My feeling on this is that the contract hire rate is the critical figure, and at 10,000 miles a year, maintenance isn’t really necessary.

I mean, what’s going to happen? A service or two? New set of tyres? But nothing drastic. Those items can be catered for out of the business funds without too much difficulty.

For smaller enterprises that run a larger number of company cars – perhaps 25 business cars – maintenance is more vital, especially if the cars are doing some 15 or 20,000 miles a year.

Can you imagine what the effect would be on a small business’s cash flow if 10 of their company cars needed new tyres all at the same time…So in these cases maintenance is worthwhile; it helps smooth the cash flow; helps budgeting; and provides peace of mind.

But back onto Volvo and the good news doesn’t stop there. The new S60 saloon will go on sale late spring.

“It looks a million dollars,” enthused John. “The driving dynamics have been a huge focus – we’ve even got John Cleland, the former touring car champion, refining the chassis for the UK market.”

John Cleland, incidentally, apart from being a fine touring car driver (and equally accomplished wind up merchant – ask any of his touring car rivals) is also a Volvo dealer, so he’s in a perfect position to help.

“The previous S60 was successful, and we think the new car will build on that. We think it will be a viable and better value alternative to the German BMW 3-Series and AudiA4 rivals,” John confidently predicted.

The car certainly looks attractive – as you can see in our picture – but a serious BMW/Audi rival?

Well, it’s about time we had one.