Expert answer

Hi Philip,

The Prius is due to land in Ireland in June so I'd expect cars available to test in dealers by early July. Have you seen our first drive review of the car?

And yes, you're right about the Mitsubishi - the brand is no longer being sold here.

Expert answer

Hi David,

We're big fans of both the BMW xDrive45e and the new iX (though not everyone loves the looks of the latter!).

First up, whether you go for a plug-in hybrid such as that X5, or an electric car, you really do need to have the option to add a home charger. It makes life way easier and keeps your fuel costs down.

Assuming you will install a charger, then either of those cars could work well for you. The X5 could easily cover those short journeys on electric power and you'd never have to worry about delays with the public charging network on your longer journeys. The iX, especially the xDrive50 version (read our review of that here), has a really good range, but very long motorway journeys will still require a little more planning.

However, the iX's cabin and technology are next-generation, making the X5's look out of date already...

I'd suggest going to test drive both cars if at all possible. Failing that, at least try to sit into both so you get a feel for the differences.

Also final word of advice, with all the supply chain issues facing the car world right now, I'd urge you to get your order in as soon as possible, even if you don't plan to take delivery for up to a year.

Best of luck with us - feel free to come back and ask us more.

Expert answer

Hi Teresa,

We used to get so many queries on this subject that we published a feature called Why won't my car's stop-start system work?

If you read that you'll discover that the systems are highly sensitive to battery charge and load, even when working perfectly. Could it be that you often have high-load items switched on? Things like heated seats, air conditioning, rear window demister, that sort of thing.

Now, in a DSG-equipped automatic car, you shouldn't need to put the car into neutral to get the stop-start system to work - that's only on manual cars. You can leave it in D (drive). What does affect it, however, is how firmly you are holding your foot on the brake pedal when at a standstill. Sometimes it's necessary to give the brake pedal a firm push before the engine will cut out.

Other things to watch out for: if you move the steering wheel, it is likely to cause the engine to restart. And if you're in the Sport driving mode or you've selected the Sport gearbox setting, then stop-start might not work either.

If none of the above changes your experience, I suggest getting a mechanic to come out in the car with you to check it over and observe how you drive, and then let them do the same.

Best of luck with it - come back to us and let us know how you get on.

Expert answer

Hi Nelson,

OK, as ever our answers here include a certain amount of ‘it depends…’ as much does indeed depend on your driving style, the ambient temperature, the cost of your electricity at home and how much public charging you need to do. But, roughly, this is how it should all break down.

Let’s start with the Kona — and by the way, these are both excellent choices as the Kona and the Ioniq 5 are amongst the most impressive EVs on sale right now. Hyundai officially claims that the Kona Electric has consumption on the WLTP test of 14.9kWh/100km, but we’re going to be a little more pessimistic, or realistic perhaps, and assume that you’ll achieve more like 18kWh/100km.

At that rate of consumption, you’ll — obviously — burn through 18kWh of electricity for each 100km you cover. On its undercounted rate for electricity, Electric Ireland will charge you 21.9c per kWh, which means that you’ll pay €3.93 in electricity costs for each 100km journey, assuming you do all of your charging at home.

What if you’re not charging at home? Well… If you’re using one of the new very rapid ESB chargers, which cost 37c per kWh, that cost obviously jumps a bit. In fact it goes up to €6.63 per 100km. If you’re using an IONITY 350kW charger, without a discount or membership, you’ll pay 73c per kWh and that pushes the price up to more than €10 per 100km.

However, the likelihood is that you’ll be using a mix of all three, and maybe you’re lucky and can charge for free at work, so let’s stick a finger in the air and average it out at around €5 per 100km journey. That’s just for the electricity cost.

If you go for the Ioniq 5, then we reckon that you’re looking at more like 20kWh per 100km in day-to-day use, which gives you costs of €4.36 (home charging), €7,37 (ESB rapid charging), or €14.54 (IONITY). Again, all of these prices are to an extent moving targets, and can be reduced further with discounts on charging and home energy bills. Or with free or subsidised at-work charging.

Of course, there are not total life costs. You have to factor in the costs of buying the cars themselves — Hyundai currently has an offer for the Kona Electric of €254 per month on a PCP plan, or the Ioniq 5 at €380 per month.

Those are both for the basic models, but that’s actually OK — the base Ioniq 5, with the smaller battery, is actually quite a canny buy as it will still do a reliable 360km on one charge, and doesn’t look nor feel all that much different to the ritzier versions inside or out. Assuming a reasonable cost for insurance (never an entirely safe assumption to make…) I reckon we can get you in under the €450-per-month mark for either car, with the Kona obviously having a bit more headroom for costs.

The cost of the charging station at home is even more difficult to answer with surety. There is a wide variety of home chargers available now, at various price points, though of course you should be eligible for an SEAI rebate, too. The unknown is if any additional work needs to be done to your house's electrics. Take a read of our Charging your electric car at home feature for a little more detail on that.

Expert answer

Hi Brian,

A diesel car is quite well-suited to that journey still, as it's over 100 kilometres each way, but we can understand why you might be looking to 'electrify'.

First up, I think we can disregard plug-in hybrids for your needs. None of them have an all-electric range to do a full journey from Limerick to Killarney - or vice versa - even if you could plug it in before heading back the other way again. That would make it potentially quite inefficient overall for you.

A regular hybrid might work depending on your driving style. The N21, which I assume you use, is quite a busy road, so average speeds aren't very high, but some drivers do make the effort to overtake slower traffic and keep their average speed up. If you're the type to amble along with the flow of traffic, then a hybrid might get close to your diesel's economy. If you tend to rush and do lots of overtaking, it won't.

Depending on your budget and situation, I think an electric car would be a good option. There are loads of models with official ranges in excess of 400km now and even allowing for a deterioration of that due to higher speeds and cold temperatures, they'll all likely cover the return journey from Limerick to Killarney and back with little trouble. You could top up the battery if you need to in Killarney, but the vast majority of your charging could be done each night at home. That is of course assuming that you have off-street parking and somewhere to install an electric charger. That's key to EV ownership.

If you don't quite need the space of the 5 Series, but like the BMW brand, I'd highly recommend the BMW i4. 

Other than that, check out our list of every electric car currently on sale in Ireland for ideas - and feel free to come back to us to discuss this further. 

Either way, drop us a message to let us know what you decided to do

Expert answer

Hi Martin,

That's trickier than ever to predict right now as prices of used cars have gone through the roof. A dealer would likely try to sell that car for around the €29,000 mark, which means they'd offer you a few grand less as a trade-in. 

Do yourself a big favour though: get offers from several different dealers, as the price will vary.

Let us know how you get on so we can pass the knowledge onto other readers.

The BMW i4 is a great choice by the way!

Expert answer

Hi Michael,

So long as they have off-street parking and are willing to get a charger installed at home, then I'd suggest that a full-on electric car will suit them. For that outlay, there are loads of good options to consider:

Skoda Enyaq reviews

Volkswagen ID reviews

Kia EV6 reviews

Hyundai Ioniq 5 review

Expert answer

Hi Keif,

OK, so there’s going to be a lot of costs here. I’m going to assume that it’s a 2014 car, based on that price, so that will be about €3,700 in VRT (assuming an OMSP of around €22,000). Your NOx levy will be about €195 on top of that (assuming a NOx emissions value of 39mg/km). Then there’s customs duty, which will be 10 per cent of the purchase price plus the shipping costs, and then finally VAT, which will be 23 per cent of the total purchase price, inclusive of customs duty.

A sum of £12,000 is about €14,000 on today’s rate, so allowing for around €200 in shipping costs, that’s going to be about €1,420 in customs duty. And then VAT on top of that is going to work out at around €3,550. Your total cost of import (not including air fares to go and collect the car etc) is going to be about €19,000. Again, please remember, these are VERY rough calculations and won’t hold any water with Revenue…

It's worth a read or our Guide to Importing Cars from the UK

Expert answer

Hi Phelim,

A rate of €750 a year suggests that the car has been put into the 171-190g/km emissions band. That does seem higher than native Irish Santa Fes. When did you import the car? It sounds to me that Revenue may have 'uplifted' the NEDC emissions rating to its WLTP equivalent, something that has happened since 1 January 2021.

See our Guide to Importing Cars from the UK feature for more information - most of that applies to a car imported from Australia too. Hopefully that helps you understand it.

Expert answer

Hi John,

I drove the 3.0-litre diesel Quattroporte when it was launched in 2015 (read the full review here) and really liked it. Note that we compared it with cars in the class above the E-Class at the time. There's no doubt that it was a lovely car when new and it's certainly a change from the default options.

However, with our sensible hats on, we'd be slow to recommend you make a change from a known quantity such as the E-Class to an older car, especially as the nearest Maserati dealership is in Belfast. 

Some owners report no issues with their Quattroporte, but others have had no end of expensive and annoying faults and for that reason we'd probably steer clear.

If you are still tempted, go have a test drive and get it inspected by an expert. Also, ask to see full details of all work done on the car since new and look for anything unusual - plus you want evidence of a full service history.

Best of luck - do let us know what you decide to do.