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Hi Brian,

There's a serious, serious issue at the moment in the chasm between what the car makers claim you will get in economy terms from a car and what you actually get in real-world driving. There are changes to the official testing regime coming down the pipe, but the car makers are resisting that with all their lobbying might as it means that their CO₂ ratings will go up too.

In the meantime, and this is based purely on personal experience, a Golf BlueMotion should get close to 60mpg in daily driving, and you may even crack the 65mpg mark, though 70mpg is probably not going to happen, being realistic.

Further reading:

Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion review

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Hi F D,

In my experience the clutch bite point can vary between different examples of the same car so I wouldn't read anything into that, especially as your own car will change slowly over time as the friction disc of the clutch pack wears.

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Hi Kellie.

Generally speaking, they should be OK. All the mechanical bits are old, proven Renault and Nissan parts, and thanks to the fact that Logans are pretty well shorn of equipment, there's not that much that can go wrong. Dacias also come with an optional five-year warranty, which should put your mind at rest.

However, it's worth pointing out that the Logan estate we tested recently had a wonky driver's door, putting some doubt over the quality of the assembly and the German TUV (the national safety and quality testing organisation) rates the Logan as having a 13 per cent fault rate. Now, that figure is only a guideline and it does encompass the old Logan (the one that was never sold here) as well, but just for comparisons, the TUV rates a Ford Fiesta at a 4.8 per cent fault rate.

In other words, they're probably fine, but try and make sure you buy one with lots of warranty left, just in case.

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Hi Vincent,

They're massively reliable. No common faults to report and the German TUV testing brigade rate them highly for reliability.

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Hi Dave,

First off, we are massively jealous of you getting a Challenger. We drove an SRT8 version in San Diego back before Christmas and it's just a glorious lump of retro-styled Americana. Good enough to (literally at one point) stop traffic in downtown. Bringing one into Ireland of course means you're going to get hit for a lot of tax in the form of VRT - and potentially VAT.

You'll be paying the top whack rate of 36% VRT because of the car's emissions. Now, that's not 36% of the price you've paid, but 36% of what Revenue decides the car is worth. Fair? No, not even slightly but them's the rules. You'll have to pay VAT as well if the car is either less than six months old or has less than 6,000km on the clock. Within seven days of the car's arrival in Ireland, you have to make your appointment with the NCT people to have the car inspected and valued. Revenue has a very helpful FAQ page on VRT here: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/faqs-vrt.html

Let us know how you get on - and if you need help testing it...

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Hi Adrian,

There is no mention of glow plugs or indeed engine starting in the official NCT testing manual so you should be ok, though we'd still recommend getting your car sorted beforehand.

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Hi Pat,

The NCT testing manual doesn't specifically mention each and every warning light, but that light usually means there is something up with a system in the engine that may affect its emissions. Hence, it may fail its NCT on that basis. We'd always recommend you get such things remedied before bringing a car for testing.

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Hi Andrew,

We spoke with someone from BMW and the official line is they were testing their system with rates that they've predicted. The figures were not due to stay live. However, you can be full sure they're close to the real thing! If you are truly interested in a price we can put you in touch with someone in BMW to discuss it with.

Following our discussion via email, best of luck with your new purchase. I hope the new VRT rate doesn't shaft you unduly...

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Hi Pat,

You've not told us whether it's petrol or diesel. If diesel then definitely worth testing the glow plugs. That sounds like the most probable reason for this.

Tell us more about it if that doesn't help.

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Hi David,

In general that's a good car to drive, well-equipped and highly reliable and economical. We found the 1.6-diesel engine a little loud and the car itself to emit a lot of road noise on the motorway, but they're not bad enough to be deal-breakers.

It's still too new for there to be meaningful reliability data, but in general Mazdas have a good reliability record. Ensure that it has been serviced according to the schedule and take it for as long a drive as you can.

Best of luck