Our business cars: SEAT Exeo ST 2.0 TDI 143ps estate

Story: NICK RATCLIFFE

How careful we must be not to take for granted the good things in life! Glamorous wife, beautiful children, lovely house, delightful colleagues, and now I’m just as ready to assume that the SEAT Exeo will move me quietly and comfortably wherever business takes me, and do so while consuming a meagre 47mpg.

In fact, the SEAT has taken me to Birmingham, Essex and Slough – I know how to live – and through some of the most dreadful traffic that even those destinations can throw at you. Nobody seems to have heard of staggering their journey times and they are all getting in my way!

• The phone kit and satnav have helped turn sitting in traffic jams into really productive time.

Dismal; but on the other hand I’ve had plenty of time to explore the Exeo’s gadgetry, and in particular the ‘phone connection, and the satnav.

The satnav has been a real blessing. ‘Accident ahead, leave the M25 at the next junction’ I was told. Not a detour I would have chosen, but you just have to trust in the force! I was taken on a pleasant trip along the A25 – you forget what a pretty county Surrey can be – finally re-joining the motorway at Reigate after listening smugly to all the traffic reports of a 5 mile tailback a little to the north. I can only assume that most satnavs don’t do this since the road was blissfully quiet.

When I have been held up, the built-in ‘phone connection has allowed me to keep in touch. I can screen incoming calls, speak to customers and generally use the time constructively – and of course legally. One piece of company car driving advice to come out of this is that money spent on business savvy kit for your car is a sound investment.

So after proving itself an excellent family car on holiday in France, the Exeo is once more proving itself a thoroughly competent business car now that we’re back at work.