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Hi Padraig,

As trade-ins, the Ford will be worth between €1,500 and €2,000 depending on condition while the Polo would be right down to around €500 to €750 as a trade in.

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Hi Marie,

Funnily enough this is similar to a series of incidents I went through with my father-in-law a few years back. He also had a BMW (a 5 Series) that was giving him no end of trouble and after, I think, the fourth time it left him stranded at the side of the road, he finally got sick of it and started shopping for a new car. I pointed him towards what I thought was a safe bet and, seven years on, he's had three quarters of a decade of near-faultless motoring in his Honda CR-V. Moral of the story? If you want a reliable car, go for a Honda. Take the Civic - it should be able to take a couple of bikes if you fold those clever rear seats flat too.

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Simon,

That’s absolutely top-value for a 2005 Focus, so the car would want to be in exceptionally good condition and come with a full and complete service history and a decent warranty to command that kind of price. You haven’t given us a year for your Polo so it’s rather difficult to value but we think you could potentially find better value on the Focus out there.

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Hi Eoin,

Go for the Corolla. Its long term reliability prospects are better than those of the Polo, it'll be far more comfortable on the motorway and barely any more expensive to fuel and tax.

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Hi Bryan,

The fuel gauge should not visibly go down over such a short drive, no matter how fast you're going! If there's a fuel leak then it's a big one to cause that, so start up the car in neutral with the handbrake on in a safe location (in the dry preferably) and get out and look underneath for any signs. If there is one we recommend turning off the car and having it towed to a garage for a repair.

However, it may well be that the gauge or the sender unit in the fuel tank are themselves faulty and it could be an inexpensive fix. Either way you should bring the car back to where you bought it (assuming it was a trade sale and not a private one) and insist they accompany you on a drive so you can demonstrate the problem. If there's a warranty in place this kind of thing should be covered.

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Joy,

I'd go for the Yaris, if only because it's fractionally less likely to give any trouble than the Polo, but to be honest it's a close run thing in that regard. A nice 2005 model with an automatic gearbox (if she fancies) can be snapped up for between €5,000 and €6,000.

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Hi Jimmy,

As far as we can find, none. The highest emissions model in the Polo range is the GTI and that has a CO₂ rating of 139g/km, which puts it, albeit only just, into Band B2, and tax of €280 a year.

Did you find otherwise?

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Hi Gerry,

To be honest, I just can't recommend a Cross Polo. The standard Polo is a decent little car, albeit a bit slow and a touch noisy. Those problems just seem to be magnified in the Cross Polo though and then there's the fact that for all the plastic cladding and faux-SUV looks, it's just a more expensive Polo underneath and can't tackle mud any more capably than a basic 1.2 Polo Trendline.

So, my suggestion would be this. Either buy a standard Polo or, if you really need something small but with genuine off-road-snow-ice ability then search out either a Fiat Panda 4x4 or a Suzuki SX4 4x4.

Let us know which way you go.

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Hi David,

Depends on your driving style, but 55mpg should be a gimme, 60mpg if you're a bit careful and 70mpg if you're driving with baby kittens under the accelerator pedal.

You're quite right about 1.2 engines, at least for now. They usually have to be worked too hard to drive at normal speeds to get the best economy and, for now, 1.6 seems to be a displacement sweet spot. That will change though - just check out the economy you can get (with some effort) from Volkswagen's 1.2 TSI petrol unit.

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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?