HAPPINESS in these horrid winter months is a heated seat.

There is nothing nicer than a warm backside to fend off the misery of setting off for work in the dark and arriving home under moonlight.

Although our Audi A4 Avant 2.0FSI has six settings for varying levels of toastiness – a £350 option – my default setting has been the maximum six.

As well as becoming the hot seat, it has also been the very comfortable seat for more than 1,000 miles of hard motoring in recent weeks, as I have been running up and down the country to various events and meetings.

After much fiddling and adjusting to match my incredibly fussy standards, I feel very happy behind the wheel. For example the trip computer, which suggests I am achieving 33mpg from the 2.0-litre petrol engine, flashes up a warning when I have been driving continuously for two hours – a small touch, but hugely valuable.

In fact, the Audi excels at being helpful, particularly when it comes to driving.

I am not one for hard, racing suspension that transmits the thump of every cat's eye straight into your spine. I am no Michael Schumacher when it comes to driving – more Michael Mouse actually – but the Audi takes my rather graceless steering inputs and translates them into composed cross-country progress.

Not only does it corner flatter than some rivals, but it also flatters when it corners, sweeping through tight bends with ease, even though behind the scenes its computers are scrabbling to keep rubber on tarmac.

Company car tax bill 2004/05 (40% tax-payer): £148 per month