Expert answer

Hi Seamus,

This is obviously a tricky decision, and we wish your wife all the best in coping with this. When it comes to ride quality, the most important factors are the stiffness, overall, of the suspension, the size of the wheels, and the sidewall depth of the tyres. Basically, smaller wheels and normal suspension is the rule of thumb if you’re trying to get a car with a soft ride quality.

SUVs are actually generally quite bad for ride quality. That sounds counter-intuitive, because of course they’re taller and have longer-travel suspension, but the problem is that the springs and dampers have to be stiffened up to prevent the higher centre of gravity from inducing too much body roll. I would therefore suggest that keeping away from SUVs would be a good bet.

That said, the Subaru Forester you’ve mentioned below does indeed have a soft ride quality, again as long as you avoid the larger alloy wheel options. Ditto the smaller Subaru XV, which is helpfully lower to the ground and can get away with slightly softer suspension rates. Citroen, of course, is famed for having pillowy-soft ride quality, and the current C5 Aircross is pretty soft and springy, and has great seats into the bargain. You should definitely look at a Toyota Camry as well (very soft, and again with great seats) and the Skoda Superb.

Avoid anything that has a sporty designation (S line, R-Line, M Sport etc) as that will almost automatically have stiffer springs and bigger wheels.

Hope that helps. Below are links to our reviews of the cars mentioned above:

Subaru Forester reviews

Citroen C5 Aircross reviews

Subaru XV reviews

Toyota Camry reviews

Skoda Superb reviews

Expert answer

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 Barry,

I think this sounds more like a tyre issue than anything else. Is there a possibility that the car is on cheap, aftermarket, tyres? If so, get them replaced with a set of something decent — Michelins or Bridgestones. Going for xDrive would help, of course, as the extra bit of traction is never a bad thing, but it does add (slightly) to your running costs because of the weight and the extra frictional losses.

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Hi F D,

Sounds to me like the Audi garage had it right. The rear callipers could be binding slightly, or perhaps even the parking brake mechanism is sticking. Very limited use in any car can do that. If you know you're not going to be using it for a long time, consider parking it up without using the parking brake (if safe and feasible). Leave the car in gear and place something in front of the tyres for extra safety.

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Hi Renate,

Well, there’s no legal requirement to change the valves, but it’s such a simple and cheap process to do so, one would wonder what other corners were cut? Was your car’s tyre pressure monitor reset as well, assuming it has one? Were the wheels properly balanced? I’d go back and ask a few tough questions. 

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Hi Sally,

That’ll vary from lease to lease. Generally speaking, if it’s being leased by a company and they’re giving you use of the car as a company vehicle, they’ll pay the running costs, usually minus fuel. If it’s a case of you being given a car-buying budget as part of a job package, generally you’ll pay for all that stuff, and if you’re buying a car for yourself on a PCP finance deal (which is effectively a personal lease) you cover them too.

There are always differences and details, though, and car makers (Volvo especially) are starting to move towards a mobile-phone style system whereby you pay one monthly fee that covers everything, and change and upgrade your car at regular intervals.

Expert answer

Hi Anthony,

Expert answer

Hi Afeez,

I’m assuming that’s a 1.6 HDI diesel model? If so you need to watch for excessive black smoke from the exhaust, which could indicate a blown turbo. Check too to see if the diesel particulate filter is working properly — if it’s a low-mileage car (and that is quite low miles) then it may not have been driven regularly enough to keep the filter clean, and they’re expensive to fix and clean. If it has air conditioning then that needs specific servicing so check that has been done and, if you notice that the car pulls to the left at higher speed, then it might need new front tyres. Other than that check that all switches and buttons are working properly, and that the car has a full and complete service history.

Expert answer

Hi Philip,

I spoke to someone from Kia about this, as it's news to me, too, but apparently, since last year, all suppliers of new tyres must charge this per-tyre recycling fee. That applies to the car dealers as much as it does the tyre depots. This fee is collected by the dealers, sent to the distributors and then paid to Repak. There's zero profit in it and no choice in the matter.

Expert answer

Hi Anne Marie,

Stop-start systems on cars will stop working for a variety of reasons, some of them outside your control, but if you think your SEAT still has a problem after looking through this list of possibilities, best bet is to get the car along to your nearest SEAT dealer to check it out:

- Ambient temperature too cold
- Ambient temperature too hot (unlikely in Ireland!)
- Battery in poor condition
- Driver's seat belt usually must be on
- Driver's door and bonnet usually must be closed
- Engine temperature is too low
- Climate control settings may force the engine to stay on

Hope that's of some help. This question by an Audi owner has proven very popular and is mostly applicable to your car too.