On the face of it, a 989cc, three-cylinder city car is going to be pretty hopeless on a long distance trip. Happily, having just driven the Daihatsu Sirion to Sussex, I can confirm that it’s really not too bad.

Sirion suffers ‘considerable’ stress from Skittles-box storm damage

As you can see, the ‘Yellow Peril’ wording on the bonnet has been entirely removed now – a concession forced by my other half. I really couldn’t complain, especially as my good lady would have to share the driving on our lengthy cross-country drive.

The drive itself was quite pleasurable until we hit flooding in Sussex. In the dark. An 80mph run along the M4 hurt the economy a bit – it dropped to 43mpg – but that’s still considerably better than most cars I’ve owned. The only issue was comfort. Neither of us could really get the seat in a position that didn’t leave our right leg hurting. Quite frustrating as otherwise the car is quiet and well mannered. Rachel didn’t like the over-light power steering at motorway speeds but the air conditioning kept us from steaming up without cooking.

We’ll try to take the drive home a little steadier and perhaps I can get it back up to the dizzy heights of 49mpg. Here’s hoping!