Kids nowadays grow up so fast - one minute you're decorating their nursery and the next you're buying their first car. An excellent choice of first car is the Cosy Coupe by Little Tikes - assuming of course the child in question is eighteen months rather than eighteen years old!

Anybody who has ever observed a group of toddlers in a nursery setting or in some kind of pre-school or play group would no doubt be familiar with the Cosy Coupe. These chunky plastic ride on (or more accurately 'ride in') toys have been the source of more toddler tantrums and punch ups than anything else, I'm sure! There is always some kind of tussle between two or more children, as one will try and drag the other out of the car. Whoever coined the term 'road rage' must have been thinking about the Cosy Coupe.

The brightly coloured car, complete with chunky door that opens and closes just like Mummy's car, is perfectly proportioned for toddlers from around eighteen months to three years old (although both slightly younger and slightly older children will insist on having a go!) The car is 'driven' by the power of a toddler's feet, as there are no pedals to operate. This design makes it very easy for a child to manoeuvre and to control the direction and speed of travel. Although made from chunky plastic, the car manages to be lightweight enough for a child to control but robust enough to withstand the inevitable bumps, scrapes and crashes!

As well as teaching young children valuable lessons about sharing and taking turns (well, you can hope), this is great for imaginative play as it has lots of little features encouraging little ones to mimic their parents. There is a steering wheel, as you'd expect, complete with working horn - which is, fortunately, fairly quiet. The car even has a petrol cap and my boys always enjoyed trying to fill their car up with 'petrol' using our hose pipe! Above all else, this car is a safe and sturdy toy which will give little ones hours of fun playing outside.

Little Tikes have been making this little car in various designs for years and its latest version - the '30th Anniversary Cosy Coupe' - is currently available for £49.99 from the Early Learning Centre. Our car is an older model as pictured here and was passed on to us by a friend as these are pretty robust toys and likely to survive even the roughest of children. Ours has been enjoyed by three boys to date and is approaching ten years old but is still in full working order, thanks to the extra thick plastic exterior and relatively few components to potentially break. Despite being stored outside in all weathers, and looking pretty grubby, there has been no damage beyond the stickers wearing off on the front. The longevity of our model is testament to its quality and, although the original price might seem high, I think it is great value as it is almost certain to be in good enough condition to pass down to a younger sibling or sell on after use (although ours has reached the end of the road now, I suspect!)

I'd certainly recommend looking out for one of these for a pre-schooler as it will provide them with hours of fun and entertainment. This is not just one for the boys - the original design is perfectly suitable for either gender but, for any pink princesses, there is even a pink model available too.