Yet again, the car has weird faults. The dashboard stopped working, which meant not knowing how fast I was going at any given time. The ignition got ropey, wouldn’t always start, and sometimes stalled again as soon as started up. And the key has been a pain for months – you never know whether it will lock or not, and once it has locked, you never know whether it will unlock or whether you will be climbing over the passenger seat after using the emergency key.

The car does have a “lifetime warranty” which is maintained by having an expensive annual dealer service. Last year that in itself cost almost as much as the value of the car, and the latest chunk of things going wrong – apparently it needs a new key and sensors aplenty to make it work again – will easily take me over what WEBUYANYCAR, for example, would pay for it.

So, they’re not doing the work, I’m living with the unreliability, and starting to turn my thoughts to my next car. Boo hiss.

Buying the car last time was a pain. I know nothing about cars, and my criteria are a bit weird.

I feel guilty for having a car at all. City living shouldn’t need one. The buses here are excellent. But having one does make it a great deal easier to do my campaign work, including shifting leaflets about, getting to delivery places and to the secret print cave, which barely has a bus service at all. If I didn’t have a car, a lot of people around me would have to make adjustments.

Last time, at the last minute, I rejected a much smaller car on seeing the boot and thinking, “I couldn’t fit our camping kit in there.” I think this time, I will be more rigourous with myself: we only camp rarely. Most of the work of the car will be small, planet destroying city hops.

What I need:

a nice car
a tiny eco car
with a nippy acceleration
strong, instant brakes
fabulous cockpit experience
– mp3 / cd player
– radio tuning stick on driving wheel
– comfortable seats
Majorly more reliable than the bloody Renault Mégane!