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Hi Susan,

Wow, you're a glutton for punishment aren't you? You pretty much couldn't have picked two less reliable cars. The Discovery is best avoided. If you could afford to trade up to a third-generation model I'd say that's worth a go, as Land Rover was starting to get on top of its quality issues by then, but the old Series II is just bad news. Gearboxes go, electrics go and even the suspension can fail. I know what you mean about falling in love - it's happened to me too with old Land Rovers, but you're looking at a very high-maintenance partner there.

The Espace is a little better, but not by much. The diesel engines are very fragile - check for smoke, check for oil levels and if there are any signs of overheating, run don't walk away. Check anything with an electrical wire coming out the back of it too as it can all go wrong, although the electronic parking brake and electric windows are especially prone to wrongness. Also, keep an eye on the tyres. Espaces go through them like butter and 20,000km is about as much as you'll get out of a set.

If you really want a seven-seater that works properly, can I suggest either a Mitsubishi Pajero or Toyota Land Cruiser? Not as cool as the Discovery, but they won't let you down.

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Hi Andy,

I take it you mean from an insurance point of view? No, late thirties shouldn't be a major issue as long as you have a decent no claims bonus. As far as the car is concerned, I think you need to box a bit clever here. The kids are only going to get bigger (trust me, I know...) and you'll need something with a decent boot and big back seats for increasingly long legs. So, get yourself a Skoda Octavia RS. They've been around since 1999 in original form, but you need to be looking at the second-gen model, from 2006 onwards. Go for that and you get a car with excellent handling, a terrific engine (the diesel one is more economical, obviously, but the petrol 2.0 turbo is still reasonable in terms of running costs) and the boot is as big and practical as you could possibly need. They're also solidly reliable. It's the thinking man's hot hatch.

What do you think?

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Hi David,

OK, if you're determined to go diesel and you need a reliable 60mpg plus then the only safe option is to get yourself a Golf BlueMotion. Your Polo plus your budget should get you easily into one, but you have to remember that getting good fuel economy is actually all about your driving style. We recently managed to get better than 60mpg out of a 1.2 TSI petrol Skoda Rapid, and that was with four big blokes on board...

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Hi Jay,

Well, that's pretty much all you'll ever see at a taxi rank in Berlin or Munich so draw your own conclusions. Just watch the 2002 - 2010 E-Class like a hawk. They were pretty shoddily built my Merc standards and developed a lot of electrical, braking and transmission problems.

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Hi Bernard,

Oddly, they're identical. According to the official figures both the 2001 1.8 turbo 150hp Golf GTI and the 2006 Octavia RS 1.8 turbo 180hp return 35.3mpg on the combined cycle.

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Hi Michael,

Depends which model you're talking about. The basic 87hp 1.4-litre petrol Astra returns an official 51.4mpg, while the 100hp version returns... Um, exactly the same. Meanwhile, the 140hp 1.4 Turbo Astra does 47.9mpg. If you mean the old-shape 1.4i Astra, that does an official 44.8mpg.

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Hi Thomas,

Normally we'd recommend Carzone.ie, but selling any second hand car of that age can be tricky. Have you tried something more local? If you have a good local newspaper that's worth a try or even putting a card in your local supermarket. Local solutions are often the best.

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Hi Patrick,

The Stepway gains some SUV-like styling and a 4cm higher ride height over the conventional Sandero, so it's a little bit more bouncy on rougher roads as a result, and it will roll a bit more in bends over its relation. That's a hyper critical road tester's view though, as the soft, comfort-biased suspension is fine at nornal speeds.

The SUV-look suits it, really smartens it up and makes it stand out, though the trade off for this - thanks largely to the addition of those roof bars - is an appreciable increase in wind noise at speed. That's fine unless you're doing lots of motorway miles in it.

Rear legroom isn't overly generous, while the trim and materials are all fairly uninspiring, though robust. The diesel isn't very refined, but should return excellent economy, the petrol three-cylinder engine is more willing and more refined, but less economical.

All in I rather liked it though, good honest transport.

You can read my colleague Neil's Irish road test of the Dacia Sandero Stepway here.

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Hi Alan,

Electric Ireland charges a standard 19.28 cent per kWh as of Jan 20th 2014, according to moneyguideireland.ie. Other suppliers charge more or less the same although there can be a variation of up to 3c per kWh. 

In terms of what is charged to charge an electric car, the energy companies make no distinction. The plug points are downstream of your electricity meter so it's counted as the same juice that goes into your fridge, dishwasher or vacuum cleaner.

The total amount of tax charged on your kWh amounts to about 11 per cent, including both VAT and Carbon Tax, according to Sustainable Energy Ireland. 

So, why is this so much lower in tax terms than the 50-odd per cent levied by various charges on pump fuel? Simple: expediency. On the one hand, the Government must be seen to be encouraging the use and development of electric motoring. On the other, there is currently no simple and reliable way to distinguish between electricity being pumped into your car's batteries and what's being used to light, heat and wash.

That said, you can sadly and safely expect that to change, rapidly, if electric car sales ever take off in a big way. The Government has been very careful and canny about making sure that improving vehicle economy hasn't eroded it's annual €1 billion+ tax take from petrol and diesel sales, so if battery cars start eating significantly into that, expect some form of battery levy or electron tax to be enabled tout suite.

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Hi there,

Incredibly reliable, seem to be consensus. So much so that there are simply no reported regular or common problems. Just do the usual checks for service history and condition and you should be fine. As for petrol vs. diesel, the funny thing with the Tucson is that the diesel version isn't actually all that economical compared with the petrol, so if your mileage is low and you can get a petrol one for less than a diesel one, it could be worth considering.

Let us know how you get on