I have to admit that after the SEAT Leon excelling at everything I could throw at it, I was a bit apprehensive at the arrival of the Grandad. Having shot and driven it several times for Vauxhall already, I kind of know what to expect, but would living with it day-to-day be different?

The Grandland X is in its Sport Nav guise, and comes packed with plenty of standard equipment including Vauxhall’s OnStar system, 18-inch alloy wheels, powered tailgate, and safety pack for the on the road price of £25,360.

Optional equipment fitted to this one consists of a wireless phone charger (£160), Winter Pack One (£355), Sports seats (£425) and metallic paint (£570).

Pulling this beast along is a 1.2 litre, 130hp turbo petrol engine, that had me completely fooled into thinking that I was driving a higher capacity turbo diesel until I had to refuel it for the first time and the nozzle wouldn’t fit…thankfully. Vauxhall quotes a combined MPG of 55.4, yet the first few tanks have only returned 38.6. That’s quite a discrepancy.

First driving impressions of the Gladrag X are pretty good, the tiny engine pulls really well, overtakes are handled with surprising ease, but for me the controls are all a touch too light and the gear lever has a really long travel.

The all-important boot space is just about ok for all my photographic equipment, but I have a feeling that the capacity with the seats down will struggle to fit in all my gigging equipment, but I’ve yet to test that.

The Grandland X is pretty well kitted out in its Sport Nav iteration for the £25,360 on the road price, and there’s probably not a lot more you’d want.

The powered boot is always pretty handy, being able to open it from a distance with the key is useful when the weather is being British allowing me to load up quickly. Apparently it also has a feature to open and close it by waving your foot underneath without pressing the button. I’ve never managed to get it to work as it’s supposed to, except on one occasion when I was getting something out of the boot and it started to close on me.

The Flex Floor adds or subtracts a useful few inches to the depth of the boot meaning my camera equipment (or shopping) doesn’t roll out onto the tarmac.

The infotainment is very good, and it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity via the USB socket in the front, which I use all the time. Slightly annoying is the fact that I can’t connect my iPod to the rear USB and have my iPod for music and my phone connected via Apple CarPlay, it’s either one or the other.

Also slightly pointless for me is the wireless charging – my phone is too old to have that function, but even if it did, I wouldn’t be able to wireless charge it and use Apple CarPlay, as that only works when plugged in to the USB.

The navigation has been useful as always, but did have a bit of a hiccup, where it would randomly sound a warning noise and suggest five local Vauxhall dealers to drive to, as if there was a problem with the car. It does the same thing when the fuel light comes on, but suggests the nearest petrol stations. After speaking to Vauxhall about this, they suggested it needs a reboot so has been back to Luton, and now seems fine.

The optional Ergonomic Sports Style Front Seats (£425) are reasonably comfortable, but not really what I would call sporty, the side bolsters to the back and base don’t particularly hold you in place, but I’ve not sampled the standard seats to compare.

One standard feature that has been super useful is Vauxhall’s OnStar in car WiFi, allowing me to send images to clients when I’m out and about, and while my girlfriend was waiting for her Sky connection, my only option to send images without driving to McDonalds.

The speed is pretty good too, 25 minutes to send 1.7GB is better that Sky could manage when they finally did connect the broadband, and only by upgrading to their fiber could it beat the Vauxhall! Coupled with the three-pin plug socket in the back, this makes The Grandland X a great mobile office.