I bought the Peugeot 306 over 6 years ago and it was 3 years old when I got it and it had already done 30,000 miles.

I needed a car that was safe, strong, reasonable on diesel, took the kids and their stuff and that could do the milage I needed from it. I travel 135 miles round trip to work every other day and the car has now done 220,000 miles, I reckon that it costs me £12 a day to do my round trip but given the car's age it ain't doing bad.

I have had it serviced every 6000 miles as recommended and I think doing this has probably prolonged the car's life.

What I like about the car is that is can do the speed I need it to do, it quite happily goes at 90 mph over long distances (when in Germany of course), I also am very tall and I need the seat to go back as far as possible and even with this there is still enough room for an adult to sit behind me without their knees digging into my back, there is also a good sized boot especially for an average sized car.

The bad points about the car, well, apart from the normal wear and tear and things that would naturally go wrong with it over the time span I have had it, I can't really fault it, I did have some issues with the indicator so the switch had to be replaced, the imobiliser was also naughty so I just got my garage to disconnect it. I do find the low driving position a bit of a bind when trying to get out of the car purely because of my bad knees but the low position does make you feel quite safe because the car seems to stick to the road as it's low and wide.

The car is quite ugly and the interior has always been a tad 80's looking.

But the reason why I bought the car is because I needed a cart horse that would run and run and if I needed a bit of speed I had it and if I needed to have a car full of kids and their stuff I could, I also needed a car that was a cheap as possible to run and that I felt safe in, the car is really solid and the visibility is excellent.

So, when this car finally dies (touch wood it's latter rather than sooner), I am sort of stumped on what to get next, I want something with a bit more style but given my experience with this car, I might well get another one if I can find a good deal and despite it's dated image.

I can only go on what I know and it's been a cracking little car.