Expert answer

Hi Tanya,

Without knowing your budget just yet, it is a little difficult to guess, but a car that is a top buy for a family, with a great boot is something like a Skoda Octavia. One like this has low mileage, a frugal diesel engine and will be perfect for a lot of mileage. It is solid and has a great sized boot too.

The Nissan Qashqai has been a massive seller in Ireland of late, with good reason too, as it is very good value, has a brilliant safety record, looks great and is perfect for a family. Here is a fully loaded 1.5-litre diesel for €20,950 with low mileage. 

You could have the choice of a number of family hatchbacks too, such as a Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf, Toyota Auris or perhaps even a small MPV.

Come back to us with more details and we will try and help you further. Just add your comment to the comment box below.

Expert answer

Hi Chris,

I think that you are getting quite a generous allowance for your car with that offer.

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Hi Anthony,

Well we can't quite say exactly what you are likely to get offered for your Corolla, but let's presume that it is likely to be about €2,500 - €3,000 when traded in against something new. With a budget of €25,000 on top of this then there is a lot of choice available to you. You could have a wide variety of new cars and an even greater choice of used models.

In answer to your first question, with you doing 18,000 miles per year, you could do with a diesel engine to keep your fuel bills down.

Your choices in terms of a new car are massive, including a brand new Toyota Avensis, which would probably add up to the best deal in terms of your trade-in. The new Avensis is remarkably comfortable and for a car that you are likely to spend so long in, this would make a nice place to sit. The diesel engine in the Avensis is very good, and it will be cheap to run and Toyota residuals are superb.

A sum of €26,735 will get you the 125hp Avensis Strata saloon. Another great choice for comfort and residual value would be the Volkswagen Passat. You could have the 1.6 TDI Comfortline BlueMotion for €27,375 and that has the feel of an executive car and would be great for the high mileage you do.

Almost impossible to ignore is the Skoda Superb. It really is great. You could have a 2.0-litre 170hp Comfort model for €27,805. Granted you might not need all that rear space, but there are few more comfortable cars on the road.

A car we have just spent a few days in is the updated Mazda6. The new model has a much better diesel engine than before, and there are some changes to the spec of the car. This offers a good blend between comfort and sportiness. It is a good-looking car too and comes as a hatchback.

A car I really like is the Subaru Legacy diesel. This is one of the most underrated cars around and it is lovely to drive. A 2009 model would cost you about €23,000 so it would be under your budget by quite a degree:

http://tiny.cc/43787

However, the car I'd think about with your budget is the VW Passat CC, the more coupé-like version of the Passat. There is a stunning 2.0-litre TDI model on sale in Dublin for €29,950 and it is absolutely stunning:

http://tiny.cc/4j2hf

Expert answer

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

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 Joe,

I recently drove the Golf BlueMotion and the review will go up shortly, but what I can say is that I was really very impressed by the car for a number of reasons. Obviously this is the full BlueMotion version and that differs slightly to the 'BlueMotion Technology' model that we have seen before. 

This new car gets a full raft of eco measures. There is Stop/Start, regenerative braking, a modified radiator grille, low rolling resistance tyres and a specially tuned diesel engine. The result is emissions of 99g/km and fuel economy of 3.4 l/100km. Now, you would want to be really hyper-miling to get those figures but we got close to that on our few days with the car. The economy was really staggering. 

There is 105hp from the 1.6-litre diesel and it isn't a rocket: 0-100km/h takes 11.3 seconds. It is however, a very nice car to drive. It doesn't feel slow because it is geared well. And it is a nice place to be. For the price, it is quite well equipped. 

Obviously, price is an issue. There is no real incentive to buy this car for its emissions like there is in other markets. In some markets, such as the UK, if your car has less than 100g/km you don't pay road tax, but here everything under 120g/km is Band A and the Ford Focus 1.6 D Style will cost you about the same to run, yet is €1,545 cheaper to buy. 

To answer your original question though, if I was buying a Golf, yes this is the one I would have (aside from the GTI of course). I really liked it. 

You also have to look at the Skoda Octavia too. For €23,820 you could have an Octavia with the same engine, but with the DSG automatic transmission. Hope this helps, feel free to come back to us if you have any more questions.

Expert answer

Hi Tony.

Thanks for writing in. With €30,000 to spend you have quite a fair degree of choice. As you are retired, I would imagine that you might want something for a variety of purposes. You mention that you will travel a bit with some of the work you are going to be doing now. When you refer to farming work, then I guess you might end up in a muddy field now and again too, so perhaps some off-road ability would be a help too?

I don't want to ask a retired gentleman his age, but I know that when you get older access becomes important and something a little higher will be easier on 'well-used' joints and kind on your back too. I would recommend the Skoda Yeti because I think that this could tick a lot of the boxes. It has great build, is comfortable, easy to get in and out of and if you get one with four-wheel drive then it will cope with all your farm work too.

A figure of €25,220 will get you a 2wd Yeti 2.0-litre TDI (110hp) with all the bells and whistles. The 4x4 model isn't on sale yet, but we will check with Skoda and find out when that version arrives. If you don't think you would need the 4x4 version for towing or getting over bad terrain then you should probably get the 2wd version as it keeps fuel economy and emissions low.

It will cost you just €156 to tax each year because emissions are just 138g/km and the 110hp 2.0-litre diesel is eager enough too. We reckon this car could really suit you.

Another option would be the Subaru Forester Diesel. The newer model is a little over your budget, but you could get a 2009 model for about €30,000.

Anyway, hopefully this steers you in the right direction. We will come back to you on the Skoda Yeti 4x4 once we have spoken to Skoda.

Expert answer

There has been a huge move towards diesel cars here in Ireland because of the change to the road tax and VRT laws in July 2008.

Since then, as you may or may not know, road tax and VRT are calculated according to a car's CO₂ emissions and because diesel cars use less fuel than petrol ones, their emissions tend to be lower.

When your father bought the Mazda6 in 2008 it may well have been better value than the diesel model. Now, there is much less difference between the price.

Before we move away from Mazda, there is now a very good range of diesel engines in the new Mazda6 and that might make the most cost-effective swap if he was happy with the car he has because you will most likely get the best trade-in price from a Mazda dealer. However, by the sounds of things he wants a change.

Covering only 10,000km a year we previously might have said that there was no real need to buy a diesel because you would not save the extra price of the car in fuel.

This point remains true, but the difference now is that the market has changed so much to diesel that petrol cars are likely to lose their value faster and become increasingly unwanted by used car buyers, so at this size of car, we would say yes, move to diesel. Also, if you do buy new, your father will most likely benefit from lower road tax.

Without knowing a budget it is difficult to point you in the right direction but from the cars you mention I'm guessing the budget is between €25,000 - €35,000. This does offer a lot of choice.

The 2004/2005 BMW 320d is certainly an option. Since the current shape model came out in 2005, we would encourage you to look at these, or even a 2006. The prices of these are quite competitive at the moment. A 2005 320d SE at a SIMI dealer would probably cost you between €15,000 - €17,000.

BMWs are always tempting to buy used, but you must choose one that has been properly serviced and cared for, because they can become more expensive to put right as they get older. The choice of used 320d models at the moment is vast so if you do go down that route, shop around. It is a great car and with the small mileage your Dad does it is unlikely to end up costing you too much.

If you want to go down the new route, there are a few that would spring to mind. The first is the Skoda Superb. This car is really brilliant and huge too. It is well made and loaded with equipment. If your Dad likes comfort then this will be right up his street.

Our choice would be the 2.0-litre TDI Comfort for €27,805. It is excellent value for money and comes with lots of creature comforts (cruise control, climate control, etc.), a 170hp diesel that is powerful, yet still frugal at 5.8 l/100km. Road tax on this car is €302 per year. For me, if I were heading out to buy a family saloon today, I wouldn't pass the Superb.

You mentioned some other cars there. The Jetta isn't a bad car, but it's been out a few years now and is probably due an update, so I wouldn't buy that new. The Audi A4 is nice. A new one is going to cost you from €34,060 before you start looking at optional extras, so a 2009 model would make sense with all the options already added. €35,000 should get you a nice 2009 TDI version with lots of the toys thrown in.

Please feel free to come back to us with more details if you like (just add a comment below), but for me I would probably have the Superb.

Expert answer

Firstly, trading in your car won't be a problem at all if you are bringing the car in against a new model, but you might not get as much for your car as you would have first expected. Selling it privately can be a little trickier these days too as buyers are harder to find because of the lack of available finance, quite simply.

Now, in terms of the car, the SEAT that you are talking about is probably the Exeo, which hasn't been on the market too long. It is a nice car, basically a rebadged previous-generation Audi A4. You have a choice of 1.6- and 2.0-litre petrol or a 2.0-litre diesel. Prices start at €26,690. Go to www.seat.ie for the latest line-up and pricing.

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.