Bangers

My piece suggesting that a four-year-old Ford Sierra could be a good used-car purchase brought a note from another reader (much of the fun lies in the correspondence I get) about his 1988 Vauxhall Cavalier CD which has done 57,000 miles with only two breakdowns, a broken clutch cable and a leaking fuel pipe, both repaired promptly by the RAC. Brake pads replaced at 42,000 miles, tyres at 46,000 miles; first-time starts on original Delco battery. Life in another oldster! Long may they survive.