The French Connection - Living with a 90s Twingo (#3)

You really don't know what you've got until it's gone. In this case, slightly less romantically than the context those words are usually used in, I'm referring to company cars.

For the last three years at work, I've had the perk of getting a brand new car every four or five months. Ironically, I used to spend a significant amount of time finding excuses not to drive them, but now I miss them. Because in the absence of a more sensible option, the Twingo has become my daily of choice. You'd imagine that I'd be absolutely thrilled about this. I've made various rambling statements about just how much I enjoy driving the little thing, even on long trips - but now, with various regular trips having to be undertaken, a little bit of the magic is wearing off.

There are some positives. It's fantastically economical, proven again from the last trip to Dudley, where over 228 miles of driving it managed to sip just shy of 23 litres of petrol. It's weirdly practical, thanks to the sliding rear seat, and it's also stupidly easy to park thanks to the dinky dimensions it possesses. But countering these positives are the negatives. While the engine is willing and passionate when going about its business, on the motorway the cracks begin to show. This is not a car geared for high speed cruising, and after a couple of hours you'll be reaching for the aspirin to cure your headache. It's also a bit conspicuous - this is great fun when attending automotive events, but it's slightly less suitable when driving through the centre of Birmingham where it managed to attract a significant amount of attention - with not all of it being good. While it didn't manage to fall victim to an attempted carjacking like a Mk3 MX5 I once drove through Sparkhill did, it probably wasn't far off.

This leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. I need to find a new daily driver, as the only other option I have is the Evo and, while being a very quick way to get from A to B, it can't hit 30mpg in even the most economical cruise, and the suspension setup is probably stiff enough to perform hands-free CPR. Focusing on business related matters means that I can no longer justify running the daily, the Evo and the Twingo alongside each other anymore. So one would have to go.

Although despite it's shortcomings, I very much doubt it'd be the Twingo. After all, it's meant to be going to France next month...