Although Andrew could get a well-equipped Ghia model I would advise him to get a classier package: a Volkswagen Passat. Again, I would recommend the estate version which is spacious, with plenty of room in the back for children and more than enough in the plush boot area for a dog.The fixtures and fittings are high-quality and it is all put together well. But the Passat is not the sportiest drive, but that should not bother most buyers who just want a comfortable, safe and reliable vehicle with a strong image which soaks up high mileages without any fuss.The Passat diesel engine, which is powerful, frugal and refined, is the most important ingredient. The bottom line is that a well-equipped 1.9 Tdi PD 130 SE rates at £63 on 22 per cent tax, or £115 in the 40 per cent band.A car for the heartYou can have some fun with the tax rules and pay only a nominal amount of tax each month. For instance, the Mitsubishi L200 4Life double-cab would attract just £9 a month for a 22 per cent taxpayer and just £17 a month for 40 per cent payers.It is a hip and happening vehicle with a saloon-car look and plush double cab combined with a pick-up rear end and an open boot where it is possible to put a dog, or your samples.On second thoughts it might not be that secure, although you can buy a bolt-on cover.
Whether anyone would enjoy tearing up and down the nation's motorways in a big four-wheel drive is another matter.The other problem is that the tax office are poised to close the loophole that allows anyone to drive a five-seat pick-up whileit is taxed as a van. If you want to drive something special then consider a MG ZT-T 2.0CDTi 135 Tourer which has a very long name and is certainly fun to drive and interesting to look at. A good diesel performer, it is not a massive load-lugger but in tax terms it costs £73 or £132.. The marque: The marque: French institution that does things differently The marque: The marque: French institution that does things differently The history: Andr?itro? a Frenchman of Dutch extraction, started a company to make gears with chevron-shaped teeth in 1912. Seven years later he built his first car, using a double-chevron as the badge, and within a year the company was building 100 a day, mainland Europe's first mass-produced car.By 1934, Citro?was bankrupt. Too many resources had been sunk into the all-new, front-wheel drive Traction Avant, whose chassis-less construction was developed with the US Budd Corporation, and Michelin took over.
Andr?itro?died a broken man, just before the Traction was launched to universal acclaim. The next milestone was also conceived before the First World War, but did not emerge until 1948. The 2CV, with its part-corrugated bodywork and tiny two-cylinder engine, mobilised the French rural masses. The next seminal Citro?was the DS, whose streamlined shape and oleo-pneumatic suspension seemed fantastically futuristic. Continually unique solutions to regular design challenges brought the Ami, the air-cooled flat-four GS, the corrugated H-van, the rotary-engined GS Birotor, the Maserati-engined SM coup?nd, in 1974, the DS-replacing CX But that was the year Citro?s cashflow ran dry again This time Peugeot took over.