Motoring: Not all good things come in little packages

My Worst Car: Jenny Agutter's Fiat 5

I had all these Minis for ages and ages. I remember that when it came to my driving test you had to know hand signals, but I didn't think I would have to do them and I couldn't work out whether to put my hand through the front part of the slide window or what.

Then I got myself a Fiat - I think it was the Fiat 500. It was little, about the smallest car you could get.

I can't remember how much I would have paid for it - this was about 20 years ago - but it would probably have been about pounds 100. I always buy cars second-hand. I've had some good ones, but a run of really bad ones as well.

The Fiat was constantly breaking down. This wire would come off the battery and it was happening all the time and I would have to get out and go and hit it.

And people were always having to push-start me. There was one occasion when I was going somewhere and I can't remember why but Germaine Greer was in the car. She's quite a tall lady and she'd sort of folded herself in.

We were going down into an underpass and the car wasn't really working, but fortunately it picked up again when we went up the other side. You learnt all these tricks.

With that car it was terribly important to park it on hills facing downhill, because you knew you would get some impetus to get going. I didn't have it for very long because it did run into so many problems. I was living in Streatham (south London) at the time and I think it just got left by the side of the road in the end.

Jenny Agutter will be appearing in the Christmas production of `Peter Pan' at the Royal National Theatre, London. She was speaking to Louise Jury.