AS the nights draw in you may well reflect on the summer just gone, particularly choice of holiday destination. And one way to judge the credentials of a resort is by its traffic.

If everywhere there are smart cars you must be in Rome. Audis galore and it's surely south Devon, while if you are seeing a lot of trams you have woken up in Blackpool and are about to understand the true meteorological meaning of ‘bracing'.

We headed to Suffolk, the quaint seaside village of Walberswick where the prominent local form of transport is a rowing boat, closely followed by walking.

Dubbed Noting Hill on sea, once you are there a car is pretty much redundant unless you have a small boat phobia or broken legs. However, there is no airport so people have to drive in and out. And what a lot of Volvo badges there were.

XC90s and XC60s were as de rigueur as Birkinstock sandals, which is understandable because here is responsibility on wheels, a socially agreeable type of car in which you will struggle to hurt yourself or, more importantly, those going about their business around you in a preoccupied dreamland.

Imagine my delight, then, to be rubbing Joules shoulders with the chattering classes while sporting this badge of acceptability. Yes a Volvo. How clever am I?

Before we get to that scientists say that people with blue eyes are mutants and that the default shade of the human iris is brown.

Therefore I conclude that the Volvo Polestar range is genetically unusual too, because it comes only in blue and is about as close to middle England's school run favourites as a Caterham 7 is to an MPV.

Sure Polestars have all the safety kit synonymous with Volvo but they are also something of an animal. In fact a lot of an animal, harking back to the days when the T5 was darling of the motorway police.

Volvo has lost some performance credibility recently and to put this right has now bought the whole Polestar tuning business in Sweden.

On the radar gun was the V60 version, falling arguably between Audi's S4 and RS4 Avant but with a little more style and character. It is loaded with kit, has plenty of comfort and unbreakable 4x4 grip.

Performance is exhilarating. Powered by a six-cylinder three-litre turbo petrol engine, 4.9 seconds sees the car at 62mph. There are more responsive automatic gearboxes but there is not that much time to notice.

Allied to that is handling to send a shiver of pleasure down the spine. The 20-inch wheels threaten a ride which will realign vertebrae but good damping restricts firmness to an acceptable level. Unless you are my daughter who said the suspension in the back was going to make the dog sick. Which it didn't.

On that note, there is plenty of room inside, good boot space and a handy retracting cargo net which doubled as a dog guard.

Other equipment is extensive, sat nav, heated leather seats and all the connections demanded by modern life. Facia and driver position have typical Volvo logic and while some say they find the centre console and heater controls clumsy, I don't. At this sort of performance level I want to hit buttons first time.

Like to hear about consumption? It is tempting to say don't be daft but the car recorded just under 26mpg which is most agreeable for this sort of hooliganism. Enthusiasm, however, will be taxed at a rate of £490 per annum.

Do you need one? So long as a pulse remains and you love safe performance with a degree of family practicality, yes. If it's danger you seek look for a 1999 Evo with worn out suspension.

As an aside thanks to the many luvvies who were amused enough to mention a strong northern accent, although Suffolk is perhaps not the best word to test scouse annunciation. All I will say is that before visiting again in a 155mph, £50,000 getaway car I promise to take electrocution lessons.