SEAT Toledo 1.6

I recently in Sweden and it is common practice here to run a "winter car" - something cheap to run, cheap to repair and with front-wheel drive. The reasons for this is obvious - snow, lots and lots of snow which falls in November and hangs around to March or April. No matter how careful you are, there is always a risk of being involved in a minor accident when the road is a sheet of ice and it makes sense to have a disposable car. The car I found is a 1998 Seat Toledo 1.6 petrol with a 5-speed gearbox. And it's red - a winter safety feature. It has the usual - and useful - standard Swedish features of headlamp wash, engine heater (more about this later) heated seats and fog lights, as well as twin airbags, central locking, air-conditioning and an aftermarket CD player.

It had 128000 km (about 80000 miles) and I have done 8000 km (about 5000 miles) in the last 4 months. The average full consumption has been 7 litres/100km (40 mpg) in mixed driving and 9l/100km (about 31 mpg) in town.

It has been totally reliable since I bought it. It starts immediately even if it is minus 20 degrees Centigrade and runs evenly. Recently I have been using the engine block heater which connects to a 230V outdoor power supply on a timer and means that the engine is already warm when I come to start it in the morning. This obviously gets the demister working more quickly but even without the help of the heater the engine warms up within 3 miles.

Much to my surprise then is no visible rust on the body and the cloth interior still looks good - but the cabin looks dated with its large areas of shiny plastic.

The headlights are excellant - a good beam pattern and a long range - very useful for avoiding the local wild life which can be the size of a large horse and has antlers.

The boot is very large and there are a number of useful cubby holes and seat pockets in the cabin.

The car had remote control fitted as standard but that has never worked - despite fitting a new battery to the key and following the instructions on how to reactive it.

I am surprised how attached I have become to my winter car - it may not be the most modern car in the world but it gets the job done.