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As car makers become ever more environmentally focused and car segments increasingly diversify, there are certain types of car that can unfortunately no longer exist comfortably in the present world, but will hopefully live a prosperous second life as a classic. Let’s take the Mitsubishi Evo as an example.

Ignore whether the current Evo X is the best Evo for a second and just think what a car like this stands for. It’s a highly tuned, highly specialised, high performance saloon popularised by (and indeed only in existence as a road car because of) the likes of Richard Burns and Tommi Mäkinen during one of the World Rally Championship’s more memorable eras.

So, I’ve finally experienced a full-on winter’s weekend in the Nissan Leaf. And, since I sold my house last month, I no longer have a home charger. From now on, the Leaf can only be charged at the Autocar office car park.

I left the car park on Friday evening after the Leaf had been given a good, long, recharging session, from our Chargemaster wall-mounted box.

I started writing a different version of this blog a couple of hours ago. The general theme was based on some of my mathematical calculations, which somehow proved I could have achieved 1013 miles on a sole 55-litre tank of diesel in my Seat Leon Ecomotive.

Clearly, as you’re reading this version instead, real maths proved my maths wrong. So I’ve got no excuses. A lot of you have been suggesting how I could have achieved the holy grail of 1000. Here are three easily achievable things how I think it could have been done.

I didn't manage to travel 1000 miles on a single tank of diesel in my Seat Leon Ecomotive. I failed.

But flip the question and ask how many miles can you do on a single tank of diesel, then the answer - 925 - is pretty darn impressive.

Isn't it amazing what you can achieve in a morning? Just in case a 164-mile drive down the M6 from Carlisle to another generic service station wasn't enough, I've also found time to be a witness in a traffic accident.
 
A car was T-boned by a lorry driver, and got wedged on the front of the Lithuanian loader before ending up on the hard shoulder. Luckily, no-one was hurt and amazingly no-one else was involved.

So, day one is behind me, and my glass is either a quarter full or three quarters empty on the 1000-mile Seat Leon challenge. I’ve made it back to a Travelodge just south of the Scottish border facing another 318 miles before I can fill up again at the BP garage near Kempton racecourse in Surrey.

But I’ve only got an indicated quarter of a tank of diesel left, with a claimed range of  195 miles. Or enough to take me about as far as Birmingham, if it is to be believed.