It was that dripping radiator that caused my credit card to wilt. When I mentioned it to the service guy at London Lotus Centre I thought it would need only a twist on the clip securing the hose to the rad to stop the leak. But no ΂- it was leaking because the radiator was split, just out of warranty, too. Great. The radiator alone costs ΂£220 so the bill was already heading in the wrong direction even before the service man played his joker: 'That's a body-off job to replace that. Labour alone will come to ΂£750.'

Welcome to the Achilles' heel of 340R ownership. Lotus seems to have designed this car to keep its service departments busy in the quiet months by making its body from a single moulding. If you want to get to anything underneath that's not reachable from under the engine cover the whole thing has to come off. Need a new battery? Expect to pay 60 quid for the battery plus ΂£750 labour to fit it. No, I didn't find it very funny either.

The servicing costs aren't particularly amusing either; this service was the 12,000-miler, or the basic 'A' service as Lotus describes it, which means replacing the engine oil, cleaning the air filter, inspecting pads, fluids and so on. Okay, so ours had the plugs replaced on top of the normal service but even taking that into account, ΂£287 for labour alone is plain silly in my book. By contrast, when my BMW X5 recently went in for its first service at 14,000 miles, the labour charge came to just ΂£27.

I should have been presented with a final bill for a colossal ΂£1519 until Lotus intervened and agreed to pay for half of the radiator and half of the labour charge to remove the body. Even so, ΂£1038 is an awful lot of money for a simple service and radiator change. A relatively piffling ΂£99 of that was for replacing the cat with a straight-through pipe, something that has made the engine run more 'cleanly' (if that's the right expression), with far less spluttering as it climbs onto cam around 3000rpm.

I reckon I know where the next expense is going to be too ΂- tyres. Although the crazy looking Yokohamas aren't that worn, they're losing their hold on tarmac, especially when it's cold, so I'd like to change them for something with a little more grip in daily use. Plus, you can get tyres fitted for free, which will be a refreshing change after this month's experience.