Who needs a snowmobile when you have the Vokswagen Touareg

But I was dead lucky and the snow could have kept of coming and coming as far as I was concerned, because I had the best piece of equipment to look after me I could want.

I was driving the Vokswagen Touareg, the prince of the VW fleet. It dealt with the snow much like the English rugby team did when they played Ireland last weekend.

I was tempted to try it out by going to Devon where the snow was worst. But that would have been foolish in those severe circumstances, tempting however.

Last year was another successful year for Volkswagen’s vehicles with numerous awards presented to many of the brand’s line up, and there will certainly more awards in the year to come.

I first drove the Touareg more than 10 years ago and loved the fact that the fuel tank could take 100 litres. I always wanted to go to a garage and say ‘fill it up.’ But things have got more fuel conscious these days and the tank just contains 75 litres. The latest model is the third on the line and you get around 40 miles to the gallon despite the size of the engine.

Parkers named the Touareg Best Tow Car at its last awards ceremony and I have a colleague who has one to pull his caravan around the south.

Absolutely ideal for this job and the car I had was fitted with the 3.0 litre V6 4Motion231 PS eight speed auto tiptronic.

When you are not towing your caravan and say you are travelling along the speed limit free German auotobahns then you can drive at 140 mph with a 0-62 mph in around seven seconds.

My caravan friend also chipped his engine and didn’t tell his partner, so goodness what his vehicle was capable of, should he have taken the Tourareg back to the land of its birth.

The VW group, which comprises of Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda and Porsche, has made them the biggest manufacturer in the world and last year they came close to topping the 11 million mark by selling vehicles around the world.

And this despite the emissions problem and the slump in the Western Europe car market VW managed to increase their sales by one per cent.

In Europe, the brands of the Volkswagen Group delivered a total of 4.38 million vehicles in 2018,1.2 percent more than in 2017. The Group grew especially strongly in Central and Eastern Europe, where 797,200 vehicles were handed over to customers, 7.1 per cent more than the previous year.

This increase was especially due to strong performance in Russia, where Group deliveries grew by 19.8 per cent. In Germany, deliveries also remained at the prior- year level, at 1.28 million vehicles.

It is the fact that VW build stylish and classic cars and every motorist in the world would have loved or did have at some time in his or her life is a VW Golf.

But the Touareg is a little bit different to the Golf.

This car comes in at £50,000 and it’s a class act through and though.

It is a comfortable ride and the CO2 emissions are 173/gsm.

There is a host of technology on board which takes a while to get used to do. There is a huge 15-inch touchscreen display in the centre of the dash, which merges into another 12-inch display replacing the conventional analogue dials behind the steering wheel.

Everything is controlled by this central infotainment system, which itself operates like an iPad and detects your fingers as they approach the screen.

As you would expect there is plenty of room in the vehicle and 810 litres of luggage space. But there is no option for seven seats.

Changing the drive button gives you from Eco to Sport for on the road and Snow to Expert for off it.

The Touareg also has all-wheel steering which makes it feel lighter around town but then at 80mph along the motorway you can hardly hear the engine.

The adaptive cruise control which, as well as detecting other traffic and slowing down/speeding up as necessary, actually uses data from the navigation system.

This means it will slow down and accelerate as the speed limit changes - and even slow down if it detects a bend or roundabout ahead.

Great car. Among the best on the UK roads.