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Hi Philip,

You’ve pretty much summed it up there. I guess it depends where your priorities lie – performance or comfort. There’s no doubting the sheer thrust of the 300hp Audi, but I would suggest that if it’s performance you crave, skip the Cabriolet and buy the Saloon, which is much better to drive. If it’s the open top that you fancy, then go for the Mercedes, forget about performance (although the Merc is hardly a slouch in that regard) and instead revel in the comfort.

Read our Audi S3 Cabriolet review

Read our Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet review

Read our Mercedes-AMG C 63 Cabriolet review

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Hi Pat,

Here’s our review of the new Toyota Prius.

And as you’ve mentioned Toyota, you could do worse than start with a current Auris or Avensis if you’re looking for something with a comfortable ride on Irish roads. Other good options are the Citroen C4 Picasso or, if you fancy something a little more premium, a Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

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Hi Harry,

RRP is the Recommended Retail Price and it’s the price at which the car maker and importer thinks the car should be sold at, in basic form minus such things as options or delivery charges. It’s possible that the car you were looking at was being quoted as net of any extra equipment and the delivery charge.

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Hi Jim,

Nothing to avoid, in particular, but lots of good ones to try out. Start with a Mazda6 Tourer, or a Ford Mondeo Estate, or a Skoda Superb Combi. If you want to save a bit of money (but not compromise on space) go for a Skoda Octavia Combi, if you want something with a bit of class go for an Audi A6 Avant (pricey but the 2.0-litre TDI keeps running costs down).

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Hi Deirdre,

Prices for a 2007 Mondeo seem to hover at around the €5,000 mark, so as a trade-in you’re only likely to get offered €3,500 or so – dealers have to allow for some profit margin and expense when it comes to valuing cars.

If you’re going to sell privately, I'd pitch the price at around the €4,500 mark and see how you go.

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Hi Donal,

Sadly you’re right – as with so many things in Ireland, transparency in the car leasing market is rather lacking and it’s not at all easy to either get comparisons or to make sure that those are direct and fair comparisons.

There are a couple of sites such as www.autoleasing.ie which do offer some comparison ability, but they don’t cover all brands so it may not be the answer you’re looking for. My best suggestion for the moment is to sit down and have a good chat with whoever looks after your company’s leasing and see what they can do to help. They’ll be much more plugged into the market and may be better able to assist.

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Hi Martin,

To be fair to the car companies, they would all like to see the end of VRT – there’s little or no protectionist advantage to them (aside from it causing a small, largely ineffective brake on personal imports) and freeing customers from that yoke would make the Irish car industry much more competitive.

As for lobbying against it, that has largely dried up now. Why? Because of the tacit admission that even if VRT could be dismantled, any Irish Government would simply come up with a replacement for it. Even with the Apple tax decision hanging in the air, no Minister for Finance is going to turn off a €4 billion annual tap of combined motoring revenues, of which VRT makes up a a major component.

As for the application of both VRT and VAT to major safety items, you’re quite right – that is a staggering shame, one that should (but probably doesn’t) weigh heavily on the consciences of all in the Department of Finance, the Road Safety Authority and the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. Whether it’s autonomous emergency or a child safety car seat, adding VRT and/or VAT increases the price and makes it less likely that a customer will spend the extra to buy that system, not least because there is no benefit to your insurance premium for doing so.

Mind you, in some ways, Irish customers have only themselves to blame. Back in the early 2000s, when anti-lock brakes were often an option, and not an especially expensive one at that, most buyers shunned them in favour of a sunroof or a better stereo…

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Hi Olga,

The best two to choose from are the Ford S-Max and the Opel Zafira Tourer. Both should be big enough inside for your needs, and they certainly hit the remaining criteria pretty well. Cars like the Volkswagen Touran and Toyota Verso are also good, but they tend to be too small in the third row of seats for regular use.

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Hi Dana,

No, not yet – it won’t be fully revealed to the public until 1st of September, and it will be some time after that before Irish prices and specs are worked out. However, we can infer from some of its rivals how expensive it might be. The primary cars that it will be going up against will be the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe, both of which have prices that start at €38-39k, and also the Nissan X-Trail, which, in seven-seat form, starts at €37k. So around the €37k mark might be a sensible bet.

That said, the new Volkswagen Tiguan, on which the Kodiaq is based, mechanically, starts at just under €30k, and there will be a seven-seat version of that soon too, so Skoda will have to carefully balance its prices to make sure that it’s a little, but not too much, cheaper than the seven-seat Tiguan. Complicated, isn’t it? I reckon somewhere between the €35,000 and €37,000 marks would be a reasonable guess as to the Kodiaq’s starting price.

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Hi Emer,

Most so-called ‘scrappage’ deals aren’t actually anything to do with scrappage, they’re just trade-in boosters. But yes, they tend to be only available on new cars, not used ones. Have a chat with your dealer and see what you can work out with them though.