For pretty much as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a Mazda MX5. In my opinion it is an extremely good looking car and even though it has some obvious impracticalities such as having only two seats and Britain only have 2 sunny days a year, I still wanted one.

For many years it was just a dream, however last month I found myself in the position where I could afford to buy, run and maintain one. Actually it would be cheaper to buy a ’05 MX5 than my current car, an ’06 Ford Focus!

A couple of weeks ago I went down to my local Mazda dealer with my Dad to have a look at a couple they had for sale. The salesman was doing his normal job of talking up the cars and they did sound impressive; “rear slip diff, low profile tires, 6 speed gearbox”. However, as soon as we started looking round them faults started to emerge. The chrome had blistered on the trim and alloys, nearly all the closures were set incorrectly and generally they looked a bit warn. Even worse, when sitting inside I discovered the seat was as far back as it went and I was a little cramped, and that’s just for starters. The interior was like something out of a ’80s Maestro, just not construed so well.

So I’m sorry Mr Salesman but I’m really not interested in booking a test drive. I don’t see the point. It was a good dream but onwards and upwards, I’ll just have to find something else to aim for!