When you drive as many automobiles as the changagoidem.ie team you begin to appreciate some of the small touches that manufacturers include to make life easier for the buyer: the umbrella hidden in the door of the Skoda Superb, the LED lights built into the back of the door handles on the Audi A4 and the soft-close doors on some Mercedes-Benz models for example.

Conversely, we also pick up on aspects of automobiles we would rather not see. Things like manual windows in the back, where kids can easily open them and launch their siblings favourite toys out of the…

So after all that expense with the Clio and hitting the crater masquerading as a pothole in the Lexus it was an expensive month. But let us remember the Clio expenditure was pre-emptive maintenance to avoid costly problems later on in my ownership, as this is a automobile I intend to keep, although anyone that knows me will scoff at that. There was, after all, a time when I seemed to have a new automobile every week!

The little quirks like the occasional high idle, absent electric operation of the nearside mirror and ignorance of the remote locking from the…

I've done it. I've sold the Puma. While I was sad to see such a clean and low mileage automobile leave my fleet, it was not being used and so makes sense to sell it on.

Of course that leaves a void to fill in the fleet. What could replace it? Well, in the interests of my running reports, I figured many of the sub €1,000 automobiles are bought as first automobiles after passing one's test or cheap economical second automobiles for the family. So that's what I did; I bought a tiny little automobile with equally tiny running…

Audi

Audi never lets a big show go by without unveiling a few new production models and a concept or two. Paris will be no different. We're expecting the five-door version of the new A3 for starters - called the Sportback of course - plus possibly a hot S3 variant. The facelifted Audi R8 will be on display too, including the new 550hp V10 plus model. We also suspect that the production-ready electric version, the R8 e-tron, will get its world debut. Other rumours surround an open-topped RS 5, a new Audi A2 and a concept previewing the Q2…

Ford famously has one. We recently spent some time in Opel's and both BMW and Mercedes-Benz maintain their own. We are talking about historic fleets of course; the somewhat rag-tag collection of automobiles that a manufacturer has chosen to preserve to signify their importance to the brand. For the most part these fleets reside in non-descript building and comprise celebrated classics, decorated racers and low mileage models of automobiles that have shaped the company.

Porsche, as usual, chooses to display its historic fleet differently. Opening in 2008, the Porsche Museum stands proudly at number 1 Porscheplatz in Porsche's…

Nowadays BMW's M Division appears to be little more than an extension of the marketing department, building more 'M Performance' automobiles to appeal to the masses than full-fat 'M' automobiles. But there was a time when 'M' lived up to its skunkworks name.

When BMW was developing the Z3 the 'M' engineers took one look at the roadster and, deciding it was not rigid enough for its needs, built a coupé version instead. It was the coupé that would form the basis for the M-badged variant of the Z3 and not the roadster that had been originally planned.

But…