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Hi Stephen,

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Hi Dave,

Timing chains are supposed to be maintenance-free items, so there should be nothing to do. Just make sure you change your car's oil regularly.

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Hi Janeen,

BMW doesn’t currently have a scrappage offer on, but it is offering a nine per cent discount across the entire model range, which is rather nice. If you want to make the most of scrappage, you’re going to have to trade down to a mainstream brand. The likes of Hyundai, Peugeot, Opel and others all have scrappage deals still going, and you can get as much as €4,500 off the price of a new car, depending on which model you’re looking at.

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Hi Michael,

Renault currently doesn’t have a scrappage offer available, but other brands — including Hyundai, Skoda, Peugeot, Opel and more — do and,  depending on which vehicle you’re looking at buying, you can get as much as €4,500 off.

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Hi Colm,

OK, first off, with that kind of mileage you’re well into the sort of levels that would justify a diesel engine, although the best of the down-sized turbo petrols are still certainly worth looking at. Of the three cars you’ve selected, I’d leave the Astra, as your €10,000 budget won’t get you into a new-shape model, and the older Astra was pretty dull. Of the other two, the Focus is the best, by far, to drive, and has solid reliability, but the i30 is better for interior space, and would be the more reliable in the long run.

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Hi Kevin,

Fair? Maybe not, but it is the letter of the law. Once you’ve bought the car, you're liable for the tax and, if it’s taken you the guts of a month to get it sorted, Revenue isn’t going to give you a break on it. They want their cash and they’re going to get it.

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Hi Tony,

All petrol and diesel versions of the Hyundai ix35 used a timing chain.

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Hi Jim,

It should do, but it would be no bad idea to check with your nearest Hyundai dealer first. In theory, the Hyundai five-year warranty is a pan-European one, so it should transfer without any issues, but of course there is always fine print attached to these things, so check the documentation that comes with the car, and make sure  that it’s been serviced at a Hyundai main dealer in the past.

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Hi Martin,

Sadly, in many cases, this is regular practice. While Hyundai offers a very good five-year unlimited mileage warranty, it’s only valid if you keep the car serviced with a Hyundai dealer, and that will be the case whether the part or component in question was specifically serviced or not. Now, there could be a case to be answered that the gearbox, failing as it did that early on in the car’s life, had some sort of manufacturing defect or fault, and in that case you could potentially argue that the car should not have been sold in the first case in that condition, but you’d need to consult a solicitor before taking it any further.

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Hi Naved,

The X1 is, obviously, the most ‘premium’, but it’s also kind of ugly and has weirdly heavy steering, plus it’s quite small inside, so let’s leave that one off the list. The Sportage and the ix35 are basically the same car, but the Sportage is nicer to look at on the outside in my opinion, and slightly nicer to drive too. Reliability between the two should be about even. The Qashqai is very appealing, but as it’s the older model, it struggles against the Sportage and has some reliability issues too, so go for the Sportage.