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Hi Ray

I understand that your Corolla saloon has 68,000 km (42,000 miles) on it. Prices seem to be fairly consistent for them and you should probably expect about €8,000 - €9,000 as a trade-in, which isn't bad because your mileage is quite low.

Your budget is €4,000 and you need a seven-seater and you want something that is going to be reliable, comfortable and safe. I understand that you are being asked to spend €3,000 with your own car for a 2005 model and €4,500 for a 2006 model Scenic. This seems a little steep to me and steep to our Renault advisor. Also the Scenic, as it ages doesn't always stand up in terms of reliability. 

However, if money is an issue, I would be inclined to go for a petrol version of the Scenic, which can be picked up for half the price of the petrol models.

However if you want something reliable I would think you might stick with Toyota and get a Verso. 

Something like this 1.6-litre petrol model would be a super buy and it is from an SIMI dealer.

http://tiny.cc/47qyu

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Hi Pat

The Nissan Tiida could probably be best described as an experiment that didn't really work in Ireland. Once Nissan had stopped production of the Almera, a car that was very popular in Ireland, Nissan were left with something of a gap in their product range. Rather than leaving this empty they took on the Tiida, which was a car that was sold in markets such as the Middle East, and as the Nissan Versa in the United States and in any market it was sold it was a budget buy.
There is nothing wrong with the Tiida, but it just isn't the most exciting car to drive or probably own and for that reason it has received a pretty lukewarm reception in Ireland.

There is €4,000 off the Tiida at the moment (including government allowance), so that means you would get the Tiida Diesel for €16,480. If you just want a car for getting from A to B then this will do the job perfectly fine.

However, the reason Nissan haven't been overly worried by the Tiida is that they have been selling shedloads of their Qashqai and that is a really excellent vehicle. It sits quite high up, is quite cheap to run and will be reliable. There is a new 2010 model too and there is a €4,000 scrappage offer on that too at the moment.

The Qashqai 1.5d XE costs €23,995 and with €4,000 off that you would be just about under budget and this would be an infinitely better buy than the Tiida, albeit a fair bit more expensive that the Tiida.

You can read our review of the new Qashqai here

http://www.completecar.ie/testdrives/article/Nissan/Qashqai/Qashqai/231/53

And details on the new Qashqai can be found at this part of the Nissan site

http://www.nissan.ie/new_vehicles/pricing.aspx?CarID=137

There are lots of other cars to consider with your budget

You could have a Hyundai i30, which is an excellent 5-door hatchback from €15,995 under the scheme.

The Ford Focus 1.6 Diesel would be well under your budget, or you could try the new Renault Fluence, if you fancied a saloon. Here is a review I did on it for The Irish Times recently http://tiny.cc/30ag3

I am not sure if any of these will float your boat, but please feel free to come back to us for more advice.

Out of this lot, I'd have the Qashqai though.

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There is a relatively new version of the Fabia and that might not come in under budget, even with scrappage. The new model starts at €12,265 so with scrappage it would be €10,765, but if you could stretch to this it would be a very good buy.

The Ka will cost you just €7,995 under the scheme and this is great value for what is a smart little car, but it is small and only available as a three-door. 

The Hyundai i10 is a car that is superb value under scrappage, costing just €8,495 for the five-door and €9,495 for the three-door model.

As regards the Clio, you can have a three-door for €8,990 under the scheme. A five-door model will cost more, at €11,280.

Out of these, for a car to keep for 10 years, I'd suggest you try to haggle and get the Fabia as I think it would age best, but following that it would be the i10 because this car should be ultra reliable to. 

Without sitting on the fence though, I would say to try all of these and make your mind up after the test drive.

Expert answer

Hello Breda,

I have driven both of these cars and they are both good value and will be cheap to run too. The offers on the Renault Mégane at the moment under the scrappage scheme are pretty hard to resist.

An 86hp diesel version will cost you from €14,800 and that is seriously good value. You can get better equipped variants for a little more and the higher powered version is €18,400. I enjoyed my week in the TOMTOM edition and it came with a very clever multimedia centre.

You can find the prices and details here:

http://renault.ie/cars/grandmegane/prices.html

The Mégane never really stood out against its rivals until the scrappage scheme, but now it is the second-biggest selling model under the scheme. Price is the key here. It is a decent sized estate car for the price of a supermini. Renaults are way better built than they were before, so you can probably expect few problems if any.
To drive it is comfortable, very easy to live with and the fuel economy is super.

The other French car you have in mind is the Peugeot 308 SW. This starts at €25,475 (for the diesel) and comes with a more powerful 110hp diesel engine. Obviously this is quite a major price difference. Under the scrappage scheme however you get €4,000 off this so it will end up at €21,475. This is good value for what is a high quality car and it is much better than the 307 SW that is replaces.

Here are the details of the Peugeot scrappage offers:

http://www.peugeot.ie/contentv3/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageID=18547&parentID=18457

There is a €6,675 difference between the two cars as it stands under the scrappage scheme and equipment levels are likely to be very similar. Under normal circumstances, if the prices were similar, I would say go for the Peugeot, but I'd say out of these two you are getting so much for your money with the Renault, then perhaps go for that.

Expert answer

Hi Angela,

Let's start with looking at the prices of the cars you listed when bought new:

Kia cee'd: 1.6-litre diesel starts at €18,550. There are four versions to chose from, including an automatic and a version that sneaks into band A for tax.

Kia Venga: only available with Kia's new 1.4-litre turbodiesel engine. There are just two trim options, LX and EX and the price is either €18,320 or €19,615. Both have emissions of 117g/km, which means cheap band A road tax.

Hyundai i30: five versions of the same 1.6-litre diesel engine (CRDi) available. Ranging from €18,495 to €25,495. There's an automatic option and two different power outputs, the lower of which is in band A.

Peugeot 308: five versions of the same 1.6-litre diesel engine (HDi). Ranging from €19,795 to €24,335. Four of these are in band A, including the 'Ecomatique' automatic version.

SEAT Leon: a massive eight-model diesel (TDI) range in both 1.9- and 2.0-litre sizes. Two of them drop into band A, while the fastest 2.0-litre model is in band C. Prices range from €20,105 to €26,290.

As your question was purely about value, then it comes down to the Hyundai and Kias. We found the Venga to be quite impressive, though it's a pity there is so little choice in the range.

This appears to boil down to the Hyundai i30 and Kia cee'd. The latter was facelifted earlier this year and it's an even better car than before, but what tips the balance in the Kia's favour is its untouchable warranty. All models get a seven-year warranty, which is huge peace of mind.

Depending on your budget limits you should also take a look at the Skoda Octavia.

I assume you don't have a car to trade in on the scrappage scheme, as that would change things a little. Renault for instance has fantastic offers on its Mégane.

Obviously all of these cars can be had second-hand too, where you'll get a higher spec car for the same money, albeit with kilometres on the clock.

Let us know what you decide or if you have any other questions just pop them in the comment box below.

Thank you

Expert answer

Hi Paul,

That is a very interesting question. You only have to look at the difference in pricing through various different genre of cars to see that we have not had cars as cheap here in Ireland in years and even when you compare them to prices in Europe things are favourable. This is of course little solace to those who find obtaining credit virtually impossible.

Manufacturers are constantly streamlining methods of production and there is much greater co-operation between manufacturers in terms of powertrain sharing and platform sharing, but the simple explanation of the reduction in prices here in Ireland is of course the easing of taxation slightly. New cars, as I am sure you are aware, are now taxed according to their CO₂ emissions and this means that cars that might once have been subjected to 30 percent VRT under the old system are now only subject to 16 percent, because of advances in engine technology. When you look at cars like the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series now with emissions of less than 140g/km, as long as the present taxation system is in place, prices will remain quite low. Manufacturers are also likely to keep prices low to their retailers as every incentive needs to remain in place to keep sales moving throughout a sluggish global economy.

In answering your question, I would say that the lowering of prices certainly hasn't finished, especially here in Ireland. This year there has been a lot of discounting from manufacturers such as Renault who is aggressively targeting market share. Even when scrappage ends in December I can't see an end to this straight away, as next year, without the scrappage incentives, manufacturers and retailers will need to come up with a whole new set of incentives to draw nervous buyers back into the showrooms.

Expert answer

Hi Paul.

It's true, Lada's owners, which include the Renault-Nissan alliance, have said that it makes sense to bring the brand back to this side of Europe. If that happens it's also likely that the cars will be made in right-hand drive for the UK and Ireland.

I agree it'll take some marketing genius to turn around the image side of things, but bear in mind that Skoda was once seen as no better than a Lada - and look at it now.

The reasoning behind all this is apparently to beat the Chinese car makers to it. Renault-Nissan will be represented at the super-cheap end of the market by Dacia and Lada before the likely arrival of a handful of Chinese manufacturers.

Whether they'll be successful in Ireland or not remains to be seen. You reckon that the budget end is already pretty busy? Maybe there's room for new cars at an even lower price.

Expert answer

That is a very good question. The scrappage scheme makes sense to a certain number of people, but it certainly isn't for everyone. It was set up to clean up the nation's car park and to that effect is designed to get cars of 10 years or more off the roads. Plus, there is the additional clause that any car bought under scrappage must be from Band A or B, with CO₂ emissions of less than 140g/km, which isn't going to suit all buyers either.

The Government has offered €1,500 off the VRT of the car and while you might argue that you could haggle this off in a cash deal, the fact is that you will get this for even the worst car that could be worth barely €50. Even the most skilled haggler is unlikely to get more than €1,000 off the price of a small car from a cash deal, but you will get this in a scrappage trade-in.

Also, in many cases the manufacturers are offering further incentives for scrappage deals such as additional discounts. In the case of Renault for example, there are thousands given to owners of cars of 8 or 10 years or older that you wouldn't get if you were buying in cash. So in this case scrappage is a strong incentive and is worth it.

Expert answer

Firstly, there are probably more diesel automatic cars in Ireland than you might think, but they tend to be executive models rather than mainstream family cars because it seems that there still isn't a huge demand for them.

Toyota does in fact sell an automatic version of its Avensis. It is a 2.2-litre 150bhp diesel and that costs €35,530. Since you mentioned the Toyota Avensis we must assume that you are after a family saloon or hatchback so for a start you could have a Ford Mondeo 2.0-litre TDCi Style Auto for €32,225 - that comes as a saloon, hatchback or estate.

For you a few quid more you can have the run out version of the Jaguar X-Type 2.2 Diesel Auto for €32,995 or you could have the Mercedes-Benz B180 CDi Auto from €33,640.

There are loads of versions of the excellent Opel Insignia available with a choice of 130- or 160bhp diesel engines in saloon, hatchback or estate body styles. There are 24 different Insignia diesels available in total. Prices start at €30,380. You can have a Renault Laguna 2.0-litre dCi 150 TomTom Edition for €36,890.

A Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI with the excellent DSG gearbox will cost you from €35,960 and Skoda will sell you something with DSG for even less. How about an Octavia RS 2.0-litre diesel with 170bhp and DSG for €31,195? For us, that last car is the top choice. However you could stick with Skoda and go much bigger and that would be the Superb. You can have that with DSG and 170bhp for €31,195.

There is a fuel economy penalty in some cases and that is because the traditional automatic transmission has a torque converter. Automatic cars are generally a little heavier too, to the detriment of economy. Saying that, the latest generation of dual-clutch automatics and some of the newest conventional autos have massively improved.

Fuel economy and CO₂ emissions are directly linked, so often the manual version of a car can be in a lower tax band than their automatic siblings, but this is starting to change as mentioned above.

Expert answer

For this we spoke to Gerry Devine in Team PR Reilly: "There are three things that need to be done to fix this problem. Step 1, remove the bird poo from the car with Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Remover. Spray some Bug and Tar Remover onto the affected area and leave for approximately 45 seconds to let it work. Wipe off all bird poo and residue. Step 2 is to rectify the burnt spots on the car. We suggest you use a cutting compound to try and get rid of the mark left behind (we recommend Turtle Wax Safe Cut liquid). Step 3 is to polish the car using a polish with a slight cut in it (we recommend Turtle Wax Original). Make sure the car is clean and dirt free before polishing. This should do the trick. If the bird poo has been embedded on the car for some time, the burnt spot may be too bad to remove yourself and you may need to get the job done professionally."

Hope that helps Maura.