Expert answer

Hi Donal,

Well, fuel consumption depends very much on your own driving style and where (and to an extent when) you do most of your driving. That said, in general, we wouldn’t expect that 1.0 TSI engine to be much thirstier overall than the 1.6 diesel. In our tests, both engines are in and around as economical as each other and you should expect to get around 50mpg from either with a light foot. The diesel may be a little better than the petrol option at a sustained high-speed cruise. However, with such low annual mileage, we suspect that the petrol engine will cost less to maintain in the long run. It's probably the best option for you.

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Hi Philip,

Every gearbox is different and our advice would be to follow the manufacturer advice. For life means for life, with no limit on mileage, odd as that sounds.

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Hi Brian,

It’s a tricky one. The problem is that a 330e gets amazing fuel economy as long as you keep it plugged in as much as possible (which would work nicely for your short commutes), but that all goes to pot a bit on long motorway journeys (which is obviously not going to be good).

We think it’s a good idea to start moving away from diesel and towards hybrid and electric, but you’re going to struggle — overall — to match your A5 TDI’s economy with the 330e. Now, the thing is you can maybe make this work from the perspective of overall running costs. If you can charge up at work as well as at home, and stick to electric-only power as much as possible for your three short commuting days, then it’s just possible that might balance out the thirstier longer runs on the other two days.

Unfortunately, we can’t be more certain than that — the only way to know for sure is to try it out. If you don’t fancy making that leap of faith, then I guess it’s back to 320d diesel power and wait for truly long-range electric cars to arrive.

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Hi Roy,

You haven’t said whether this is a BMW 420i (petrol) or a 420d (diesel), so we’ve checked both. For a 420d diesel, the VRT charge is going to be in the region of €3,900 depending on the specific spec of the car. For a petrol 420i, it’s going to be pretty similar — around €3,500. There will be NOx tax charges on top of that, but thankfully even the older 4 Series diesel models were very NOx-efficient, just 23mg/km officially, so that’ll only be an extra €115 onto the VRT for the diesel. Oddly, the petrol 420i was actually a little worse off for NOx (28mg/km) so that’ll cost you €140 extra.

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Hi Robert,

Yes, depending on the specific engine/gearbox combo, circa €2,000 looks about right for most older diesel models. Depending on the spec and version of A5 you’re looking at, I’d say the rest of the VRT cost will be in the region of €3,800 or thereabouts. 

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Hi Eoin,

Well, to tax a 2.2 Transit as a private car will cost you €950 a year, but the good news is that you don’t need a VAT number to be able to tax a van as a commercial. You simply have to fill out a Goods Only Declaration form (find it here: http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content//Documents/Application_Forms/Roads_and_Traffic/Motor Tax/RF111A_ENG.pdf) and for that you only need your income tax registration number and get it witnessed at your local Garda station. 

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Hi Tamas,

Well, it depends on which version of Zafira each one is. From the detail you’ve given there on the tax costs, I’d suspect that the 141 car has the 2.0 CDTi diesel engine, the 129g/km of CO₂ emissions of which would put it in Band B2 for a €280 tax cost. Is the 161 car a 1.4 turbo petrol? Because that version’s 156g/km emissions put it just into the €570 Band D. Or the discrepancy could be down to one having an automatic gearbox, instead of a manual. Without more details, I’m afraid, we can’t be sure. 

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Hi Fergus,

VRT won’t come into it. Even if you’re buying as a private buyer, you still pay the 13.3 per cent commercial vehicle rate. As for motor tax, for a 2.2 engine it’ll be €951 per year. 

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Hi Tom,

It’ll depend on the condition and service history of course, but it should be worth in the region of €10-12,000. 

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Hi Rosalind,

You've not given us the model year, so let's take 2011-2015 as an example. The 1.6 TDCi diesel engine's belt should be replaced at least every 180,000 kilometres or 10 years, whichever comes first. Apparently, for cars  built up to July 2011, the interval is 140,000km or 10 years.

And yes, it's advisable to change the water pump at the same time.