Price £30,280
0-62mph 5.6 seconds
Top speed 155mph
MPG 38.7
CO2 164g/km

Following a year in which fake news is still making headlines, VW continues to work hard to clear the dark clouds of noxious air hanging over its good name after the horror show of ‘dieselgate’.

The best approach, perhaps, is to start with a clean slate – and that’s exactly what VW has tried to do with the all-new Arteon. It is the brand’s latest flagship model. The name may sound like the ‘Arty one’, but this gorgeously sleek and sumptuous saloon is anything but bohemian. Every aspect of it has been fastidiously designed and tested to create one of the smoothest and safest executive cars on the road.

As a rule, senior management tend to favour the BAM brands (BMW, Audi and Mercedes), but the Arteon has enough toys, gadgets and gizmos to tempt them across the corporate carpark to try a VW.

Chief among the aids is the revolutionary Emergency Assist 2.0, a system intended to deal with worst-case scenarios, such as the driver becoming incapacitated at the wheel (heart attack? Exhaustion?) If the car senses this, it will steer safely towards the nearside lane and come to a slow stop. What happens next is anyone’s guess…

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@MartinLove166