The undercrackers of the DS 7 are related to the Peugeot 3008, which isn’t a bad place to start. Longer wheelbase and wider tracks make it more imposing. There’s a wholly different rear suspension with multi-links.

The 2.0 diesel makes 180bhp and the 1.6 petrol a useful 225bhp, both their efforts automatically transmitted via a new eight-speed box. A couple of months later they’re joined by a brand-new DOHC 1.5-litre diesel and the familiar three-cylinder petrol. Both those make 130bhp. They can be had with a manual.

The 2.0 diesel isn’t a huge success. It’s OK when wafting about, but the thing gets noisy at bigger torque and revs. But then all crossovers in this class are transverse-engined like this, so most suffer the same way. The transmission is mostly OK, occasionally indecisive, occasionally jerky. You can force more sympathetic gearshift timings via paddles, though they’re a bit small and oddly far from the steering-wheel rim.

Never be tempted to jab ‘sport’ on the mode button. It makes the transmission cling with white-knuckle fervour onto the lower gears. Yet big revs mean even more noise and, with this engine’s output curve, little more performance. Worse, it also adds some kind of false sound symposer, producing yet more auditory commotion. It all goes completely against the spirit of the car. Stick it in comfort.

If switching away from sport mode is blessed relief, how much more so to abandon the diesel altogether and get the 225bhp petrol. This one is sweet in revving to 5,000rpm and only a bit hoarse to 6,000. The transmission is more serenely programmed, and smoother in its shifts.

Also the petrol version is well over 100kg lighter. You feel the extra nimbleness in bends.

But this is not a car where bends are the issue. It’s the suppleness on bumps that matters. I cannot hand on heart say exactly how this camera business actually helps because a direct on-off comparison is unavailable. You can switch it out by going from comfort to normal mode, but normal (and to a greater extent sport) runs an adaptive damper programme that inclines more to stiffness. So you can’t tell if the extra cushioning in comfort mode is due to the camera or the natural inclination of the computer to relax the dampers more of the time.

But the aim of the camera is to see bumps and potholes in the road, and then the computer calculates when each wheel will hit them, and relaxes the damper for the impact then stiffens it to control things afterward. Cunning.

Whatever it stems from, in comfort mode the 7 has a soft old-French waftiness over most disturbances all the way from cobbles to speed bumps. Sometimes there’s a little shudder from the wheels, but seldom. It’s a fine-riding car. The body does float a bit around 50-60mph, but above that bigger speed or in bends the dampers automatically stiffen a little to keep the body under control.

Even so that waftiness might get your kids in the back asking for a puke-stop. For that reason alone you might end up back in normal mode. But I think comfort should be the default mode for a DS, and labelled that way. Normal wasn’t my normal when I was driving the 7.

But most of all avoid the sport mode. Not just because of the powertrain calibration in the diesel, but because it makes the steering heavy without extra feel. And the stiffer dampers work well only on very smooth roads.

In fact the DS 7 corners pretty satisfactorily given its comfort, its altitude, and its FWD-ness. (None are available with help from the rear tyres until that PHEV.) It’s tidy, the roll angles build progressively, and the understeer is manageable. As a bonus, a hint about the front tyres’ action makes its way back up the column to your fingers.

The switchable driver support system goes by the name Connected Drive, though it isn’t online. It just connects a camera, radar and steering assist, guiding you down a motorway, even a curvy one, more smoothly than rivals. But don’t look away, eh?

Same applies to the night-vision, which uses the instrument screen to picture the view ahead. From a good distance away, animals, cars and cyclists are outlined in yellow boxes, red boxes if they’re in danger, then a beep if it gets really critical. But as there’s no head-up display, you might not see the boxes til the beep and then you ought to watch the road.