Your pen is hovering over the dotted line on a sales contract for an Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon. This is the car you always promised yourself, you reason. Life's too short not to own an Alfa at some point and this seems as good a time as any.

You glance over to the demonstrator car in the showroom. You're right. It's beautiful in a way no estate car has any right to be. But before you put pen to paper, ask yourself a question and answer it honestly. Would you really buy a car purely on the basis of looks?

You're not that superficial, are you? The trouble with this car is that its styling tends to steamroller all other concerns.

Your neighbours may label you a narcissist as they mutter jealously and lumber away in their more aesthetically-challenged wheels. It's certainly true that there will be any number of people who will buy the 159 Sportwagon on the basis of a picture they've seen in the pages of a glossy magazine. Some cars have that 'want one' factor by the barrow load. The 159 Sportwagon has room in the back for a whole lot more of it than most but here we'll make the case for the car if it had a face like a sack of spanners.

Let's start with practicality. Rarely an Alfa byword, this is one area addressed moderately well in the 159 Sportwagon. I say moderately because, as an 'estate car', its predecessor, the 156 Sportwagon, was - and let's not get too delicate here - a joke. With its rear seats in place it possessed less useable luggage space than the saloon on which it was based.

It had other redeeming qualities insofar as it was better looking and, well, better looking - but beyond that, it was never the most pragmatic choice. Nor is the 159 Sportwagon, if your blend of practicality involves lugging wardrobes or cubic hectares of garden waste. Where the 159 Sportwagon does move the game forward, albeit moderately, is that despite having the same overall length as the 159 saloon, luggage-carrying capacity actually rises. With 445 cubic litres when the rear seats are in place, it's only 15 litres shy of a 3 Series Touring and a whopping 80 litres up on the 156 Sportwagon. At least now it can justify its existence as something other than a pretty face.

Prices are around £1,000 over and above what Alfa Romeo will charge for the equivalent 159 saloon and most canvassed seem to think the Sportwagon shape even better looking than the sharky 159 saloon. That's quite some compliment.

Five engines are on offer, split between two diesels and three petrol powerplants. The entry-level diesel option is the 150bhp 1.9-litre Multijet unit, while the range-topping diesel variant is the 2.4-litre 200bhp Multijet JTD. This is an absolute stormer, capable of zipping to 60mph in a tad over eight seconds.

JTS petrol engines start with a 1.9-litre 160bhp four, with a 2.2-litre 185bhp powerplant above that. Of more interest to serious petrol heads is the 260bhp 3.2-litre V6, based on a Holden unit from Australia and rebuilt to a special Alfa recipe. Four-wheel drive will be an option for V6 buyers. The manual transmission offered has been improved from the lazy, long-throw change of the 156 but there's also the choice of a six-speed automatic and a six-speed Selespeed sequential manual.

There's a lot to like about the Alfa 159 Sportwagon but to truly appreciate this car, one has to first accept the depth of one's superficiality. After that, the rest is easy.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

CAR: Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon range

PRICES: £21,095-£29,350 - on the road

INSURANCE GROUPS: 11-17

CO2 EMISSIONS: 179g/km (2.4 JTD) / 205g/km 1.9 (JTS) / 221g/km (2.2 JTS) / 273g/km (3.2 V6)

PERFORMANCE: (1.9JTD 150) 0-60mph 9.4s Max Speed 130 mph

FUEL CONSUMPTION: (1.9JTD 150) (combined) 30.4 mpg

STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and knee airbags, ABS, traction and stability control, ABS with brake assist

WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: 4660/1828/1417mm (Length/Width/Height)

WHO TO SEE: Guest Alfa Romeo,

Knowle

01564 774221