I’m sure that you will be pleased when I tell you that the latest sales statistics issued by the institute of motor manufactures have shown an encouraging increase over the previous period.

As the saying goes, ’market confidence has demonstrated a positive improvement’.

In plain language this means that, so far, we have survived the pandemonium.

We have dodged the bullets, stepped through the minefield and we are still here. The good news from the car makers is another welcome sign that things really are picking up. We deserve a treat to celebrate our survival.

We had a brief flirtation with the thought of a couple of weeks in Spain, but this has been kicked into touch. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but a sudden relapse in the good-news stakes has made that look like a non-starter.

What is more worrying is that a quick Google around the other popular destinations tells the same story and gives the same advice.

For the time being, stay at home. The professors and the politicians all seem to agree on one fact, that the pandemic still has a long way to go and the longer it lives, the stronger it becomes.

So now what? How can we scratch this itch that tells us to spend money.

I know. What about a new car? That should cheer us up.

Think about it, we still owe some cash on the one we use now, but supposing if we went for a new vehicle this time, we should get a decent trade in on the old one. Anyway, I’ve been looking at this new idea that they’ve been advertising on the telly.

It’s called ’leasing’.

This means that you don’t buy the new car, you lease it for a fixed term, say, three years. Then at the end of that contract, you renew the lease and start again. That way, your monthly outgoings are fixed and you pay less per month,

The dealer services the car and pays the road tax and you are guaranteed to have a new car every three years.

What can be wrong with that? Nothing I suppose, as long as you realise that ultimately you will end up with nothing.

Now during the course of our travels around the island, there is one thing that stands out - the number of SUVs on the road.

There must be thousands of them.

During our years of being a motoring lemming, I have to confess that we have owned and subsequently detested two of the smaller variety of four-wheel-drive cars.

One of them had an incurable wheel wobble and the other one had been designed by a comedian. But you pays your cash and you takes your chances.

So the other day, for some obscure and forgotten reason, I had taken the scooter for a lap of the top deck of the Marks and Spencer car park and, when I emerged into the daylight, I was so amazed that I just burst out laughing.

It wasn’t that I was laughing at anything in particular, I was just gobsmacked.

There they were, row after row of shiny, spectacular, huge, SUVs.

There were Land Rovers, Mitsubishi, BMWs, double cab pick ups with the rear decks covered in.

It was like a motor show. But why were they parked on the roof? I have no idea, and seriously, does it really matter.

I chose this week’s subject because I read that 40% of all new vehicle registrations in the UK were SUVs.

I phoned the licensing department in Braddan and asked if the figures were the same in the Isle of Man.

’You have to write a letter to the manager’, she said.

’Why is that?’ I said.

’Because we need to know who you are and why you require the information,’ she said.

I didn’t bother.

Have you noticed the number of camper vans that are parked in groups around the island?

Maybe they are too tall to fit in the M and S car park.