DIESEL isn't going to turn up its smelly toes without a fight and for some drivers it's still the sensible fuel to get them from A to B, especially if it's a long way between the two letters.

But for lots of people there's no doubting petrol makes the more sensible choice, even if you won't go as far on a gallon.

It's a question of doing your sums. Take the car driven here, Renault's mid-size SUV in the happily handsome shape of the Kadjar and available with several choices of petrol or diesel engine.

You'll pay around £2,000 more if you take the diesel route (depending on the grade of Kadjar to pick) but you will go rather a lot further between fill ups.

Ignoring the official fuel consumption figures the manufacturers have to quote (and which are soon to get officially more real world), a diesel Kadjar last year showed 59mpg on its trip computer after some 500 miles.

This car, with a 1.2-litre petrol engine providing much the same performance as the 1.5 diesel, recorded a less impressive 41.0 over a similar mileage.

But it costs nearly two grand less than the diesel and that difference will buy an awful lot of fuel.

The sensible answer is to buy the version that best suits your needs; so take the diesel if you spend your working life hacking up and down the motorway on business and the petrol for a more relaxed lifestyle.

Either one will look good on the outside and deliciously different to the deluge of rival SUVs coming from Renault's rivals in the Volkswagen Group, which you may think are beginning to look like clones.

The good news continues inside, with a cabin so bang up to date it makes lots of dearer cars look a bit dowdy and old fashioned.

Especially impressive is an instrument panel with big digital speed readout that looks both elegant and unmissable enough to save points on your licence. The satellite navigation screen is equally crisp and contemporary, adding lustre to an interior with nicely chosen mixes of texture and finish.

There's plenty of room in both rows of seats and a well shaped boot (but sadly not even a space saver spare beneath, merely a can of gloop and an inflator).

Big grab handles for the front seat passenger hint at the Kadjar's supposed off-road leanings, although how many will ever venture far from a metalled surface is open to doubt.

While you pen hovers over the specification sheet you'd do well to take a look at the wheels your car would come attached to. In the case of the Signature specification car here it means big 19-inch alloys that looks great but do nothing for the ride.

Indeed on some badly surfaced roads the ride turns uncomfortably brittle. Spend a little less on your Kadar and it comes with smaller (17-inch) alloys that ought to improve things usefully.