Just before Christmas I found myself chatting to former BMW fleet boss Chris Brownridge, who’s now the firm’s product tzar in the UK.

He asked what I thought of the 520d. After singing its praises I mentioned that my previous long-termer, a Merc E-class, auto folds the mirrors when it locks, and that this would be a handy feature rather than having to hit a button, as you do in the 5-series. It transpires, as Chris pointed out, that holding down the lock button on the key fob sees the mirrors automatically tuck themselves in. Oops. There’s a lesson here in reading a manual when you get a new car.

BMW 520d saloon SE manual
Mileage 5599 miles
Our average consumption 46.3mpg
Forecast CPM 58.2p
Actual CPM 59.8p
Positive Emissions, running
costs, quality
Negative Electric steering