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Hi Mathew,

I'd highly recommend you employ a professional conversion company to do all the work and certification documentation for you, as it can be quite an involved process. Certain standards in terms of safety and structure will be necessary and the vehicle is most likely subject to inspection after conversion. The registration details will then have to be altered and of course there will be tax and insurance implications. 

In short, we're not experts in carrying out such a conversion, and we'd advocate for using one to save yourself hassle in the long run.

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Hi Ken,

It is technically possible, and allowed under the regulations, but it’s going to be a costly job. You see, the conversion to N1 commercial status in the first place will have involved not merely taking out the rear seats, but also the mounts for the rear seatbelts. Putting those back in is physically both expensive and time-consuming, even for a professional, but with a car like a Range Rover there are also rear-seat safety systems, such as pyrotechnic seatbelts and rear side airbags to consider.

As I say, you can do it and there are some forms to fill out at the local motor tax office to get it re-designated as a passenger car, plus a bunch of extra motor tax to pay, but it’s going to be an expensive project. 

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Hi Owen,

Unfortunately, by law, Citroen can refuse to carry out work under warranty on a car that’s been written off. You’d need to get a solicitor to comb through the fine print of the original warranty agreement to make absolutely sure, but in general — across Europe and in the UK — if a car is written off by an insurer, even for something as trifling as panel damage, then the warranty on that car is automatically void. It’s because if it was to carry out warranty work, there could be legal implications further down the line if a safety issue to do with the writing-off were to be found, or worse still someone injured themselves in the vehicle because of something that should have been spotted. 

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Hi Peter,

I doubt very much that the Model 3 is going to drop in price very much in the coming months, not least because it’s actually already pretty good value. Definitely a good idea to buy before the VAT goes back up though, as that will be a roughly two per cent saving on the price. Not much, but it helps.

As for should you buy one in general? I think so — it’s a hugely impressive car, and the question marks over build quality seem to be getting smaller all the time. Do be wary of the big screen, though, and make sure you ask if the improvements to it mandated by the recent safety recall have been carried out on the car you’re buying.

The Peugeot is a good small crossover, but there's a gulf between it and the Tesla in terms of performance. Big difference in price and space too.

Read our Tesla Model 3 reviews here

Read our Peugeot 2008 reviews here

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Hi Sarah,

This shouldn't be anything to worry about and is not unusual. The only thing to watch for is that the NCT centre may draw your attention to their age when they are six years old, if they've not worn out by then, so from that point of view it's better for you to have more recently manufactured tyres, but there should be no safety issue with these.

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Hi Sue,

It's unlikely that your car will pass the NCT in that state. It's very possible that the rubber boots over the CV joints have been damaged and the car could be declared to have a dangerous defect, which means you would not be allowed to drive it away from the NCT centre. This is a safety issue, not just a noise problem, so you really shouldn't drive the car until you get it fixed.

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Hi Gerry,

Unless you’re a key worker, I would think that this is not, strictly speaking, essential travel. That said, car dealers and garages are opening again for business from today (18th of May) onwards, and if you need your car for work, and it needs the service, then you should be fine. I’d do two things first — ring the dealer and ask if delaying the service will affect the warranty (it shouldn’t, but it’s worth checking) and then ring the local Garda and ask their opinion. To be fair, the Gardai’s opinion probably means rather more than ours...

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Hi Lydia,

To get a replacement NCT cert, you need to fill out a form, get it stamped at your local Garda station and pay a €15.50 fee. There’s a helpful page on the Road Safety Authority website that explains what you need to do, and you can find that here: https://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Your-Vehicle/Your-Vehicle-/The-NCT--Recognition-Certs/ Just bear in mind that at the moment, you might want to exercise a little caution about going out to get forms stamped, and allow some extra time for processing etc.

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Hi Martin,

It depends on the age of the X5 as to whether this works. As long as it was registered pre-July 2018, then yeah — it’s fine and legal, although rather more in the letter of the law than the spirit. As for a new Range Rover Sport, the answer is no — that tax loophole was a closed off last year, so no-go I’m afraid.

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Hi Paul,

Basically, rocking up to an inspection with a Lamborghini is a licence for Revenue to charge you whatever it fancies… I wouldn’t be surprised to see a VRT bill of more than €30-40,000 for this one.