Why is it that frequent car adverts state ‘one lady owner’ as an inducement to purchase a car? Adverts stating ‘one male owner’ just don’t exist.

What is it that ‘one lady owner’ means a car is a good purchase? Do one lady owners really only poddle around town rather than burning up the motorway to go to the Edinburgh Festival , Glastonbury, Totnes, and a drive through the tunnel for a long French weekend.

Rubbish. One lady owner has often had all kinds of adventures in her car but those that put these ads in are usually traditional (boring old fart chauvanists) with traditional meal serving, husband knows best, wives who have never dared drive further than the post office or the local school.

This means that the car is good, but if you are a woman buying it you sooooo want to meet the wife and somehow help her escape and see a life beyond the confines of her macho prison.

Trouble is some women are happy that way – no major bills to pay, no huge decisions to take, and all the long journeys in life navigated by somebody else.

At least many more of us steer our own course, and if we do own a poddly little car it takes us on so many adventures that it usually dies and gets scrapped rather than ending up (shamefully) as a ‘one lady owner’ ad.