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Hi Peadar,

Dacia Ireland told us it has no plans to introduce a seven-seat model to the Irish market at this stage.

Hope that helps

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Hi Patrick,

Renault Ireland tells us that we should be able to test one in July, so that's likely to coincide with the cars arriving in dealers as well. We'll be at the international launch of the car this week.

In case you missed our earlier news item here it is: Stylish new Renault SUV on the way

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Hi Cathy,

The Eos is a nice car, right enough, but a bit thin on the ground here in Ireland. You may need to widen your search to the UK if you're going to find one you like.

That budget should give you a pretty good spread of possible purchases though. How about a BMW 318Ci convertible? Classy, practical and cool, we found one on Carzone.ie for €12,950. If you fancy something a bit smaller, there are a few MINI Cooper Convertibles knocking around at similar money. The MINI is not as practical as the Peugeot 207 CC you've suggested, but it is more fun to drive. Then again, the 207 does have that desirable folding steel roof.

But if you're really sold on the Eos, Karmann Volkswagen dealers in Dublin, on the Naas road, currently have one up for €12,950 with the 1.6 FSI petrol engine. Snap it up if you want it...

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Dave,

First off, we are massively jealous of you getting a Challenger. We drove an SRT8 version in San Diego back before Christmas and it's just a glorious lump of retro-styled Americana. Good enough to (literally at one point) stop traffic in downtown. Bringing one into Ireland of course means you're going to get hit for a lot of tax in the form of VRT - and potentially VAT.

You'll be paying the top whack rate of 36% VRT because of the car's emissions. Now, that's not 36% of the price you've paid, but 36% of what Revenue decides the car is worth. Fair? No, not even slightly but them's the rules. You'll have to pay VAT as well if the car is either less than six months old or has less than 6,000km on the clock. Within seven days of the car's arrival in Ireland, you have to make your appointment with the NCT people to have the car inspected and valued. Revenue has a very helpful FAQ page on VRT here: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/faqs-vrt.html

Let us know how you get on - and if you need help testing it...

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Hi Peter,

The low mileage on your car really helps, as most examples of the 325i on sale have considerably more on the clock. I'd say you're looking at a value of between €13,000 and €16,000, depending in spec, colour and whether or not your car has an automatic gearbox. A dealer will most likely pitch you about €12,000 on a trade in.

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Mia,

That's a little difficult to answer as Honda Ireland never imported that generation Civic diesel here. In the UK, a 2004 1.7 CDTi is worth around £2,000 so I'd take a stab at a value of around €2,500 to €3,000 here.

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Graham,

We asked Mitsubishi Ireland about this one and this is what was said: "Invite and Intense are two model trim names that are associated with a number of our vehicles, including the Lancer. It’s unusual but not unheard of that an insurance company would not have all the trim names on their database. The names do not infer any special performance characteristics but simply a level of trim so should not impact on an insurance quote."

"DE, ES and GTS are very old model trim names going back over 12 years, which we don’t currently use. So these insurance companies must still have them on their database."

Hope you get sorted

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Hi Paul,

Yes, it's just been revealed (see our full news story here). There's a subtle bit of restyling going on, with new grille and lights at the front and new lights at the back. There aren't a huge number of mechanical changes on offer, but the 1.6 TDI Greenline model has seen its emissions drop to a very competitive 109g/km, so that will save a little on annual road tax. Inside, the range-topping Columbus infotainment system now comes with a 30GB hard drive for storing your music and podcasts. It goes on sale in Ireland in July, though we drive it next month (May).

As to which is better, Superb or Octavia? Phew, that's a toughie. The new Octavia is very, very impressive and well priced too, but I personally have a bit of a soft spot for the Superb, with its huge boot and rear seat space. To be honest, you wouldn't go wrong choosing either, but it's worth bearing in mind that we're only a couple of years away from an all-new Superb, which Skoda reckons is going to be competitive with the BMW 5 Series...

Hope that helps somewhat

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Hi Alan,

We don't know of any widespread common issues with this car. It's built on Nissan/Renault mechanicals that are quite well proven. It's moderately spacious for the money, but it's not a car we'd often consider, as there are plenty of other better cars available for the same price. Apparently many unsold examples found their way from Ireland to the UK, where they were never marketed as a new car.

In summary: not bad really, but not recommended either.

Let us know how you get on.

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Hi Kieran,

Here’s what we’ve found on Carzone that’s wheelchair accessible, or you could get in touch with the guys at Motability Ireland who would be able to help.