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What cars or SUVs are in the lower tax bands and can pull a horse box with two horses inside?

Hi Shane,

I saw your column in the motoring section of the Sunday Independent and I was hoping that you could give me advice on buying a used car. My partner and I have just moved back to Ireland after a stint in Asia and neither of us has ever owned a car so we're pretty inexperienced drivers.

We were wondering what make/model/year you would recommend for a used car. Ideally a five-door, manual car that doesn't stall too easily and with decent boot size (we have a baby). Our budget is around €5,000 (max. €10,000) .

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Caroline

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Hello

I am looking at buying a second hand seven seater. When I was checking the compatibility of my car seats with the seven seaters I had in mind (Ford S-Max, VW Touran and Citroen C4) the car seat manufacturer recommends not putting any car seats in the third row.

On further investigation it seems when the third row is in use the safety of people (i.e mostly kids as most adults would not sit in third row) is very poor. Can you shed any light? Besides going for the bigger seven seaters like the Ford Galaxy (which is out due to budget reasons) is there any seven seater safer in this regard? Am I overthinking this, is this the case with most five seater cars or is the boot space a big plus if a car is rear ended? 

Hi there, I'm in a dilemma. Ahead of winning the Lotto jackpot tonight I am at my wits end trying to figure out what car to buy. I believe the Ford S-Max is very highly regarded but it doesn't inspire me aesthetically. What can you suggest in its class with money being no object of course,

Clodagh Monks, Cork