Expert answer

Hi Mark,

Thank you for contacting us. I can understand your dilemma in that you are going to be using your car quite sparingly, but you need it to be something that can last a long time. We know from speaking to you since that you have a Ford Focus that you might sell privately or hope to get around €2,000 for as a trade-in, so given that your budget is around €10,000, which is decent enough.

I take your point on the Ford Focus diesel estates. They tend to have quite hard lives as many are bought by business users more so than private individuals and they often have mega miles on them and hence can be tatty. They also often have the older 1.8-litre diesel, which is a bit of a tractor to be honest.

You mention that you are going to be keeping this car for about five years, so as such I wouldn't worry too much about whether petrol cars are falling out of favour because your used car is unlikely to be worth a whole lot in five years with another 50,000km on the clock.

You don't really do a lot of miles per year anyway, so running a petrol car might not end up being too expensive. Also you could perhaps look at buying something with slightly higher mileage (as long as it is diesel) because these cars would be well able to put up with your low mileage. For example, you mentioned the Volkswagen Jetta, which is a fine car. You could have a diesel version, with slightly more mileage, for well within your price range. Here is one from a SIMI dealer for €8,900.

I would be inclined to go for a VW Golf with your budget. You could have a 2005 model with low mileage for €9,000. This one here caught our eye. It comes from a main dealer and will have a good warranty. These cars will put up with lots of mileage and are also likely to hold their value well. This example would still have lots of life left in it after 50,000km and might actually be worth a few quid too.

I hope this helps. Come back to us by adding comments below if you want to discuss this further.

Expert answer

Hi Patricia,

You're right, most seven-seat MPVs have tiny boots when all seven seats are in use. One car that springs to mind straightaway is the Renault Grand Espace. This has a little more luggage space than the regular Espace. We found one on beepbeep.ie for well under your budget: click here to have a look.

You mentioned that you don't like the idea of a minibus style car, but it's worth checking a few out. The Mercedes-Benz Viano can be had for your budget for instance.

Safety and reliability are your priorities. The Espace scored well in the Euro NCAP safety ratings when it was launched and though there were reliability issues early in its life, these seem to have been ironed out by now.

I realise that's a very limited response. It might be worth considering using a roof box. That would widen your choice a little.

Let me know if we can help any further and what you decide upon. You can reply by logging in and putting a comment in the box below.

Expert answer

Hi Henry,

It's not often we get asked about the second-generation Fiat Croma. It didn't sell all that well as buyers didn't really know whether it was an MPV or an estate. However, it sounds like it could be an ideal candidate for your partner's needs.

The Croma majors on space, practicality, comfort, safety and equipment. The version you found has very few kilometres on the clock, which is always a bonus. Make sure you check that every switch and control is working though, as Croma owners have reported niggling electrical faults.

Our other piece of advice, if you like the Croma, is to look for a diesel version. The MultiJet diesel engines are strong and economical so would be better than the 1.8-litre petrol version over long distances. That said, the petrol engine is quieter.

Hope that helps.

Expert answer

Hello Breda,

I have driven both of these cars and they are both good value and will be cheap to run too. The offers on the Renault Mégane at the moment under the scrappage scheme are pretty hard to resist.

An 86hp diesel version will cost you from €14,800 and that is seriously good value. You can get better equipped variants for a little more and the higher powered version is €18,400. I enjoyed my week in the TOMTOM edition and it came with a very clever multimedia centre.

You can find the prices and details here:

http://renault.ie/cars/grandmegane/prices.html

The Mégane never really stood out against its rivals until the scrappage scheme, but now it is the second-biggest selling model under the scheme. Price is the key here. It is a decent sized estate car for the price of a supermini. Renaults are way better built than they were before, so you can probably expect few problems if any.
To drive it is comfortable, very easy to live with and the fuel economy is super.

The other French car you have in mind is the Peugeot 308 SW. This starts at €25,475 (for the diesel) and comes with a more powerful 110hp diesel engine. Obviously this is quite a major price difference. Under the scrappage scheme however you get €4,000 off this so it will end up at €21,475. This is good value for what is a high quality car and it is much better than the 307 SW that is replaces.

Here are the details of the Peugeot scrappage offers:

http://www.peugeot.ie/contentv3/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageID=18547&parentID=18457

There is a €6,675 difference between the two cars as it stands under the scrappage scheme and equipment levels are likely to be very similar. Under normal circumstances, if the prices were similar, I would say go for the Peugeot, but I'd say out of these two you are getting so much for your money with the Renault, then perhaps go for that.

Expert answer

Firstly, there are probably more diesel automatic cars in Ireland than you might think, but they tend to be executive models rather than mainstream family cars because it seems that there still isn't a huge demand for them.

Toyota does in fact sell an automatic version of its Avensis. It is a 2.2-litre 150bhp diesel and that costs €35,530. Since you mentioned the Toyota Avensis we must assume that you are after a family saloon or hatchback so for a start you could have a Ford Mondeo 2.0-litre TDCi Style Auto for €32,225 - that comes as a saloon, hatchback or estate.

For you a few quid more you can have the run out version of the Jaguar X-Type 2.2 Diesel Auto for €32,995 or you could have the Mercedes-Benz B180 CDi Auto from €33,640.

There are loads of versions of the excellent Opel Insignia available with a choice of 130- or 160bhp diesel engines in saloon, hatchback or estate body styles. There are 24 different Insignia diesels available in total. Prices start at €30,380. You can have a Renault Laguna 2.0-litre dCi 150 TomTom Edition for €36,890.

A Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI with the excellent DSG gearbox will cost you from €35,960 and Skoda will sell you something with DSG for even less. How about an Octavia RS 2.0-litre diesel with 170bhp and DSG for €31,195? For us, that last car is the top choice. However you could stick with Skoda and go much bigger and that would be the Superb. You can have that with DSG and 170bhp for €31,195.

There is a fuel economy penalty in some cases and that is because the traditional automatic transmission has a torque converter. Automatic cars are generally a little heavier too, to the detriment of economy. Saying that, the latest generation of dual-clutch automatics and some of the newest conventional autos have massively improved.

Fuel economy and CO₂ emissions are directly linked, so often the manual version of a car can be in a lower tax band than their automatic siblings, but this is starting to change as mentioned above.