Britain's most exclusive sports car

WANT a nice, sporty car nobody else has got? Then - unlikely as it seems - you'll have to get yourself one of these.

Earlier this year I praised Volkswagen's Phaeton as being one of Britain's most exclusive motors, but it seems after looking through official figures released this week which tell you who's bought what in 2010 so far I'm going to retract my reccomendation. For true exclusivity, you'd be much better off with the Daihatsu Copen.

Consider this; so far this year Daihatsu has sold 170 cars in the UK. That's not just the stat for the two-seater, really rather pretty little Copen, but the entire brand. That's less than one a day, and the company sells four different models over here. Ford sell 115 times that number in a single month!

To make more sense of the shocking statistic you've also got to consider the handful of companies that sold even fewer cars, which include soon to axed SUV masters Hummer (who sold four cars), European luxury car sales flop Cadillac (24 cars), Chevrolet's Corvette sub-brand (two cars), and deleted upmarket Jaguar maker Daimler (two cars).

Almost all of these badges come on cars that are obsolete, irrelevant or, let's face it, rubbish.

But to brand the Daihatsu, er, brand in the same way is missing out on some entertaining little motors, not least the fizzy Copen sports car, which only put British buyers off because it's so tiny. Anyone who recalls Jeremy Clarkson escaping a pack of hounds while at the helm of the Terios will know it's a surprisingly capable off-roader, and even the Sirion supermini has a quirky charm. In fact, the only model I'd actively avoid is the ugly, too-tall-for-its-boots Materia MPV.

I also reckon the days of driving a Daihatsu and having people laugh at you are finally gone, partly because it doesn't make the ridiculous Move city car anymore and partly because nobody has ever seen any of the new models. You're more likely to get quizzical looks from bystanders, genuinely curious as to what that strange little sports car you're driving actually is.

So go on, buy a Daihatsu before the company's UK importers get put off and delete it from the country's showrooms altogether.

It'll be more exclusive than any of Aston Martin's models, and that's a fact.