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Hi Marie,

Theoretically, as you're moving house and you've had the car taxed and insured at your previous address there should be only an administrative fee to pay. But I'm guessing it wasn't your name on the logbook while it was in the UK, which may put a spanner in the works (unless you and your dad have the same name of course...). I think your only option is to talk to someone on the Revenue help desk (and they really are very friendly and helpful) and explain your situation. There might be a loophole through which you can slip. 

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Hi Brendan,

According to the figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), 57 Passat 1.4 TSI models were sold in 2015 (53 saloons and four estates) and 42 so far this year (37 saloons and five estates). There were also two Passat GTE plugin hybrids registered so far this year, which also use the 1.4 TSI engine.

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Hi Fergal,

The new Ka+ will be here in June and will cost from €13,050. You can find out much, much more about it in our Ford Ka+ news item. The new Fiesta is a bit more of an unknown and we certainly don’t have prices for it yet. It’s due to launch in Europe in the first quarter of 2017, but Ford Ireland may decide to keep its powder dry and launch it here closer to the 172 registration change in July of next year. It’s likely to be a little larger than the current car (although not by much, as the same basic structure is being retained) and the engine line up will be entirely the new-generation three-cylinder EcoBoost petrol and the four-cylinder 1.5-litre TDCi diesels. It’s likely to also be more expensive than the current car – the fact that Ford is launching a five-door Ka at a cheap-ish price, and the continuing efforts to push the Ford brand upmarket (Vignale, Mustang, GT, Edge etc.) means that the next Fiesta will probably be more sophisticated but more expensive too.

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Hi Katalin,

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Hi James,

The big draw for the updated Kuga will be the availability of Ford’s 1.5 TDCi diesel engine, which will bring the Kuga’s running costs down significantly, not least because it will have a 115g/km CO₂ emissions rating. It’ll be here in the autumn, once Ford has finished launching the new Edge SUV, but given the nature of the Irish car market, supply will probably be a bit restricted until January 2017.

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Hi Gary,

The answer is partially yes, but it’s nothing to do with R sales, which we are told are actually perfectly healthy. The GTI Performance model is being replaced by the GTI Clubsport, which gets an extra 34hp and some chassis revisions  to make the handling even sharper than that of the GTI Performance Pack.

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Hi Simon,

Yes, it will be in all its 510hp glory, but it’ll probably be special order only and I’d expect prices to start at around the €100,000 mark for that one. A much more sensible Giulia diesel should only set you back around €38,000 though, and looks pretty much as good. Here are our reviews:

Alfa Romeo Giulia diesel review

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio review

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Hi Tony,

There's no major recurrent fault for the flywheel on a Q5 specifically (although dual-mass flywheels generally come in for a lot of reliability criticism across all brands), but there was a recall for Volkswagen Group 2.0 TDI diesel engines a while back to replace faulty flywheels, so it's worth checking to make sure that's been done. If it doesn't show up in the service history, get in touch with Audi Ireland customer services, as they should be able to find out if a specific vehicle has or has not had the work done. 

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Hi John, 

We sent this to Mazda Ireland for comment and here's what was sent back:

"I would advise them to report this directly to his Mazda Retailer for investigation as to the cause of the issue. If it falls under warranty, this would be covered, but in any event, they will do everything to assist rectify the issue."

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Harry,

Yes, it’s up to you to sort out the outstanding finance with your son, but you should be aware that if for any reason he defaults on the payments, the finance company can recover the car without any recourse to you.