Good news: Renault 4 drivers are wavers. How could they not be? It’s such a cheery car – and still being fairly new remains sufficiently uncommon – that you simply have to celebrate when you see one coming the other way with a friendly wave or thumbs-up to its pilot.

There aren’t many current cars that would cultivate such a sense of community – the Jeep Wrangler and Mini Cooper are among the few that have made me feel like part of some benevolent fraternity – and I’m thrilled to be a member of the gang for a few months.

Last week I was coming up to overtake a lovely Carmine Red 4 on the M40 and preparing to give a jolly salute when my partner warned me to not embarrass her by larking around with strangers in adjoining lanes. Imagine my delight, then, when we pulled alongside and were greeted by a whole family of 4 fanatics – mum, dad and two kids – waving gleefully at us. Joining in ultimately proved irresistible for both occupants of my car.

All of which is to say that the 4 is proving itself to be a car for the happy motorist. It’s attractively priced and competitively specified but unlike some rivals doesn’t trade exclusively on those cold, hard, rational attributes; its charisma, dynamism and slight quirkiness are helping it curry favour with a large and enthusiastic group of buyers who want a car they can actually enjoy owning, not one that simply gets them joylessly from A to B.

You need only look at the online owners’ groups for evidence of the conviviality it encourages. There are all the usual questions about how to turn down the ADAS bongs, remove the parcel shelf and find the VIN, but mostly people just want to tell everyone how excited they are about their new motor.

“I’m genuinely blown away with how good this car is as the daily runaround,” gushed one whose 4 was estimating 325 miles of range during a hot, low-speed commute. “I’m a day late posting because I’ve been having too much fun with the car,” apologises another who had promised live updates on their collection process the day before.

“It makes a nice cup of tea,” boasted an owner who’d discovered the vehicle-to-load functionality and lugged his kettle out to his driveway. Some are even organising meet-ups: there’s no better testament to the 4’s potential to achieve true classic status on a par with its 1970s namesake. Your average electric crossover just doesn’t attract this quasi-cult following from the off.

The constant discussion and debate also gives me plenty of opportunities to consider the merits of different specs and options and alerts me to quirks and features that might otherwise have passed me by.

I now know for sure, for example, that entry-level Evolution trim isn’t worth the slight saving, because owners lament that it lacks crucial niceties like heated seats, charge pre-conditioning, wireless phone charging and Google mapping.

I also know how to tell my 4 to prioritise one phone over another when booting up Apple CarPlay, how to deactivate the alarm if I have a dog in the car and even how to completely remove the rear seats if I ever need to (I hope not)