If you want to get ahead, get a car coat – the 7 best from M&S, John Lewis and more, from £65

I love it when a classic coat that’s been minding its own business for years suddenly becomes the one everyone wants. This autumn, that coat is the car coat.

A car coat is short, sleek and refreshingly clean-cut, with a neat princess-y collar and a line of simple buttons, and M&S, John Lewis and H&M have all dived straight in, recognising a great revival when they see one.

Perhaps it’s because, after years of the flaps, belts and general fussiness of the trench, the streamlined simplicity of a car coat feels like a palette cleanser.

A car coat is also, lest we forget, a Burberry classic - theirs is £1,600 - but you certainly don’t need to spend that. M&S’s £70 version in classic cream is already selling fast; the fashion lovers know a good thing when they see it.

My money is on John Lewis’s £129 version, which comes in brilliant lipstick red and a check, both with carefully considered button placement and a pleasing-to-the-eye precision cut.

And what is a car coat? The name is pleasingly literal. The earliest versions were designed to protect motorists from the elements in the days of open cars. Its appeal now is, of course, that it looks fresh, and it's a brilliant multitasker.

A car coat works over jeans, dresses, jeans and a jumper and smart tailoring. It is roomy enough to accommodate a cosy cardigan, collared rugby top or even a slim gilet without making you look bulky. This is also a coat made to pair perfectly with loafers and ankle boots for when the weather calls for a more study shoe.

To find yours look for a quality natural fabric, a neat collar, clean lines and -unless you are petite in which case H&M's checked car coat is for you - a length somewhere around the upper thigh.

Showerproof or waterproof is a bonus – M&S’s £90 waxed car coat with scarf detail does this brilliantly.

If you want a lightweight coat and do not like the fussiness of a trench, the car coat is for you. Smart without being formal, practical without looking boring and it gives everything underneath it a little more polish.

If you want to get ahead this autumn, get a car coat.