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Hi Marlene,

In terms of reliability, I wouldn’t have any worries — Hyundai’s reliability reputation is iron-clad, and besides; if you did have any trouble with it, there’s that five-year, unlimited mileage warranty backing it up. One word of caution though. The Kona’s best engine is the 1.0-litre T-GDi petrol version, which is a sweet engine with good economy and might be a better ownership bet unless you’re doing big miles every year. Alternatively, it’s well worth checking out the new all-electric Kona, which has a really long one-charge range. 

Read all our Hyundai Kona reviews here

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Hi Tom,

It kind of depends on what price range you’re looking at. The more expensive you go, the more available such options are. The likes of a BMW 5 Series or an Audi A6 would be the easiest to find with all of these options on the one car, but it becomes much more problematic if you’re shopping lower down the price lists. Come back to us and let us know your budget for more useful assistance.

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Hi Dara,

The best plug-in hybrids around at the moment are the Kia Niro PHEV, the Toyota Prius PHEV and the Volkswagen Golf GTE (assuming you can find a GTE in stock...). Now, these are smaller than your Qashqai inside, so you may need to make that compromise in order to get the plug-in hybrid efficiency. The revised Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is massive inside, and rather nice, but thirsty if you’re not plugging it in all the time and making maximum use of the electric part of the powertrain.

A conventional hybrid might also be worth a look, especially given that you’re driving mostly in town. Honda is just about to launch a hybrid version of the hugely impressive new CR-V, and the new Toyota RAV4 is arriving in dealerships around now. Both are well worth considering if you can stretch the budget out to something brand-new.

Here are some relevant reviews:

Kia Niro PHEV review

Toyota Prius PHEV review

Volkswagen Golf GTE review

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV review

Honda CR-V Hybrid review

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Hi Enda,

For starters, as far as I can work out, all new hybrids currently on sale are automatic, so there's no such thing as paying a premium for that side of things. On a trade-in, I'd suspect that your aunt will get no more than €3,500 for the Ibiza, even though the mileage is very low, so let's work with a budget of around €23,500.

That would get the top-of-the-range Toyota Yaris Hybrid, which is a perfectly good car for low mileage use by one person. The Yaris has been updated recently and it remains a very solid buy. For a few grand more, the entry-level version of the brand new Toyota Corolla Hybrid is within reach, which is a far more substantial car, but outside the budget you mentioned.

There are no other new hybrid cars on the market within budget, I'm afraid. At this price point, we'd suggest that an efficient petrol engine is possibly better value, but if your aunt really wants a new hybrid, then the Yaris is not a bad option at all.

Expert answer

Hi Ann,

The XC40 is a really likeable car, but you’ll probably find that it’s neither as refined, nor quite as comfortable to drive as the S60 (the ride quality just isn’t as good). It’s also less roomy in the boot. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is a very clever vehicle, but to make the most of it, you need to have a driveway and a charging point, and be covering most of your mileage around town. The battery pack, on a full charge, should get you around 35km of electric-only driving, but if you head out on the motorway a lot, you’ll run the battery down very quickly and then fuel consumption will hover at around the 30mpg mark.

Read our reviews below:

Volvo XC40 reviews

Mitsubishi Outlander reviews

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Hi Tracy,

I'm afraid without knowing exactly which car you have, this is impossible to diagnose. You should bring the car to a good mechanic or auto-electrician.

There are many reasons for a stop-start system to not always work. Read this question and answer on that subject for instance.

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Hi Barry,

The problem with electric cars is that, generally, they’re not rated for towing (I think that the new Nissan Leaf is one of the first with a towing rating), so you’re probably going to have to switch back to petrol or diesel for this one. Probably your best bet is to go for something very conventional, such as VW Golf or Ford Focus, and maybe go for the estate version of one of those to give yourself a little extra versatility. A Toyota Auris Hybird would also work well, and would at least keep you going on half-electric power. Plenty of them around in your price range.

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Hi Raj,

Technically, yes, you have to pay VRT, but actually no, you don’t. How it works is this — any car with CO₂ emissions from 0-80g/km is in Band A1 for VRT, which means you have to pay 14 per cent of the Irish open market selling price. However, all electric vehicles are given a €5,000 rebate on their VRT, so as long as the 14 per cent doesn’t work out at more than €5,000, you won’t actually have to pay anything. 

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Hi Peter,

I think you may have a few issues there, unless you find it's easy to swap the manual adjustment mechanism from your old seats to the new ones. I suspect that won't be a simple task, unfortunately. And you'd need a lot more wiring, etc. to get the electric seats to work.

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Hi David,