My track record with cars seems to be safely intact.

For the record, I crashed my first car after owning it for about 36 hours. It was completely my fault, and after being told that most people make the same driving mistakes over and over again, I’m now quite careful when turning left onto a main road. Especially if it’s at a 5-way junction, and especially if there are Fiestas in the way. When I got my second car, I had a slight fracas with an Escort after about a day, and had to replace the driver side wing mirror. I’m not sure if that was entirely my fault, but I’m willing to take at least half the blame.

Well, I picked up my 3rd car last Wednesday, a nice shiny 3 year-old Audi A4.

And it broke down on Thursday night. Fantastic. The engine cut out in the outside lane of the Thanet Way. I brought the car to a stop at the first sensible place, and called the cavalry. The nice man from the RAC turned up an hour later, and, since the local Audi dealer were closed by that time, towed me and my stricken car home (all of 1.2 miles, fact-fans). In the morning, Audi dispatched a ‘skilled technician’ who had me up and running again in a few minutes. An ignition coil had failed, melted part of the connecting loom, and blown a fuse. A new ignition coil was installed, and I was on my way.

The next day, the Audi boys came and collected the car, leaving me a nice nearly-new A4 to get around in.

Finally, last night, I went to collect my car. Again. I am glad to say that it has, so far, successfully taken me on two journeys without so much as a splutter. Which is nice.

It was disappointing for something like this to happen within 36 hours of picking up my new car, but I am impressed with the way Audi dealt with the problem. There was never any hesitation about what they were doing, with the number one priority being to get me on the road again with the least disturbance possible. We are just waiting to see what they say about warranty periods, and exactly how happy they want to make me.