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Hi Paul,

It’s best to take the advice of your local Ford dealer on this, but as far as we can tell the correct interval is every 10 years or 210,000km, whichever is soonest. However, it’s one of those things that, if it’s niggling you, you should just get done. Never a good idea to put a timing belt on the long finger.

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Hi Dave,

The Land Cruiser is indeed getting a new 2.8-litre diesel engine, which is claimed to be nine per cent more efficient than the old 3.0. It has CO₂ emissions of 194g/km, 177hp and 420Nm of torque. Shared with Fiat though? No - Fiat does have its own 2.8-litre diesel, but it's a commercial vehicle engine, usually used in the Ducato van. For its passenger cars (Jeep Grand Cherokee, Maserati Quattroporte, etc.) the Fiat group uses a VM Motori built 3.0 V6 diesel.

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Hi Mick,

Somewhere in the region of €12-13k I would think, but less if you're trading in.

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Hi Darren,

We checked this with Toyota Ireland. Here's the response:

"The 2011 Avensis D-4D has a DPF. C2 is a low ash oil - it must be used with the DPF. Any Toyota Dealer Parts dept. can supply this oil. Once it's a C2 grade it is fine."

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Hi Mark,

Our information is that your car has a timing belt and it needs to be changed every four years.

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Hi Aisling,

Not a huge seller, the Rapid, but it's a perfectly decent car. Skoda designed and built it as a more affordable alternative to the Octavia - it kind of sits between the Octavia and the smaller Fabia in price and space terms. The upsides are a big boot (huge, actually) and a decent line-up of petrol and diesel engines. The downsides are a slightly narrow cabin and bouncy, skippy rear suspension. Plus the interior doesn't look or feel as sophisticated as that of the larger Octavia. It'll be an affordable and very reliable family car though.

Read our Skoda Rapid review here

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Hi Margaret,

I know what you mean. The Honda bug is a hard one to shift once it's bitten you. The good news is that Honda has a new car on the market, the HR-V, which is more compact than a CR-V, but still pretty spacious. It's high-riding, so good for your back, and can be had with Honda's terrific 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine. Looks nice too. Prices start from €23,995 or on a PCP deal from €255 a month and I'd say it's well worth checking out.

Read our Honda HR-V review here

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Hi Hugh,

Well, a Mondeo or Passat would be a more sensible choice - more around to choose from and slightly cheaper running costs. And that's the Achilles' heel of the X-Type - running costs. While the diesels are reasonably frugal, and in general it's a well-made and reliable car (after some serious horrors on early-build examples back in 2001 and 2002), the X-Type can be expensive to fix if and when it does go wrong, and don't go assuming that because it's based on a MkIII Mondeo that you can use more affordable Mondeo bits; there's still a lot of bespoke Jag in there.

Still, it's a lovely car to drive, and the 2008 facelift (new grille, slightly squarer looks) made it much more stylish. Shop around carefully, don't buy anything that doesn't have a full service history and check for any noises coming from either the transmission or the suspension.

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Hi Olive,

It depends on which engine you're considering. The Auris Terra 1.33, at €20,750, is €1,750 cheaper than the Aura model with the same engine. The difference is €1,250 when it's the 1.4-litre D-4D diesel, which costs €22,250 as a Terra or €23,500 for the Luna specification.

If you're using PCP or Hire Purchase to pay for the car then these differences become negligible in terms of additional monthly costs.

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Hi John,

Both excellent - spacious, reliable, comfortable and reasonably frugal if you go for the diesels. The Avensis will be more economical overall, but the Mazda is much more enjoyable to drive and better equipped as standard. Head says Avensis, heart says Mazda.