjoy the easy driving combination of diesel pulling power and auto-selected gears. It does mean combining two pretty pricey additions, but to drive is to be converted, if the car maker gets it right.

Well, Suzuki has. There is an easygoing feel to progress in the S-Cross, especially after the 1.6 litre, 118bhp diesel engine has quietened down from a cold start. To say the car soon sinks into the background is a compliment; this is not a raging Lamborghini that demands total concentration at all times.

Performance is absolutrely more than adequate (108mph, 13.0 seconds to 62mph) while zero road tax in the first year asnd a paltry £30 thereafter hint at sensible running costs, thanks to the car's 119g/km tailpipe output.

It copes pretty well with what pass for main roads in the UK these days, with a firmness to the ride that lets you know when a ripple or bit of badly mended blacktop are under the tyres, but the firmness pays off with the way this tall-ish car answers the wheel when you need a brisk change of direction.

You an order your S-Cross with front wheel drive only but part of the price of this premium version is to cover the cost of the all-wheel drive system that will perfectly suit the sort of owner who lives out in the wild, or who simply must get to work whatever the weather is up to outside.

You'll also find satellite navigation (not the most intuitive to program), along with leather trim, a big double sliding glass sunroof, automatic dual zone air conditioning, front parking sensors and smart 17 inch alloy wheels as part of the standard spec.

Add in the sort of reliability that lots of other car makers can only dream about, and this posh Suzuki can look like a canny buy.