Steering towards spring

As the afternoons draw out and the mornings become lighter I can once again enjoy motoring that little bit more.

It's been a tough winter for our cars too; snow, lots of nasty ice and plenty of corrosive salt on the roads. So, here's the things I won't miss about driving during the winter:

Getting to work for 6.30am is never nice during the darkest months, but finding your car covered in rock hard ice is never a welcoming sight. Scrapping ice off is the last thing you feel like doing at that time.

And to top it off, my drive to work is so short my car never has chance to warm up properly, so it's just as cold when I arrive.

I've also noticed my fuel consumption increase, too. Those early morning starts trying to get the heaters warm enough to clear the screen seems to empty the fuel tank. I reckon I've lost a good 30 miles worth of fuel each month.

Don't ask me why, but I actually found myself washing my car during a snow shower a few weeks back. That resulted in the soapy suds freezing on the bodywork and some of my fingers almost dropping off. That wasn't fun.

I'll look forward to opening my windows to feel warmish air rushing in. This winter I've only opened the windows to release the choking diesel fumes the fan has just forced into my lungs.

The spring will also bring the promise of longer evenings, long enough to crack open the expensive wax and detail the car. Always satisfying when afterwards the sun shine brings out that metallic flake.

However, I will miss struggling up to Burrator Reservoir during the height of our snow showers and reminding myself why a rear-wheel drive car is such simple fun.

Alright, Dave?

As much as I enjoy the re-runs of Top Gear and Fifth Gear on Virgin cable channel Dave, they're starting to wear a bit thin now.

At first it was pure brilliance being able to watch all the old repeats, but now they just show each episode over and over and over again, a bit like Only Fools and Horses.

Re-runs of Fifth Gear started off great too, but some of the episodes are just so old. We're talking the first showing of the Vauxhall Vectra Mk 2 and the VW Toureg - I mean come-on.

Still, it's better than nothing, and if it suddenly disappeared off my Virgin box I would go mad.

However, and I mean what I say now, I would happily pay more for my license fee if it meant round-the-year episodes of Top Gear.

The winter months just aren't the same. Sunday night television offers nothing close to the quality motoring television of the now-famous trio.

Of course, the BBC seems to produce fewer episodes nowadays, and from what I've read the budget for next year will be cut down. It seems like the license fee is becoming poorer value each year.

Either way, bring on the new season... before I resort to watching Jason Dawe in Auto Trader's Used car show.