Back in the late sixties and early seventies, the European — and especially Irish — car markets were hit by an utter earthquake. Having built up...
Germany invented the car, let’s not forget. While any successful invention has an infinite number of parents, it was Karl Benz who created the f...
There’s no point in saying, in a Sean Bean impression, that ‘winter is coming’ because it’s already here. Have you looked outside the window lat...
While the Germans get the credit for inventing the modern motor car, the Brits got into the game pretty quickly too — one Henry Sturmey was buil...
With peak car-buying season rapidly approaching, along with the new 241-plate in January, it seems like a good time to consider a commonly-asked...
French cars often get a good kicking in some circles. Too unreliable, cheaply-made, too quirky, weird steering wheels… As is so often the case,...
With temperatures soaring across Europe this summer, there’s perhaps something of an irony in that nature can hit back at the car for all those...
It’s one of those motoring chores that many of us ignore, and many more of us simply don’t understand. So, what is tyre balancing and why do we...
Since they were introduced in 2002, the penalty points system for motoring offences have been considered a major weapon in the war against dange...
Figuring out the value of your car is a vital process when it’s coming up to trade-in time, or if you want to sell it yourself, privately. While...
Packing for a big road trip is vital, because there will always be something you need and you don’t want that thing to be the one you left sitti...
VRT — Vehicle Registration Tax — is essentially a hold-over from the days when Irish governments used taxes to protect and promote indigenous in...
Washing your car is a ritual. Whether you break out a bucket and sponges on your own driveway, or bring it down to the local jet wash, making yo...
2023 seems like an appropriate point at which to pause, and take stock of the Irish car market. A decade ago, new car sales started to recover f...
The average mileage on a van, or a light commercial vehicle to give it its technically accurate name, is generally higher than that for a passen...
Whenever you turn the ignition key in your car, or press the start button, you should see a full Christmas tree’s worth of warning and sensor li...
Hybrid-engined cars have hit the heights of the car sales charts in recent years, but what exactly is a hybrid? Basically, a hybrid is a car t...
Resale value is a key component of a car’s running costs. Indeed, given that an average car can shed 60 per cent of its original price in the fi...
There are plenty of stories circulating about delays in getting your car through its NCT test, with some testing centres returning booking dates...
How much can you bargain on a used car? The short answer is ‘lots’ but as ever, it’s a little more complicated than that. The first thing to d...
Fuel prices have, thankfully, retreated somewhat from their recent peaks, but with continuing production and refining bottlenecks in the oil ind...
Timing, as any comedian will tell you, is everything. What goes for comedy also goes for car sales, as there are always peaks and troughs in the...
It used to be the case that, when buying a used car, the dealer you’d bought it from might offer you, at best, a 30-day warranty for anything th...
A question you'll hear quite often, "how much km is too much for a used car?" The answer to this question is — there is no upper limit figure. I...
Are diesel cars really more economical? In the past, the answer to this question would have been a simple yes. Diesel engines burn their fuel by...
With fuel prices spiking above €2 per litre, and no sign of them falling, many of us are thinking about turning to all-electric motoring much so...
How much your car will cost to service is one of the many motoring questions that harks back to finding out how long a piece of string might be....
The research focused on vehicles that had been imported to Ireland from the UK and found more than 39,000 of these imports had been written off...
Getting your first car is a modern-day rite of passage. It’s that first taste of true freedom (well, freedom of travel — you’ll not be free o...
Oh, how we wish there was a simple answer to this question… Car tax rates in Ireland vary depending on whether we’re talking about purchase t...
We’re probably all thinking about going electric when we buy our next new (or even used) car. You might be asking yourself, what is the best ele...
Well, the short answer is that you don’t — it’s not actually called a log-book in Ireland anymore. In fact, since 2004 what we used to call the...
We ask what finance type is most suitable for you. When buying a car and it comes to choosing between a Personal Loan, HP or PCP to finance th...
Checking your engine’s oil should really be as routine as checking your tyre pressures and tread depths. Except, of course, none of us does eith...
You might be about to splash out on a new motor, but then you find yourself asking, what should I look for when buying a used car? Well, there a...
The no-claims bonus, or no-claims discount, is a vital part of any insurance policy for all but the youngest and most inexperienced drivers. It’...