This is such a well established fact in the office that Dan even bought me a Lego ‘generic city car’ for my birthday last week, saying this would allow me to smash a Smart up at will… Comes with a trendy dude in a hooded sweatshirt – how appropriate.

 

one, they've always got a pen in their camera bag, which is handy because most hacks are so disorganised they forget even this most basic tool of the trade. And two, no combination of weather conditions, location and car colour are ever, ever good enough. Having pointed a camera at a car once or twice in this line of work I can understand this streak of diva-ish fussiness too.  

And picking out who does what from the usual on stage line-up as they're introduced is never difficult. The engineer? He'll probably have a slightly startled look like this is the first time he's been let out in public for three years. Which was probably the last time he wore his slightly rumpled suit. The marketing exec? If it's a chap he'll be smooth, well-presented, confidently multi-lingual and dressed expensively, his female counterpart much the same but going for the corporate power look perhaps livened up with a bit of off-duty glam. The boss? Possibly dressed down, definitely checking his watch and the most likely to leave early to go to another engagement.

 

As motorists we’re all the same, don’t deny it. As the postie retreats and you glance at the morning’s Royal Mail goodies, what’s the one thing you don’t want to see?

 

Now as this arrived at the office address, don’t be fooled by Peter’s name being on the top – it could have been for any of us, driving all the different press cars that we do. And at this point I could have a bit of fun with our resident ODFT sufferer (that’s Over Developed Right Foot), who for the purposes of discretion shall remain nameless – he knows who he is and the rest of you can probably guess – but I’ll be kind and suggest you all look a little bit closer.

 

It was one of those rare occasions where everything - the car, the road and even the tunes shuffled by my iPod - seemed in perfect alignment. And by golly is that E-Class a good car.

This was the second time I'd driven this particular road yesterday. I can't yet tell you about the car I drove along it earlier, except to say it had a very large engine, made an awful lot of noise and was very clearly from the performance end of the spectrum. And yet I can honestly say I think I enjoyed the return journey in the Merc just as much, if not more.

 

See that? That's an abandoned BMW 740d that is. The BMW 740d I drove home in last night, having decided to give the Smart a rest. The BMW 740d that didn't make it to the end of my road without getting stuck. 

David recently won a competition on MSN Cars to drive the new Vauxhall Astra at the Millbrook test track. Here’s what he thought of the new car…

 

The new Astra is leaps and bounds ahead of the previous model in terms of styling and quality of materials used. The new design of the centre console echoes that of the Corsa which we own and love.

 

Well, if snow like we’ve been having once again becomes a regular occurrence it might be worth considering winter-worthiness in your next purchase. Based on nothing more than arbitrary observation here are 10 cars you might want on your shortlist. And 10 to avoid.