I haven’t driven one yet, but I have had a good look and am generally impressed, the standard sound system seemed particularly good. My personal gripes are three; the wands on the steering column are slightly too far away from the rim of the wheel to make fingertip control totally comfortable - you may even have to remove your hands from the wheel to indicate if you are small; the rear headroom is, as everyone has commented, poor, and the front seats don’t have a memory function. Even my ancient Uno had seats that returned to their pre-set positions after tipping, those on the new 500 have to be re-adjusted every time someone gets in the back. Nuts! This is really retrograde stuff. Oh, and the internal storage is not great, even the Panda has a glove box. The clever under-seat storage is useful of course, but it cannot take a laptop.

I don’t want to sound like a moaner, but these gripes are the sort of small inconveniences that can cause annoyance after the first flush of excitement has worn off, and if I were a manufacturer I’d do my level best to ensure that they were designed out in the beginning.

But hey, it’s a cute little car, the front seating position is really very good (why can’t the big Bravo have a comfortable front seat and decent space around the pedals, and a clutch foot rest?) and it will be cheap to run. For myself, I am still waiting for the new twin cylinder jobbies. Until then I would recommend anyone to buy the sweet little diesel, which sounds quiet and promises superb economy and durability.