I've written about the Toyota Celica before in very positive terms, but my abiding memory of my latest excursion in one is 'frustration'.

Not at all the fault of the car, I must stress. In another country, in MANY other countries, this would have been a dream period.

But the roads around where I live are currently in brutal condition, and because I was out of the country for a while, I didn't have the time to take the refettled Celica for a good long drive. It ideally needs a couple of days spent long-distance touring on our better main roads (Kilcullen to Cork is now not so bad) or, better again, on a swoop down through France.

I couldn't justify the time for either just now. Which is a shame for the car, probably the nicest 2+2 coupe on the Irish market.

The two key frustrations were the undercar thumps from developer-designed potholes and council-abetted corrugated surfaces on a suspension designed to show its real mettle on decent and twisty roads, and the fact that we are now in an era of 'anti-car' where even the sight of a sporty-looking vehicle attracts public begrudgery and unwarranted attention from the polis.

And one other point of mild grief, which Toyota could fix, is the very short band of the speedometer's circumference to where you reach 60mph. A mild optical illusion could be a great improvement if it were so calibrated that 60 took the needle three-quarters of the way around the clock, and the legally unusable section was subsequently telescoped into an inch or so.

(I'm serious. These days, we NEED to kid ourselves a little.)

As for the suspension, well, it would be nice to have something softer for standard County KIldare-cared-for roads, and a switch to go harder when we have the road and the liberty to use the brilliant handling that is the underpinning of this car.

I know that such would add enormously to the cost, and is an unreasonable request. But we're all entitled to wish.

To return to the practicals, the styling of the current Celica is so good that very little was required for its mid-life revamp. Most of the tweaks are so mild as to be unnoticable, and even the interior upgrades to some of the trim and fascia materials are simply marginal.

OK, so you're an anorak: there's a new mesh grille, and rear lights that look different when lit. And under the rear load area is a lidded storage place. And I THINK the handbrake lever is smaller, but don't hang me on it.

They couldn't do anything about the room in the rear seats, which are better left folded and the space used as part of a then-extensive load-carrying volume. Another thought - an optional tonneau cover for that forward area would be a very useful addition for those of us who would prefer this to be permanently a 2-seater.

The Celica still has that excellent 1.8-litre VVT-i engine which gives sterling service to a number of Toyota products. Its long stroke makes it an agreeable car to drive in a lazy fashion, allowing easy low-end acceleration.

But there's a rather orgasmic sound available if you get the inclination to turn up the revs (very early Sunday morning on a certain southern run from my base, the location of which I'm not going to divulge, is about the only time and place I can do it these days. Isn't it ironic that we drivers are now forced to sin, even venially, on Sundays?).

Anorak items: the 0-100 km/h is 8.4sec. The bhp is 143, a little more than before. The torque is 170 Nm at 4700rpm, but there's a more than adequate chunk of that available as low as 2000rpm.

The steering of the current Celica has always been something to get used to, possibly because of how the wheel is straight to your chest and certainly because, in a way that no saloon has, it is so direct that you can overcook things at first. It takes a little time for it to sink in that Celica steers as you think.

The luxuries - and at E37,600 this IS in the luxury bracket - include aircon as standard and very supportive 'sport' seats that don't overdo the cling thing.

The safeties include ABS and four airbags, a pair in front and a pair in the side (well, who is EVER going to be in the back?).

And the bottom line?

The same as the top: total and absolute frustration.

But don't blame the car ...