Normally, my sense of direction is pretty good – but our long-term Mazda CX-3 seems a little more geographically challenged.

Not long after taking delivery of the vehicle, it lost all its GPS signal just a few miles from the Fleet News office.

Thankfully, I knew where I was and was able to return home. But when normal service had not been resumed the next morning, I started to get worried.

A quick call to our local Mazda dealer gave us an appointment, and three days later they collected the car, performed a software reset, and returned the car washed, cleaned and with a working sat-nav by the end of the day.

A couple of weeks later, and the tyre pressure warning light appeared when my colleague Andrew Ryan was driving the car. Less than 24 hours after pumping the tyre back up, the light reappeared and it was clear the vehicle had a slow puncture.

A quick call to our parent company Bauer Media’s leasing company Zenith, which provides breakdown and tyre cover to our test vehicles, and the friendly staff member pointed me to the nearest Kwik Fit, and gave me the option of a mobile appointment the next day.

The staff member did a better job of directing me than the car did – the sat-nav told me the nearest centre was 24 miles away (it was really more like three).

The puncture was repaired within 20 minutes of arrival at the centre, and the work was authorised by the leasing company by the time I left.

Although it would have been better if the two issues hadn’t arisen in the first place, all three companies I dealt with made the inconvenience as painless and friendly as you could hope for.