KELLY BROWN Mum's the Word...Finding a new family-friendly motor for us is driving me mad

But for my hubby you would have thought it was like Mastermind meets the Krypton Factor meets The Cube. The challenge has taken on ridiculously epic proportions!

The arrival of our second child next year means we have sold his two-seater sports car and are in the process of replacing it with a more sensible, family-friendly vehicle.

I would thought the search would have taken a couple of weeks.

Just how wrong could a girl be?

For me it needs a small list of things.

Be in budget, have room for kids in the back, room in the boot for a buggy, a sensible-sized engine so it does not cost the Earth to tax and run, have a long MOT and some tax on it. Not too much, I think.

Of course there is an added wish list of makes, mod cons and the like, but nothing to make finding a replacement car Mission: Impossible. But no, my list is insufficient and just wrong.

You see, a boy’s car has to have at least a certain-sized engine ‘or the car has no guts’, has to look good and a raft of other requirements which sends me to sleep.

And one of my practical requirements is just wrong, according to my hubby. You see I would have thought a five-door was a must, but apparently a three-door version will suffice. (It’s sportier – therefore cooler – by the way!)

Searches in the papers and the internet have seen us travel as far as Slough one weekend to look at a car, and seen my husband turn car-hunting into an obsession.

It’s not all his fault, some potentials came to nothing because checks revealed cars had been in accidents and the like.

But this weekend my husband has lined up another hour-long trip to see a car which he will definitely buy if it has no problems. I really hope so – after two months I’m getting bored now!

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