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The 4x4 can tow a 750kg unbraked trailer or a 2,100kg braked trailer.
Four-wheel-drive or not, the Country Tourer has the same comfy cabin as other Insignia models, with a broad back seat complete with three proper Isofix mounts - a must-have for some families.
The boot is well-shaped but seems a little on the shallow side for a car so large on the outside.
It is big enough - 540 litres with the seats up and 1,530 litres when everything is folded - but some way off the largest in class; for that, a Skoda Octavia is worth a look (610/1,740 litres).
The Country Tourer comes loaded with kit, too, with xenon headlamps, parking sensors, heated seats and adaptive dampers further helping to justify the price premium over regular Sports Tourers. There's even a heated steering wheel... For now, there are two engine choices, both 2.0-litre diesels. A 161bhp unit is likely to be the most popular. It can be specified with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearbox and front- or four-wheel-drive.
A twin-turbo 192bhp unit is available with only four-wheel-drive and the automatic gearbox.
On paper, it's difficult to see why anyone would choose this engine and transmission combination, given the greater cost, heavier fuel consumption, higher CO2 and slender performance advantage. The test car had the 161bhp engine with four-wheel-drive and manual gearbox.
At some point earlier in its life - the car arrived with 10,000 miles under its wheels - this particular Country Tourer may have been a paragon of quiet refinement.
If it was, something bad had gone wrong. Starting the engine was a bit of a retro experience, a throwback to diesels of old - a lot of chuntering before the engine, with a shovel-of-gravel-in-a-mini-mixer soundtrack, coughed into life.
Worse was the tendency during low speed manoeuvres - parking, for example - for the steering and pedals to vibrate and a shudder to emanate from somewhere around the dashboard and bulkhead area. Forgiveable in my brother-in-law's 20-year-old Peugeot 106, on its second engine, but not in a £27k new car. A reluctant gearchange completed the picture.
All this rattling and wheezing settles down at a cruise. Indeed, the Insignia is a very nice motorway car, making the lack of low-speed refinement all the more puzzling.
The engine churns out a very healthy 258lb/ft from a lowly 1,750rpm meaning it can zing along swiftly for a large, heavy car.
It does, however, run out of puff quite quickly, at which point the noise returns; keep the engine within the narrow limits where it is happiest, and it makes for a perfectly acceptable cruising companion.
This, allied to a comfortable driving position - once I'd got used to the low-slung steering wheel, that is - and a smooth ride, make the Insignia Country Tourer an ideal car for demolishing long distances. Vague steering means it isn't a great B-road car, though. Thanks to dry roads and not a hint of rain, never mind ice or snow - even in an Irish June - it was impossible to test the effectiveness of the four-wheel-drive system.
The technology used in the Insignia is proven, however, and should be easily up to the sort of tasks that Vauxhall has in mind and cope easily with pretty much any condition bar the sort of off-roading that demands a Land Rover.
A button on the dashboard allows 'sport' and 'tour' modes to be selected. Among other things, this tweaks the torque distribution.
Under normal conditions in 'tour', it sends 95 per cent to the front axle and 5 per cent to the rear; in 'sport' the split is 70/30.
Whatever mode the car is in, it can vary the torque split itself, according to the road conditions and the grip available to each wheel. It can also change the torque distribution across the back axle.
A further feature is that 'sport' firms up the suspension, while 'tour' softens it. For Irish roads, tour or normal is probably the best option; sport, in common with similar settings on other cars, makes things just a little bit too firm.
The Country Tourer builds on the manifest qualities of the standard Insignia Sports Tourer and, as if often the case with these sorts of estate cars, enhances them.
It is a stylish, comfortable cruiser, though reservations remain about the engine's refinement - if not its performance - compared to rivals' units.
Something like the Country Tourer is always going to be a niche choice, but given that the Insignia is just about the best-selling estate car on our roads, plenty more are likely to be seen. Whether any of them stray too far off-road is another question. Either way, the marginal changes wrought over the standard Sports Tourer are enough to make the Country Tourer the best version of the Insignia that Vauxhall makes.
A better engine would make it a more persuasive proposition by a country mile.