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Hi Gerry,

The new-look Skoda Octavia is now in Irish showrooms.

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Hi Luke,

We certainly have done a few reviews... The closest cars to your Galaxy in terms of size and space are the Ford S-Max (a little smaller,  but still very roomy) and the SEAT Alhambra (not as swish to drive as the Galaxy, but very spacious and with sliding side doors). There's also the Volkswagen Sharan, which is basically identical to the Alhambra, but a little more expensive. It wasn't on sale in Ireland for a while but it's back now and there are a few second hand ones knocking about.

If you fancy something a little smaller, then try the Opel Zafira Tourer. It's a really underrated car - nice to drive, well made and with decent cabin space.

After that, you're into the smaller MPVs such as the Volkswagen Touran, Kia Carens and so on. Good cars,  but much smaller than your Galaxy so you'd be trading down in size terms.

With our practical hats on, we'd go for the SEAT - it's big and useful and those sliding side doors are great.

Here are the reviews themselves if you'd like more detail:

Ford S-Max review

Ford Galaxy review

SEAT Alhambra review

Volkswagen Sharan review

Volkswagen Touran review

Kia Carens review

A few others worth considering as well:

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso

Toyota Verso review

Renault Grand Scenic review

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Hi Laurie,

Well, the cee’d is a good, solid car so if you want to keep it going it will probably do for a while yet. At ten years old, there’s not going to be much value left in it either way, so a few extra months with it won’t dent your trade in. Which is good news, as there’s an all-new Kia Rio launching very soon, which will be on sale in Ireland before the summer. It’s roomier and much more sophisticated than the current model, and with your mileage forget about diesel – go for the brilliant little 1.0-litre turbo petrol.

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Hi Ignacio,

There are two hybrids that are far cheaper than anything else, but we have to mention both as they’re slightly different in the way their hybrid systems work. The cheapest full hybrid is the Toyota Yaris Hybrid, which starts at €19,250 and which has impressively low CO₂ emissions of just 75g/km.

Toyota has also recently updated the Yaris Hybrid so that it’s much nicer to drive than it used to be. The other is the slightly cheaper Suzuki Baleno 1.2 DualJet, which isn’t a full hybrid like the Yaris, but a mild hybrid that uses a smaller battery and clever starter/generator to take strain off the engine to help save fuel. That emits 94g/km and costs from €18,995.

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Hi Colin,

The 2.0D X-Trail will be coming to Ireland, but it's not on sale until next November. By then I would expect that we would see an extensive facelift along the lines of what's on sale in Australia. 

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Hi Colm,

They’re not bad, but there’s a reason that they’re cheap. Nonetheless, the Megane is a decent and solid car and reliability and quality are far, far better than was once the case with Renault.

I would be very wary of buying without a complete and full service history though, and with the 1.5 dCi diesel engine you need to keep an eye out for a blown turbo (symptoms include black or blue smoke, sluggish power delivery) or engine management system issues (surging or uneven running).

The real reason that they’re cheap though is because, in 2009-2010, Renault Ireland pursued an aggressive strategy of heavy discounting to try and grab as big a slice of the market as possible. It was the classic stack them high sell them cheap idea, and while it racked up some impressive sales figures, it did some terrible damage to residual values. At this stage, the worst of the depreciation will have been and gone, but remember if you’re buying it cheap today, you’ll be trading it in cheap when you’re finished with it.

READ: 2009 Renault Megane review

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Hi Ebere,

You’ll need two crucial documents. You’ll need the V5C form, which is the vehicle’s identity papers (it’s the red, pink and blue form with the car’s reg number, VIN number etc.) and you’ll need an invoice showing the date and location of sale and the amount paid for the car.

Other than that, you’ll need the usual proof of identity for yourself (passport or driver's licence, utility bill with your home address etc.).

I’d suggest you have a good careful read of two pages before you start out:

1 - from www.citizensinformation.ie

2 - from www.revenue.ie

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Hi Colin,

We’ve checked with Nissan on this and have been told that the 2.0-litre diesel X-Trail will be coming here, but not until October 2017. With that much of a time gap, we’d expect the X-Trail to have had its mid-life facelift by then, as you suggest, and it will more than likely follow the Australian and US update pretty closely in terms of styling and interior upgrades. As for how it will compare to the new Skoda Kodiaq, well – that sounds like a twin test to us...

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Hi Martin,

Unfortunately, this being Ireland, there's little (nothing actually) in the way of a central database for these things so the only thing is to shop around. I know - I sound like Mary Harney... PCP is, like any form of finance, wildly variable depending on your deposit, your trade in, your credit score and more. The advertised rates are, as ever, based on a theoretical perfect version that may or may not exist in actuality. Think of them like Ryanair seat prices... 

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Hi David,

The Renault Laguna Coupe was indeed a very small-selling car in Ireland. Being launched into the teeth of a recession didn’t help, and nor did being a big, expensive French car to be honest. We can only find four on sale in Ireland at the moment, and none of those are the Monaco GP Edition. I think a trip to the UK might be your best bet…