One of the criticisms of the Cherokee is that the 'boot' [with back seat in up mode] is rather small for the size of the car and the rear seat does not split. Added to which, the spare officially lives in that space - and Jeep wheels are big [but the tyres are not expensive, about £60 ea]. I was on my own and devoid of babies and bikes - but I did have camping gear and several boxes of books. For load-carrying, a European-designed estate car will be much more capacious and more suitable for a family with camping gear and bikes. Volvo estates come big and cheap, too.

I thought I might sleep in the back of the Jeep so I removed the seat of the rear seat - easy: one clip on one side, slides out of a channel the other ~ 15 secs. I had the full length of the load bay right to the backs of the front seats [if you follow me] and kept the load bay as clear of bits as poss for a] security b] not having to move loads of stuff if I wanted to kip down. My remedy for keeping gear out of sight was a roof box with a pair of s/s strops [6mm rigging wire, eyes at both ends] running through a U-bolt on the centre of the lid of the box and padlocked down to the adjustment holes in the roof bar rails. Your local friendly yacht rigger will make the strops up for you. Measurements are critical, for this. Position everything and use string templates for the s/s strops.

If I was in your situation and had decided a Jeep was it, I'd get a second set of roof bars [I got a second set from a 4x4 specialist scrappie in Glastonbury, £75 inc p & p [Jeep wanted £300!], mount the roof box well forward so there is room to put the spare on the bars behind the box. I measured all this up and works. The tailgate might bump up against the tyre but it will be above horizontal when it does.

Irrespective of what estate car you use [if you do], security is a major issue for these vehicles. Pull-over fabric covers or fold-over boards that estate cars come with to screen the load bay are soon rendered useless by heaps of holiday/baby gear. Sad to say that in my experience the coast of Spain is infested with North Africans stealing stuff from cars. I had a bag [fortunately with nothing of value in it] nicked from the passenger seat next to me while I was sitting in the driver’s seat! A skilful couple of likely lads from Morocco.

The Jeep is a great 2-up long distance tourer or 5-seater regular local wheels. There are plenty of roads in Spain where the agricultural-spec suspension, huge ground clearance, let alone the occasional 4x4 ability, will come in handy. No low-slung bum on Tonto, Jo-Jo! So, bearing in mind what Bette Davis said in “All About Eve” – “fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” you girls might find you need to change into a sports bra every time you want to go for a ride …