IT MIGHT not be the most appealing vehicle on the road, but with the Skoda Yeti, beauty is more than skin deep.

For a start, this is a very practical car. It has nice sit-up-and-beg styling, it is easy to drive and it comes with the added advantage of four-wheel-drive should you so choose - though I recently tested the also available two-wheel-drive version.

It also has a fair bit of VW DNA in its parentage, too, which, if nothing else, makes the psyche feel a bit better about buying a Skoda. Inside, a lot of it is classic VW and anyone coming from driving a Golf or Passat will feel instantly at home. The dash is clean, functional and intuitive.

The practicalities don't end there, as there are endless storage spaces, drink's can holders and even fold-down trays built into the front seats for the use of rear passengers.

And, those in the rear also get the ability to move backwards and forwards - at least on the outer seats. Of course, the seats also fold down to give a really cavernous load area which would be the envy of many an estate car. Some 1760 litres of space is available with the seats out of the way completely, just a little more than 400 litres with them in place.

While diesel is the favoured option down on the farm, don't shy away from the fact that some of the latest VW petrol engines are pretty economical. Fitted to the Yeti tested was the turbo-charged 1.4-litre 120bhp TSI petrol engine that's pretty well standard across VW/Audi cars and is rated at giving you more than 40mpg in everyday driving.

And, while it's not a heart-stopper, the performance is spritely enough to do the 0-62mph parameters in a tad more than 10 seconds.

There's also the fairly precise six-speed manual VW gearbox in its favour but, again, if your are in the country then opt for the 4 x 4 version which, in the past, I've found to be surprisingly mimble about the paddock. It's light enough to sit on top and the proven VW intelligent four-wheel-drive works well enough.

Priced at £18,390 for the model tested, the Yeti SE Plus, that includes a multi-functional leather steering wheel, satnav, a six-CD autochanger, Bluetooth, electric and aux sockets, dual-zone aircon and electric windows - which means there's quite a lot of car for the money.