These are Ken's actual words...

"My wife's diesel Citroen Visa was coming to the end of its life and we were fortunate enough to have some spare cash at the time. When I asked my wife (Carol) what sort of car she would like she said "blue". Helpful I thought. When pressed this was expanded to an MGF (because we had a lot of fun in MG's in the past). Not having enough money for even the earliest MGF I started looking for a blue car."

"We tried a lot of blue cars. Because Carol has lovely long legs we found that most small cars were not suitable - her legs banged on the back of the steering wheel. Whenever I mentioned the possibility of a Mazda the comment that came back was "that's a light bulb"."

"Then came the day we decided to look at two cars - an MGB (not blue) and a Mazda MX5. We piled the kids (now teenagers) in my car, and off we went. Both were advertised in Autotrader. The MGB was described as "Rebuilt, restored, immaculate condition", while the Mazda was just factually described "year, colour, mileage and equipment"."

"The MG was a dog, so it was on to look at the Mazda. When we arrived, the Mazda was sat outside with several others. Only one was blue so that was the one we considered. No problems with legs and steering wheels - Good."

"David gave me the keys and invited me to look over the car. What immediately struck me was the clean condition of it. A nine year old car that had paint under the car as bright as the paint on top. David was friendly without being pushy - I felt able to relax as I looked over the car. Following a test drive, David actually highlighted a couple of small problems that he would need to sort out before we bought it."

"Through my work I hear horror stories about peoples' car purchases every day and I don't naturally trust car traders. Not wishing to be become one of those stories I told David I would be having the car checked by the RAC before I bought it. While he thought I was wasting my money, he had no objections and did his best to assist in the process. I also went to several other garages selling Mazdas' to make sure I wasn't paying over the odds. None of these were as open and helpful as David."

"The RAC found nothing we didn't already know about and so we arranged to buy and pick-up the car. David made the whole process very relaxed and easy. It was more like buying a car from a private person but with the added benefit of knowing that because he is a trader I have rights under the Sale of Goods Act."

"Carol loves the car. It's not an MGB, it's a different generation. Air conditioning, power steering, speakers in the headrests - there is no comparison, and, of course it is blue (except for the hardtop)."

"I immediately had that wonderful blue paint underneath the car covered with Waxoll to protect it from this country's horrible winters, and 12 months on, the only other unexpected additional expense was to have the alternator rebuilt."

"I still speak to David about the car occasionally and he continues to be helpful, which is why I am writing this."

"If you are thinking of buying a Mazda MX5 you could do well to pay David a visit. Remember that these cars are a few years old, because they don't look it."

See Part 2 of Ken's review to see what happened to his beloved MX5!