IT’S AN odd sensation to catch yourself during a moment of significant personal change, To become aware that a fundamental shift is happening, while it’s happening. And yet, as I slid my bum into the soft, supple seat of Wheels’ Volvo XC60 long-termer, that’s exactly what occurred.

I was in a dark, cold and decidedly depressing car park at Melbourne airport, having spent the previous three days crisscrossing NSW in a group of focused, topless and worringly expensive supercars, which you’ll read about next month. Maybe it was the weather, or my sleep-deprived state, but slipping into the Volvo felt like a big, warm hug.

MORE Editor’s Letter: Australia hates the car enthusiast

It was easy to get into, its seating position high and commanding. As I switched on the heated steering wheel, I made the kind of noise English people make when you offer them tea and biscuits. I may have actually muttered, “Oooooh lovely.”

I found myself lusting after an SUV, which felt odd, and made me ponder a deeper question: would the wider Wheels readership feel the same way? Having spent more hours that I care to admit trawling through the comments on our social media pages and fielding letters from readers after our last two COTY winners (Mazda CX-9 and Volvo XC60) I’d wager that no, the majority wouldn’t.

SUVs may now account for more than half of all Aussie sales, but to car enthusiasts, to people who actively pursue the thrill of driving, they’re still derided. They’re dismissed as inferior and compromised, bought by people who don’t know or simply don’t care that they’re heavier, thirstier, uglier, more cumbersome and often less practical than an equivalent sedan or better yet, a wagon. The past decade has seen disliking SUVs become cool; a default reflex that feels as normal, and as right, as despising the pommy cricket team.

There are exceptions, of course. Heavy SUVs with sloppy handling and thirsty engines still exist and deserve your vilification, but the rate of progress has been such that the entire SUV segment can no longer be written off as mediocre.

Wheels dep ed Andy Enright argues that SUVs are now so good that they’re often better than the performance wagons of yore we hold so dear. A Porsche Macan Turbo, for example, would likely run rings around a V8-powered Audi RS4 Avant.

The point here isn’t to suggest you should rush out and buy an SUV, but to challenge the way you think about them.