Jaguar, Rolls-Royce...

Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Cadillac have all mastered the art. But Renault couldn"t with its awkward Vel Satis. And neither can Peugeot with the 607, which feels more like a giant, if humble, repmobile.

Then there"s Citroen: consumer champ, maker of modest vehicles and a no-hoper in the luxury saloon car league thanks to its less than pretty C5. I feared the soon-to-be-launched C6 would be equally underwhelming. But I couldn"t have been more wrong.

After walking around Citroen"s brave new flagship for five minutes, I knew I was staring at the prettiest large luxury saloon (or is it a coupé?) I"ve seen for years. After another five in the cabin, it was clear that although its look and feel are not up to Audi"s class-leading standards, it surpasses Mercedes" current level. So far, so good.

The C6"s tech spec, including a head-up display unit, is as good as - if not better than - that in "superior" rivals. The diesel engine is as refined as anything in a Jaguar. Indeed, the 2.7 HDi V6 version is so eerily quiet it"s hard to believe it"s not a petrol.

And it"s good for 30mpg-plus, which for a car as colossal as this is astonishing. The ride is excellent and journeys can be as lazy or as involving as you want thanks to the six-speed transmission, with its idiot-proof auto mode or more demanding sequential change. Frankly, I don"t know who will be brave enough to buy one new at чЈ30,000 or so. But if you have the foresight to think long-term, start saving now for the purchase of a 36-month-old C6, which you"ll be able to pick up in 2009 for not very much at all.

I find it hard to believe that 20 per cent of homes in the UK have at least three cars on their drives, or more likely on the drive, grass verge and on the street with two wheels on the pavement. But there"s no getting away from the fact that many parents and their late teen and beyond "children" do need a car apiece. What"s wrong with that?

The problem is not that several people living in the same home want a car each. Politicians and planners are the real villains. If they had been doing their jobs properly, they"d have ensured that every newly built small flat or house included at least one on-site parking space or garage, family homes a minimum of two, while larger houses had even more. But we"re a small country with limited ground space, I hear you cry. So build car storage facilities beneath houses and flats and construct double and triple-deck garages, surround them in plants and shrubs, and allow these mini multi-storey car parks to bring some real greenness to otherwise drab neighbourhoods.