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Hi Bryan,

It’s VERY hard to value a car like that without seeing it, but I can give you some pointers. Obviously, the originality is a big selling point, so if you’re going to get anything done to it before sale, make sure it’s done carefully and considerately. To be honest, even if the paintwork is currently a bit faded, I’d be tempted to leave it be, as originality really is everything.

As for a value, you could be looking at around the €12-15,000 mark if its rarity plays out, although many good sixties Beetles go for around €9-10,000 if restored. I think you should get in touch with the VAGE Club Ireland, the Volkswagen owners'  club, and have a chat with one of their Beetle experts before you go about trying to sell it. They should be able to give you some good pointers.

Best of luck

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Hi Miceal,

As a trade-in, somewhere in the region of €8,000 I would think.

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Hi Eoin,

Mapfre and Carprotect provide decent cover, but, as always with these things, you need to make sure you read all of the small print, and we mean ALL of it, to ensure you know exactly what’s covered and what’s not and in what circumstances. Basically, rather like accident insurance, aftermarket warranties are there to cover utter disasters, not replacement of day-to-day items.

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Hi Jennifer,

You could try a Skoda Superb Combi, but I think that many big dogs would overwhelm even that car’s massive boot. Perhaps you need to go down the road of a van-based MPV. Maybe try a Citroen Berlingo or Volkswagen Caddy Life? Seats for the kids and (hopefully) enough space for the dogs, plus their tailgates aren’t too high off the ground so the older dogs shouldn’t have too much trouble getting in and out.

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Hi Sinead,

Expect to see it some time in 2018, although there will be a facelift and an update for the current MkVII Golf later this year.

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Conor,

It’ll be arriving in 2017, and we should see a full production version appear, if not at the Paris Motor Show in September, then at the Detroit show in January.

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Hi Olga,

The best two to choose from are the Ford S-Max and the Opel Zafira Tourer. Both should be big enough inside for your needs, and they certainly hit the remaining criteria pretty well. Cars like the Volkswagen Touran and Toyota Verso are also good, but they tend to be too small in the third row of seats for regular use.

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Hi Aiden,

That’s a good-sized budget so you should be able to get a good-sized car. In terms of car-vans, the best ones are the Citroen Berlingo and the Volkswagen Caddy Life, but both are noisier than a conventional car, and less comfortable over long distances. With that in mind, I reckon you need an estate – have a look for a Mazda6 Tourer, Ford Mondeo Estate or Volkswagen Passat Estate – or keep an eye out for the best of breed, the Skoda Superb Combi. All are comfortable, roomy and have frugal diesel options.

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Hi Dana,

No, not yet – it won’t be fully revealed to the public until 1st of September, and it will be some time after that before Irish prices and specs are worked out. However, we can infer from some of its rivals how expensive it might be. The primary cars that it will be going up against will be the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe, both of which have prices that start at €38-39k, and also the Nissan X-Trail, which, in seven-seat form, starts at €37k. So around the €37k mark might be a sensible bet.

That said, the new Volkswagen Tiguan, on which the Kodiaq is based, mechanically, starts at just under €30k, and there will be a seven-seat version of that soon too, so Skoda will have to carefully balance its prices to make sure that it’s a little, but not too much, cheaper than the seven-seat Tiguan. Complicated, isn’t it? I reckon somewhere between the €35,000 and €37,000 marks would be a reasonable guess as to the Kodiaq’s starting price.

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Hi F D,

Short answer? We don't know yet. Theoretically, petrol engines heat up much more quickly than diesel engines (mostly because they're less thermally efficient) and therefore shorter journeys are less of an issue in that respect. It just depends on how much heat you need to generate to clean the filter and for how long. I'm sure that car makers will claim, as they did with diesel, that the filters are designed to be maintenance free, but then we've heard that before haven't we?