As the owner of a lovely 2011 MX-5 SE RC in Copper Red, I ask myself who in their right mind would want a DS Cabrio or even a Mini Convertible at greater cost than the Mazda. Before anyone says that it only has two seats, the Mini doesn't have that much rear room - my daughter has a Cooper S and is contemplating a larger car as her two daughters are growing up.

Agree with that as my wife has had one from 2010 and why would you want to buy one of the other toys> She loves her MX5 2.0 Sport more than me but perhaps that would be easy.!

I’ve never really understood why I have to stick £4 in the parking meter every working day yet the bloke next to me with the new £50k BMW sticks a card thing in the window and doesn’t pay a jot. Are all disabled people poor?

A bit off topic RobertT.

All depends on the rules the Local Authority lay down. Increasingly, disabled badge holders have to pay the same as anyone else in council owned car parks and some on-street bays....

Who knows what accountancy was going on, GM may have been using Vauxhall as a vehicle (‘scuse the pun) for GM write-downs to protect the owning company, the same way Rover was saddled with enormous debt to build huge manufacturing infrastructure for BMW in the UK - whilst perpetuating the myth of the "English Patient" to justify dumping them - Rover also picked up the tab to develop the (R30?) platform which became Mk2 MINI, BMW 1 series etc. Of course after asset stripping them and detaching all the expensive bits used to intentionally bankrupt Rover – the plant they actually intended to keep all along (Shiny new Oxford production line, Hams Hall engine plant etc.), an empty husk of a company was handed over to the Phoenix chancers - who got the blame – a clever game of theft and deception was played – and still people who call themselves English will buy BMW products by the drove. Even powertrain was taken off Rover who had to pay a royalty to BMW to manufacture the engine they designed!

I'd be interested to see some data, if any is available, regarding the effectiveness of the French "MoT" (contrôle technique), since its introduction in 1992. Before then, a driver was responsible for the car's roadworthiness until the moment of selling it on, which might have been 40 or 50 years in some extremely remote places(!)
And whatever happened to so-called European "harmonisation", with cars in 28 countries being subject to different testing regimes and deteriorating into decrepit dustbins at alarmingly varying rates, purely dependent on the country of registration? It reminds me of the first episode of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet", when Oz and company limped and lurched into Germany on their way to their new jobs in an eye-wateringly decrepit old Ford Zephyr.