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IT was definitely not the most authoritative of surveys, but the Evening Standard's recent light-hearted, though not entirely facetious Prestige Poll of Cars, does suggest that car buyers are not as conformist and as easily indoctrinated as is commonly assumed. New World Motoring Editor Robert Govender, who endorses this view, contends in his test report on the Volvo 850 that this basic good sense of the average British car buyer also does justice to the Volvo.

THIS is probably the first time that a "poll" of this kind has been carried out. Its approach may be unorthodox, the findings a bit quirky, but it may well inspire a more serious poll on these lines.

Rejecting the concept of "prestige cars", which he says "still lives in the minds of credulous and gullible consumers as well as in the cor blimey end of car sales", Steven Bayley, the man behind the "poll", looked up three estate agents' listing magazines and identified the make of car parked outside expensive properties. He awarded one point "if a make was explicitly and identifiably parked outside a prestige property and an appropriate fraction if only a part of that make was visible."

The Peugeot won hands down, with the Lotus way behind and the Porsche in an even more humiliating position at the bottom end. As for Aston-Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls Royce, they are nowhere in the picture.

Steven Bayley is on solid ground with his assertion that "all cars have achieved a satisfactory level of functional purpose." He goes on to ask: "With prosperous, educated people tending to disdain conspicuous display, can the idea of prestige retain any real meaning." Certainly not.

However, even though his methodology as he himself laughingly says, won't "win the Central Statistical Office's Golden Calculator Award", one cannot but agree that the figures of the prestige poll are more revealing than "the boring numbers usually associated with consumer surveys or trite judgments of the motoring press."

As a member of the motoring press I would not disagree. While I enjoy laucnhes for the latest models, I steer clear of the pedants and bores, painfully one dimensional men, among some of my colleagues. Too often, they strike know-all poses with dogmatic and wildly off the mark pronouncements on consumer tastes.

Similar distortions by hack-hagiographers in gooey gossip magazines on celebrities would have us believe, simply on the basis that their subject owns a Porsche or a Ferrari, that this is the rule among all the rich. Some may be better educated, some may even hate such vulgar displays of wealth, opting for less "prestigious" cars.

Readers of this column need no reminding of my own contention, shared with the aforementioned Mr Bayley, that most modern cars are well made, reliable and score highly in the safety area.

Most car buyers, share this view, and that is why, despite the ballyhoo, the clever and persuasive advertising and the lofty erudition of the specialist motoring press, they are increasingly ignoring the prestige factor for more solid attributes like reliability, safety, good handling, sound road holding and economy.

The Volvo is as good as its claims, and that is why it also has such a loyal following. Charles Hunter-Pease, Volvo's down to earth MD, recognises that if his company is to to continue to perform well in the feverish car sales race, it has to stay ahead of its competitors in "value, safety and driving pleasure."

The Volvo 850 embodies all these qualities in good measure. No need to dwell on its celebrated safety characteristics, save to illustrate with an actual case. A woman I know owes her life to the solidity of the Volvo she owns. She was injured in a serious accident, and when the police visited her in hospital they told her that if she had been in any other car she would have been dead.

Both the Volvo 850 saloons and estates, tough and spacious, and good looking too, are ideal for the social and business requirements of the independent trader. Apart from their reliability and economy, they have the space to transport stock or the family on holiday. The 850 is most suitable for large families.

The Volvo 850s start from just under 18,000 pounds.