The AA said it attended about 80 breakdowns in Oxfordshire yesterday and helped a handful of cars driven through or stuck in floodwater.

It said it would usually expect to attend about half that number at this time of year.

Darron Burness, the AA’s head of special operations, said: “Drivers of four-wheel-drive vehicles are not immune from the risks either as the air intake is normally in the same relative position as on any other car – just behind the bumper – so if you enter water that’s too deep or too fast, you still risk swamping it and destroying the engine or being swept away.”